What can schools do to improve student attendance?

1. What can schools do to improve student attendance? What can schools do to improve student attendance? MA Department of Education August 7, 2018 Stacy B. Ehrlich, Ph.D.

2. The current state of student attendance: How much is absenteeism an issue? In 2015-16: • ~8 million students were chronically absent in 2015-16 • 58% of schools nationwide had more than 10% of their students chronically absent (Bauer et al., 2018) Everyone Graduates Center & Attendance Works (2017)

3. Attendance is a concern across all grade levels, but particularly during the earliest and latest grades 10% absence = 15 days in preschool 10% absence = 17 days in high school Allensworth et al. (2013)

4. 38 states and territories are using “chronic absenteeism” for accountability • 36 states, DC, and Puerto Rico are all using various measures of chronic absence as their “school quality or student success” measure under ESSA Bauer, Liu, Schanzenbach, & Shambough (2018)

5. Increased accountability is shifting the focus from students  schools • Most existing research has focused on students: reasons for absences, differences by background characteristics, and relationships to outcomes • Reasons: Health, Logistical challenges, Aversion • Increased accountability for / attention to schools raises questions about how much and what schools can do to influence attendance • Is attendance malleable? • How much is attendance about what schools do vs. family and community factors? • What are some ways schools can influence attendance?

6. Attendance is not fixed and school practices can influence student attendance • Attendance differs under different conditions • Attendance varies by classroom and/or teacher, even for the same students • Schools that serve similar students can exhibit drastically different attendance rates (Allensworth & Easton, 2007) Notes: Estimated school-level pre-k attendance rates from a 2-level HLM model nesting students within school

7. Attendance varies based on school climate, culture, and practices Examples of school factors associated with higher student attendance, controlling for student population – 5Essentials(Allensworth & Easton, 2007) • Teacher-student trust • School-wide press for college • Teacher monitoring & personal support • Classroom personalism • Collective responsibility among teachers • This true even at the youngest grades – Early Ed Essentials(Ehrlich, Pacchiano, Stein, & Wagner, 2018)

8. Evidence from Detroit corroborates these findings Present a framework that situates student attendance within multiple layers of environmental/political, family/individual, and school factors Findings: • In traditional public schools, higher 5Essentials scores  Lower chronic absence • In particular, those with stronger “Involved Families” • Note: different findings in charter schools (which had lower chronic absence overall) • Lenhoff & Pogodzinski, JESPAR

9. Efforts in schools aimed at improving student outcomes have promising findings Evidence from Chicago: Freshman on track indicator “On Track”: No more than one course failure in a core subject and accumulation of five or more credits by the end of ninth grade

10. Efforts in schools aimed at improving student outcomes have promising findings: Pilot Interventions Balfanz & Byrnes, JESPAR • NYC Inter-Agency Campaign to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism – Success Mentors • Estimated impact of having a success mentor: 5 percentage point increase in attendance (Balfanz & Byrnes, 2013) • When students improve their attendance, they are back on track for graduation – negative academic effects are reversible or can be decreased

11. Efforts in schools aimed at improving student outcomes have promising findings: Pilot Interventions • Connect-Text – A two way, text-based parent-school communication system to: • Encourage daily attendance • Provide parents with personalized feedback about child’s attendance • Provide support to mitigate challenges • The pilot school’s kindergarten chronic absenteeism rate (13%) was substantially lower than for that of a synthetically constructed comparison school (24%). • Smythe-Leistico & Page, JESPAR

12. Using incentives requires some planning • Balu & Ehrlich, JESPAR • Problem diagnosis: What are the specific attendance problems/causes that need to be solved? • Selection of incentive(s): What type of incentive should be implemented in order to address the identified problem and change behavior? • Implementation planning: How can the incentive be implemented in ways that increase its salience and decrease tradeoffs? • Evaluation and revision: What do evaluation results of incentive-based approaches indicate about effectiveness and how to improve subsequent implementation?

13. Resources for school and district focus on attendance • Schools can implement a tiered approach (aligned to existing MTSS approaches) based on level of chronic absence • Districts can work together with communities to improve attendance http://www.attendanceworks.org/