Below is a list of research related to attendance
The reports on this page are listed alphabetically and examine the issue of chronic absence nationwide and in selected communities. Use the search box to find research using the author name. See the early education, elementary, secondary and other research categories on the right. To submit new research, please contact us.
The COVID-19 slide: What summer learning loss can tell us about the potential impact of school closures on student academic achievement
Kuhfeld, Megan and Beth Tarasawa, NWEA Collaborative for Student Growth, April 2020. This brief leverages research on summer loss and uses a national sample of over five million students in grades 3–8 who took assessment tests in 2017–2018. The authors examined growth trajectories of a standard school year compared to projected COVID-19 school closures and slowdown.
Principal Quality and Student Attendance
Bartanen, Brendan. Educational Researcher, Vol. 49, Issue 2, p 101-113. March 2020. This paper utilizes a value-added framework and draws on a decade of statewide data from Tennessee to determine principals’ effects on student absences, and finds these effects on student absences are significant and comparable in magnitude to their effects on student performance.
Attendance Counts: How Schools and Local Communities are Reducing Chronic Absence in North Carolina
North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation. September 2019. This report outlines results from a survey of 1,500 NC parents, preschool staff and elementary school staff who shared their impressions of current school-level attendance policies and practices. In addition to analyzing the survey data, the report considers what can be done by schools and in communities to reduce chronic absence in preschool…
Using Chronic Absence Data to Improve Conditions for Learning
Using Chronic Absence Data to Improve Conditions for Learning, by Hedy N. Chang, David Osher, Mara Schanfield, Jane Sundius and Lauren Bauer, describes how chronic absence and conditions for learning are interconnected issues that can have an impact on a child’s educational success. Case studies from the state of Georgia and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District help to illustrate how…
Using Behavioral Insights to Improve Truancy Notifications
Lasky-Fink, Jessica, Carly Robinson, Hedy Chang, and Todd Rogers. Harvard Kennedy School, August 2019. In this working paper, researchers modified a district’s standard notification letter. The modified letters reduced absences in the following month by 2 percent, translating to .07 fewer days of absence, equal to a 40 percent improvement over the estimated effectiveness of the standard truancy notification.
Long-Term Effects of Truancy Diversion on School Attendance: a Quasi-Experimental Study with Linked Administrative Data
Clea A. McNeely, Won Fy Lee, et. al., Prevention Science. Over 60% of US school districts implement court diversion programs to address chronic unexcused absenteeism, yet the effectiveness of these programs is not known. The study evaluated whether the Truancy Intervention Program (TIP) improved school attendance of students in grades 7–10 in a metropolitan county in the US Midwest.
What are the Effects of a Two-Generation Human Capital Program on Children’s Attendance and Chronic Absence in Head Start?
Sommer, Teresa Eckrich, et al. Northwestern University, May 2019. This study evaluates the effects on children’s attendance and chronic absence of Career Advance, a career pathway training program for parents of children enrolled in Head Start. It also examines whether the program is more effective in reducing children’s chronic absence among certain families (i.e., grouped by family, parent, and child…