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.
School Attendance, and Early Cognitive Development, The Differential Effects of School Exposure
Ready, Douglas D., Socioeconomic Disadvantage, School Attendance, and Early Cognitive Development, The Differential Effects of School Exposure, Sociology of Education, October 2010. Despite the substantial body of research documenting strong relationships between social class and children’s cognitive abilities, researchers have generally neglected the extent to which school absenteeism exacerbates social class differences in academic development among young children. This study…
Getting Teenagers Back to School: Rethinking New York State’s Response to Chronic Absence
Gunderson, Jessica. The Vera Institute of Justice, New York, NY, October 2010. This policy brief looks at one response to the statewide problem of chronic school absence in New York State: reporting parents to the child protective system, which handles allegations of child abuse and neglect. It determines that the system is ill equipped to deal with school attendance and…
The Relationship Between School-Based Health Centers, Rates of Early Dismissal From School, and Loss of Seat Time
Van Cura, Maureen. Journal of School Health, Vol. 80, No.8, August 2010.This researcher studied two high schools in New York – one with a school-based health center and one without. Controlling for race, gender, age, poverty, and presence of a pre-existing illness, this study shows that school-based health centers have a direct impact on educational outcomes such as attendance.
Gradual Disengagement: A Portrait of the 2008-2009 Dropouts in Baltimore City Schools
Mac Iver, Martha A. Baltimore Education Research Consortium, August 2010. The majority of students who eventually drop out of high school enter 9th grade with a pattern of chronic absenteeism that goes back at least several years, the study shows. Many have been retained and are behind at least one grade. It is critical to begin interventions in middle school.…
Evaluating the Relationship Between Student Attendance and Achievement in Urban Elementary and Middle Schools: An Instrumental Variables Approach
Gottfried, Michael A. American Educational Research Journal, June 2010, Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 434-465. This study evaluates the connection between student attendance and positive learning outcomes. The researcher uses a comprehensive data set of elementary and middle schools in the Philadelphia school district to explore the causal impact of attendance on multiple measures of achievement, including grade-point average and…
Healthier Students Are Better Learners: A Missing Link in Efforts to Close the Achievement Gap
Basch, Charles. Equity in Education Forum Series, Spring 2010, Teachers College, Columbia University. This report concludes that “six educationally relevant disparities”—vision problems, asthma, teen pregnancy, aggression and violence, physical inactivity, poor nutrition, and concentration problems—have negative academic outcomes for minority students in urban settings. The piece hits also on data about the relationship between health and school attendance: “Compared with…
Maintaining High Achievement in Baltimore: An Overview of the Elementary School Trajectories of Four Recent City Schools First Grade Cohorts
Durham, Rachel and Stephen B. Plank. Baltimore Educational Research Consortium, March 2010.The results from this study of four elementary schools show increased academic achievement and reduced chronic absence. It suggests that many recent reform efforts–among them improved developmental conditions from birth to age five, universal prekindergarten, reduced class sizes in the early grades, and standardized curricula–are succeeding in keeping Baltimore…