In a table showing performance of Baltimore's elementary

schools in yesterday's Evening Sun, the heading showing the "Satisfactory" level of attendance according to State Board of Education standards was incorrect. The Satisfactory attendance level should have been 94 percent.

The Evening Sun regrets the errors.

Students can't learn if they don't go to class.

A truism? Sure.

But in Baltimore, where nearly four in 10 students missed more than a month of school last year, it's a cold reality.

According to the annual state "report card" on local schools, 36.7 percent of Baltimore students missed more than 20 days of school last year.

The percentage was far higher at many of the city's high schools and middle schools, with some reporting that three-quarters of their students missed more than a month of school.

By contrast, chronic absenteeism averaged 16.8 percent statewide, a rate matched by only a handful of the city's secondary schools.

"Students are giving us a message," said Phillip H. Farfel, a city school board member who chaired a task force that focused on attendance. "They're voting with their feet in some instances. And we've got to listen."

Meanwhile, school officials elsewhere in the Baltimore area were busy yesterday explaining attendance in their own school systems, and how they intend to improve it.

In the city, attendance was just one area of concern on a report card filled with red marks.

Overall, Baltimore fell short on all but one of 13 standards in the state report, part of a multi-year effort to hold local schools accountable for the quality of education.

But the high absentee figures grabbed the spotlight, with school system observers drawing a connection between poor attendance and poor academic performance.

"No matter how much money is being spent in the classroom, if the kid's not there, it won't matter," said Jeff Valentine, a spokesman forthe Greater Baltimore Committee. "Attendance is critical."

"One cannot successfully educate students who aren't there," said Jerry Baum, executive director of the Fund for Educational Excellence, a citizens' group. "I believe that some part of that relates to how the students are performing in the school."

School administrators admit that they have a serious problem.

"Your first thought is, somebody is asleep at the switch," said Walter G. Amprey, school superintendent. "We've got to examine what in the world is going on in the schools. We've got to find out what is keeping students out of school."

But the raw numbers require more study, according to Denise G. Borders, chief of accountability for the city school system.

"We know we have to deal with attendance, and we know that's related to programs and instruction," said Borders.

But she said other factors may affect a school's performance, including the composition of the student body, the experience of the staff and the background of parents.

There are a variety of reasons why students miss so much school, said Farfel.

Many develop a poor attitude toward school -- and poor attendance habits -- in early childhood, he said.

Other students may miss school for disciplinary reasons. School officials are trying to address that problem through alternative approaches to discipline that don't involve keeping children out of school.

For many children, "it may be that the program may not be meeting their needs," said Farfel. That suggests a need for stronger career and technical education, and a push toward "making the climate conducive to learning, to make school fun, to make it exciting."

Attendance is a constant struggle for those on the educational front-lines -- the school principals.

"In the inner city, students can find so many other things that can compete with school for their attendance," said Samuel Billups, principal of Walbrook Senior High School.

His school posted the highest chronic absentee rate of any regular high school in the city, with 76.2 percent of the students absent more than a month last year.

Billups attributed the high rate in part to the fact that Walbrook shared space with Southwestern High School for several years while Walbrook's building was shut down for an asbestos-removal project.

Students had to take special buses to school during that time, saidBillups, and attendance dropped as a result. He expects to see it improve this year, with the student body back in its own building.

But Walbrook is taking other steps as well, including a computer that will monitor daily attendance, helping the staff to inform parents when students miss school.

"The real secret is to have good parent involvement," said Billups. "I haven't found a parent yet who will condone their children not being in school."

Parental involvement is also a key to the relatively low, 14.4 percent chronic absentee rate at Hazelwood Elementary-Middle School.

Parent volunteers give late passes, send letters home to parents of students with a pattern of absences and make telephone calls when a student is out, said Michael Cheatham, assistant principal.

And at Baltimore School for the Arts, which posted a chronic absentee rate of 9.2 percent last year, the key factors are school climate and student motivation.

"They're here because they want to be here -- they all had to audition to be here," said David Simon, director of the arts high school. "Kids don't want to go home. They hang around. They're very much into what they're doing."

Elsewhere in the region, the attendance picture was mixed.

Howard County failed to get at least a satisfactory grade in middle and high school attendance, but officials said they were pleased that they improved, coming within 0.7 percent of the state's standard.

David A. Bruzga, principal of Oakland Mills High School, said he would use a four-pronged combination of incentives and deterrents to raise attendance from 90 percent to beyond the satisfactory level of 94 percent at his school.

Bruzga said volunteers already are calling parents during the morning to tell them when their children are not in school. He said he wants to reward children for good attendance, as he did last year at Hammond High when he gave out ice cream sundaes. He also said he will ask merchants to give students discounts for good school attendance.

"The fourth thing is to make students want to be here," he said. "That's probably the most elusive ingredient in the whole formula, to make school attractive to them."

In Anne Arundel County, where high school attendance fell short of the state requirement, schools are mounting special programs to address the problem.

Broadneck High places adult mentors with students who have attendance problems. The adults -- including custodial and food service employees -- may call students at home to find out why they are not in school, said Cheryl Wilhoyte, assistant superintendent for instruction.

Glen Burnie and Annapolis High Schools, which have attendance and dropout problems, have relied on state-funded dropout programs, Wilhoyte said. Case workers may drive students to school if necessary, she said.

Attendance also varied in Baltimore County.

Pikesville Senior High, for example, had the highest scores on the state functional tests of all county high schools, but also one of the lowest attendance rates in the county, 90.6 percent.

Most of Pikesville's students are Jewish, said principal David G. King. Under an agreement with the Baltimore Jewish Council, teachers don't do any significant new work on Jewish holidays.

That means the schools are often nearly empty on many Jewish holidays, he said. There have been seven such days this year, though the staff and bus fleet work on those days.

Kenwood Senior High, on the county's eastern side, posted the lowest attendance rate of any county high school, 88.1 percent.

Principal Harold A. Hatton is focusing on parents, and using his staff to phone the homes of absent students each day. The school also has an extra, half-time truant officer.

"Kids don't see a connection between school and success," said Hatton.