Full Description
In Absent from School, Gottfried and Hutt offer a comprehensive and timely resource for educators and policy makers seeking to understand the scope, impact, and causes of chronic student absenteeism. The editors present a series of studies by leading researchers from a variety of disciplines that address which students are missing school and why, what roles schools themselves play in contributing to or offsetting patterns of absenteeism, and ways to assess student attendance for purposes of school accountability. The contributors examine school-based initiatives that focus on a range of issues, including transportation, student health, discipline policies, and protections for immigrant students, as well as interventions intended to improve student attendance.
Only in the past two or three years has chronic absenteeism become the focus of attention among policy makers, civil rights advocates, and educators. Absent from School provides the first critical, systematic look at research that can inform and guide those who are working to ensure that every child is in school and learning every day.
Contents
Table of Contents
Foreword
Elaine Allensworth and Robert Balfanz
Introduction
Michael A. Gottfried and Ethan L. Hutt
PART I
Measuring Absenteeism
1. Roll Call
Describing Chronically Absent Students, the Schools They Attend, and Implications for Accountability
Heather Hough
2.Variation in Chronic Absenteeism
The Role of Children, Classrooms, and Schools
Kevin A. Gee
3.Attending to Attendance
Why Data Quality and Modeling Assumptions Matter When Using Attendance as an Outcome
Shaun M. Dougherty and Joshua Childs
4.The Distributional Impacts of Student Absences on Academic Achievement
Seth Gershenson, Jessica Rae McBean, and Long Tran
PART II
Policies, Programs, and Practices
5. Reinforcing Student Attendance
Shifting Mind-Sets and Implementing Data-Driven Improvement Strategies During School Transitions
Stacy B. Ehrlich and David W. Johnson
6.Schools as Sanctuaries?
Examining the Relationship Between Immigration Enforcement and Absenteeism Rates for Immigrant-Origin Children
Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj and Jacob Kirksey
7.Can School Buses Drive Down (Chronic) Absenteeism?
Sarah A. Cordes, Michele Leardo, Christopher Rick, and Amy Ellen Schwartz
8.The Ills of Absenteeism
Can School-Based Health Centers Provide the Cure?
Jennifer Graves, Sarit Weisburd, and Christopher Salem
9.Tackling Truancy
Findings from a State-Level Policy Banning Suspensions for Truancy
Kaitlin Anderson, Anna J. Egalite, and Jonathan N. Mills
PART III
Interventions
10.Ready . . . Set . . . Text!
Reducing School Absenteeism Through Parent-School Two-Way Text Messaging
Ken Smythe-Leistico and Lindsay C. Page
11.Keeping Families Front and Center
Leveraging Our Best Ally for Ninth-Grade Attendance
Martha Abele Mac Iver and Steven B. Sheldon
12. Intervention Design Choices and Evaluation Lessons from Multisite Field Trials on Reducing Absenteeism
Rekha Balu
13. Conclusion
Ethan L. Hutt and Michael A. Gottfried
Afterword
Todd Rogers and Johannes Demarzi
Notes
Acknowledgments
About the Editors
About the Contributors
Index
