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 more than 340,000 students controlled for socioeconomic characteristics including income, English as a second language status, and disability, as well as a gender and ethnicity.