Below is a list of key research related to attendance for Elementary School
For the full list of research and reports, please visit the All Research page.
The Detrimental Effect of Missing School: Evidence from Urban Siblings
Gottfried, Michael A. There is evidence suggesting that missing school negatively relates to academic achievement. However, it is a difficult task to derive unbiased empirical estimates of absences in their influence on performance. One particular challenge arises from the unobserved heterogeneity in the family environment, which may relate to both absence behavior and school performance. This article provides the first…
The Effect of Serving “Breakfast After-the-Bell” Meals on School Absenteeism: Comparing Results From Regression Discontinuity Designs
Kirskey, J. Jacob and Michael A. Gottfried. The University of California, Santa Barbara, No Kid Hungry Campaign, February 2021. An analysis of longitudinal statewide datasets in Colorado and Nevada containing school breakfast information and national data on chronic absenteeism rates finds that schools serving ‘Breakfast After the Bell’ reported declines in chronic absenteeism.
The Effects of Absenteeism on Academic and Social-Emotional Outcomes: Lessons for COVID-19
Santibañez, Lucrecia and Cassandra Guarino. Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), October 2020. An evaluation of six large CORE school districts in California suggests that if students missed more than a few weeks of instruction — which is likely, particularly among low-income and other disadvantaged students — their test scores and social, emotional learning (SEL) outcomes are likely to be…
The Effects of Early Chronic Absenteeism on Third-Grade Academic Achievement Measures
Coelho, Richard, et al. La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Spring 2015. This project evaluates the effects of early grade absenteeism on later student academic performance in Wisconsin. Using data from all students in public schools in Wisconsin, it examines the impact of first-grade absences on student achievement on a third-grade standardized test. The resulting study of…
The effects of Tulsa’s CAP Head Start program on middle-school academic outcomes and progress
Phillips, Deborah, William Gormley, and Sara Anderson, August 2016. This study presents evidence pertinent to current debates about the lasting impacts of early childhood educational interventions and, specifically, Head Start. A group of students who were first studied to examine the immediate impacts of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, Community Action Project (CAP) Head Start program were followed-up in middle school, primarily…
United Way After-School Program Evaluation
Lotyczewski, Bohdan S. and Guillermo Montes. Children’s Institute, July 2012. In 2012, United Way of Rochester, New York partnered with the Children’s Institute and the Rochester City School District to evaluate the effectiveness of its after-school programs. The results show that kids in United Way’s after-school programs attend 6,100 more days of school than their peers and their GPAs were…
Using Behavioral Insights to Improve School Administrative Communications: The Case of Truancy Notifications
Lasky-Fink, Jessica, Carly D. Robinson, Hedy Nai-Lin Chang and Todd Rodgers. Harvard Kennedy School, March 2018. Truancy notifications often use long passages of punitive legal jargon that are confusing and threatening to families. By randomly assigning parents to receive a modified truancy notification with simplified language and constructive information, the researchers saw a reduction in absenteeism.
