Ginsburg, Alan. Prepared for the National Assessment Governing Board, February 2013. This report is part of an ongoing project to use the data generated by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (dubbed the “Nation’s Report Card”) to provide more context for student performance. Mr. Ginsburg’s analysis adds to growing evidence that student absenteeism can hamstring a district’s performance on the NAEP. In large urban districts, 8th-grade students who missed three or more days in the previous month of school had an average mathematics score of 260 on the 2011 NAEP, 21 points lower than those who missed no school. In some districts, the gap was even wider: 25 points in New York City, 24 in Chicago and the District of Columbia.