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.
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…
In School and On Track: Report on California’s Elementary School Truancy and Absenteeism Crisis
Office of Attorney General, California Department of Justice, 2013. According to the California Department of Education, 691,470 California elementary school children, or 1 out of every 5 elementary school students, were reported to be truant in the 2011-2012 school year. Statewide, 38% of all truant students are elementary school children. Given these disturbing statistics, Attorney General Kamala Harris commissioned a…
Family League 2011-12 Out of School Time Programs in Baltimore City
Olson, Linda S., Faith Connolly and Alok H. Kommajesula. Baltimore Education Research Consortium, Baltimore, MD, October 2013. This report examines the relationship between out-of-school time programs and school absence. Through the Family League’s education initiative, thousands of children in Baltimore have access to quality after school and summer learning opportunities. Among students who regularly attended OST programs, they had higher…
Chronic Absenteeism in the Classroom Context: Effects on Achievement
Gottfried, Michael A. (Urban Education, in press). This article examines the spillover effects of one student’s chronic absenteeism on the academic achievement of the students in the same classroom. The researchers utilized a dataset of elementary schoolchildren from a large-scale urban district where the rates of chronic absenteeism were expected to be higher compared to the national average. They looked…
Chronic Absence in the Sacramento Unified School District
University of California, Davis, Center for Regional Change, 2012. The UC Davis Center for Regional change conducted an assessment of chronic absence in the Sacramento Unified School District, describing prevalence, costs, characteristics of chronically absent students, barriers to attendance, and building partnerships that eliminate barriers to attendance.
Chronic Absence in Utah Public Schools
Utah Education Policy Center at the University of Utah. In 2012, the researchers released a brief to highlight their important findings on chronic absence and its effects in Utah. The study of five years of attendance data emphasizes the need for early identification of students who are chronically absent, and identified chronic absenteeism as a key predictor of dropouts as…