A “Hot Mess”of a Middle School And the Principal Who Pulled Off an Attendance Miracle

Nine years ago, Liberty Middle School in Pickens County, South Carolina, had so many kids held back year after year that some of them had started driving to school.

Then Lisa Cassidy was hired as principal.

Liberty was, she recalls, “a hot mess. We had some of the lowest test scores and the lowest attendance rates in the district. On our state report cards we were ‘average,’ but very close to becoming ‘below average.’”

And this past year? “We made ‘excellent,’” Cassidy says.

How’d she work that miracle?

It was child’s play — literally.

What makes kids want to come to school?

Cassidy had been a teacher, assistant principal, and administrator. When she stepped into Liberty Middle, a school that serves a mostly poor, white, rural  population, she had one goal: “Making the school a place that students wanted to be. We know that they don’t come to school to learn — I mean, that’s not why they’re showing up, right? We get to teach them while they’re here, but they’re not showing up to get the math and ELA standards.”

They’re showing up for each other. For friendship, and a feeling of belonging. 

Louder lunches.

So the first thing Cassidy did was end the school’s silent lunches. “I had silent lunches as a child, and that is miserable,” she says. 

Then Cassidy did something else new: She instituted recess.

The middle school schedule is dictated by the district, so she couldn’t replace classtime. But she did tell the kids: You have half an hour for lunch. Eat fast and the rest can be for play.

A chance to be grown-up. Or goofy. 

 “The kids absolutely love it,” says Cassidy. One time when she was outside watching the 6^th graders, “I was like, ‘What are they doing?’” Finally she went over to ask, “And they said, ‘Oh, we’re pretending to have a wedding.’ It made my heart so happy.” Such a sophisticated scene! “And meanwhile there might be another group with a traffic cone and they’re trying to flip to see if it can land on their head.”

To Cassidy, it was all good. “If nobody’s getting harmed, just stand back and let them do what they need to do.”

Different options for different interests.

To expand the students’ options even more, she flooded the cafeteria with games: Uno. Chess. Connect 4 – “massively popular,” says Cassidy. A homeschooled kid taught the other kids Scrabble. Soon Cassidy started opening the library and a maker space during recess too. 

Still, she knew her students needed more than just half an hour of freedom. And so, last year, she started opening the school an hour early for hang out and play time.

Fun first. 

Now every day starting at 7:30 the cafeteria is full of kids eating breakfast, chatting with friends – and playing board games. No technology is allowed. The goal is real-life interaction.

Two of those mornings, the school offers intramural sports, since most kids can’t stay after school. (They need buses to get them home and the school can’t afford a late bus.) 

Result? An attendance miracle.

The impact of this extra play time? “Attendance has increased significantly,” says Cassidy. In fact, the school has seen an 11% drop in students who were chronically absent. “That’s huge,” she says.

Darian Bryd, chief communications director for the district, calls the turnaround “foundational.” By building in more play, Cassidy “made Liberty Middle a place where students feel connected.” 

And while other middle schools in the district also showed some attendance improvement last year, Liberty’s leap outpaced the next closest school by more than 4 percentage points.

And a proficiency miracle. And a discipline miracle.

Subject proficiency levels are up too – in part simply because the kids are coming to school. “I can’t teach them if they’re not here. So we get them here,” Cassidy says. Discipline problems have dropped, too.

Now Liberty is one of just two Title 1 middle schools in South Carolina to achieve a rating of “excellent.” 

The secret sauce.

“While many factors have contributed to this growth,” Cassidy wrote in a report on her school’s achievements – she is leaving Liberty Middle to run Liberty Elementary school this fall — “we began intentionally incorporating play opportunities during my first year. Each year since, we have expanded those opportunities. Increased play has positively impacted school climate, student engagement and attendance.”

Well, that and one other thing, she confessed. “I prayed a lot. I prayed all summer long.”

Praying and playing. It worked.

This piece originally appeared in The Post and Courrier. Reprinted with permission.

LET GROW HERE: If you’d like to add more free play to your school, our free Let Grow Play Club materials make it a snap! Click here!