Below is a list of research related to attendance
The reports on this page are listed chronologically and examine the issue of chronic absence nationwide and in selected communities. Use the search box to find research using the first few words of the paper title. See the early education, elementary, secondary and other research categories on the right. To submit new research, please contact us.
Why September Matters: Improving Student Attendance
Olson, Linda S. Baltimore Education Research Consortium, July 2014. Absenteeism in the first month of school can predict poor attendance patterns throughout the year, providing an early warning sign for parents and educators to intervene and put students back on track, according to this brief which examines attendance in the Baltimore City Public Schools for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students…
Flaking Out: Student Absences and Snow Days as Disruptions of Instructional Time
Goodman, Joshua. National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper No. 20221, June 2014. This report examines the effects of moderate snow on poor student absences, which was twice as large as for non-poor students. It was also twice as large for black and Hispanic students as for white and Asian students. The author speculates that this may be caused by…
Preschool Attendance in Chicago Public Schools: Relationships with Learning Outcomes and Reasons for Absences
Ehrlich, Stacy B. University of Chicago, Consortium on Chicago School Research, May 2014. This report highlights the critical importance of consistent preschool attendance. Students who attend preschool regularly are significantly more likely than chronically absent preschoolers to be ready for kindergarten and to attend school regularly in later grades, the report finds. The study, which follows 25,000 three- and four-year-olds…
Preventable Failure: Improvements in Long-Term Outcomes when High Schools Focused on the Ninth Grade Year
Roderick, Melissa. University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research, April 2014. Research from UChicago CCSR shows that students who end their ninth-grade year on track are almost four times more likely to graduate from high school than those who are off track. In response, Chicago Public Schools launched a major effort in 2007 centered on keeping more ninth-graders on…
Free to Fail or On-Track to College: Why Grades Drop When Students Enter High School and What Adults Can Do About It
Rosenkranz, Todd. University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research, April 2014. High school teachers often assume freshmen are ready to take on the responsibility for managing their own academic behavior. However, students often interpret their new freedom to mean that attending classes and working hard are choices rather than responsibilities, and as a result their attendance and study habits…
Attendance in the Early Grades: Why it Matters for Reading
Attendance Works and the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, February 2014. This brief summarizes a growing body of research which documents how many youngsters are chronically absent, meaning they miss 10 percent or more of the school year due to excused or unexcused absences. The research also shows how these missed days, as early as preschool, translate into weaker reading skills…
Retained Students and Classmates’ Absences in Urban Schools
Gottfried, Michael A. American Educational Research Journal, December 2013, Vol. 50, No. 6, pp. 1392–1423. Research in grade retention has predominantly focused on the effect of this practice on the retained student. This study examines the effect of retained classmates on the outcomes of other students in the same classroom. Using a longitudinal data set of all elementary school students…