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subject of concern for schools for a long time. This has largely been because the
teacher and the school authorities have always been under extreme pressure to
complete a given syllabus and also to perform well in national examinations. They
have therefore felt that, those students who absent themselves from regular
characteristics like class size, teacher-student ratio, expenditure per student and
differences between public and private schools and not academic performance
that a student will occasionally miss class due to sickness, lack of school fees,
student delinquency and truancy, suspension, time out on games and sports or
and natural disasters like tribal clashes, drought and famine will also often make a
child miss school (Kipkemboi and Silsil, 2006). Kenya has adopted universal primary
education (U.P.E), and is striving to achieve education for all (EFA). Educations both
in primary and secondary school levels have been decreed by the government to be
free and compulsory. The childrens act Cap. 114 of the laws of Kenya also provides
access to quality education. This can largely be effective if the students attendance
chronically be absent from this instruction for whatever reasons, then the goals so
sought by the students themselves and other stakeholders including the state, will
Glasure (2002), sought to find out whether class attendance influenced non-
between days absent and academic performance. Days absent alone accounted for
44% of the variation in performance. The researcher finally concluded that class
Chapter One: Framework for the Study Each year, school leaders in K-12 public
education are faced with the complex challenge of addressing student absenteeism
review of the literature points to a vast number of attendance practices and policies
thus resulting in increased absences (Epstein & Sheldon, 2002; Garca-Gracia, 2008;
Hartnett, 2007). However, there is limited research to suggest school leaders are
seeking input from their students as they look to improve student attendance. This
practice is inconsistent with the pool of research that suggests students must be
given the opportunity to be heard, listened to, and recognized for their contributions
to their education (Cook-Sather, 2006; Gunter & Thomson, Sands et al., 2007;
Smyth, 2006b; Yonezawa & Jones, 2009). Drawing on literature centered on chronic
argument for the need to hear from and understand student perspectives related to
their absenteeism, along with the perspectives of their parents and/or guardians. I
assist students in building and maintaining a foundation for ongoing learning and
student absenteeism through a critical lens, shaped in part by critical pedagogy and
Critical pedagogy looks to a deeper understanding of the world (Burbules & Beck,
1999; Giroux & Simon, 1988; Kincheloe, 2005; Monchinski, 2008). A critical
approach to leadership provides students with the opportunity to be heard and for
tell their story. I used a critical lens as I sought to understand the research
participants. Most importantly, the middle school students identified with chronic
perspectives of such students, along with the experiences and perspectives of their
parents and/or guardians through a reflective interview process. Through the use of
construct their own meaning as they engaged in the world. I provided the students
and their parents and/or guardians with an avenue to which they were allowed and
experiences (Sands, Guzman, Stephens, & Boggs, 2007, p. 341). It was my intent to
ensure the voices of the students identified with chronic student absenteeism, along
with the voices of their parents and/or guardians were heard. I sought to have the
students and parents feel as if they were collaborators and problem solvers
course.
delivering educational services. However, as almost anyone who has ever taught a
meetings is far from perfect. As educators, we want our students to attend class.
We enjoy teaching and interacting with students and work hard to make our classes
worthy of the students' time and energy. We know who our best students are
because they attend class regularly, but we often have a hard time putting a face to
the names of the students that fail. Based on this anecdotal evidence, we assume
that students who attend class regularly benefit from the lectures, films, and
To encourage class attendance, we have always spent part of the first class meeting
telling our students that it is important for them to attend class, that they will learn
more if they attend class, and that students who attend class regularly generally
earn higher grades for the course and vice versa. Unfortunately, when we searched
the literature for empirical evidence to back up our claims, we failed to find any
exams. Moreover, studies over the past fifteen years that have examined the
Several studies have linked class absences with lower grades. For example, Brocato
(1989) found a strong negative correlation between absences and grades among
Macroeconomics courses he taught over a four-year period. Park and Kerr (1990)
and Banking course, but not as important as a student's GPA and percentile rank on
was rampant, with typically about one-third of the students absent from class. (This
performance have students who are enrolled in economics course as their subjects.)
Romer also reported that regression estimates of the relation between attendance
attendance might substantially affect learning. Considering only students who did
all of the problem sets (in order to control for the impact of student motivation to do
well in the course) and controlling for prior grade point average, he found the
difference in performance between a student who attends class regularly and one
Durden and Ellis (1995) also found that attendance does matter for academic
that the effect is nonlinear, becoming important only after a student misses four
classes during the semester. They concluded that what really seems to matter is
excessive absenteeism.
Chan, Shum and Wright (1997) studied the effect of class attendance on student
performance in a Principles of Finance course using Tobin's (1958) TOBIT model and
model, but only a weak relationship between attendance and student performance
One major barrier to learning faced by students and teachers in American schools
Department of Education (1994) has cited absenteeism as the most important factor
linked to performance differences among students, and absenteeism has recently been
identified as being at crisis proportion (Kearney, 2003). Although many schools realize the
some attempts to increase attendance rates have been successful, the methodologies
used have had notable disadvantages including cost, drainage of faculty resources,
Researchers have attacked this problem from a number of directions. For example,
interventions have been community-based (McPartland & Nettles, 1991; Reid &
& Thibeault, 1974). The intent of this paper is to summarize existing research on
improving attendance rates in schools and offer suggestions for school psychologists on
how they can become involved in formulating interventions to help schools deal with
problems of attendance.
Absenteeism
Truancy has been labeled one of the top 10 major problems in American
schools, and rates of absenteeism have reached as high as 30% in some cities. In
New York City, an estimated 150,000 out of 1,000,000 students are absent daily
(DeKalb, 1999). Similarly, the Los Angeles Unifi ed School District reports
that 10% of its students are absent daily, and only half return to school with
written excuses (DeKalb). Although school officials are unsure as to the proportion
of legitimate verses ille- gitimate absences, nationwide estimates have ranged from 1-22%
for illegitimate absences (Guevermont, 1986; Neilsen & Gerber, 1979). These studies may
due to the large margin of error likely to be found in self-report data of this nature. It
is quite possible that the proportion of illegitimate absences has changed since
these data were reported; however, no recent estimates are available. Additionally,
the proportion of illegitimate absences may vary substan- tially among school districts
In the major metropolitan area of New York, for example, attendance rates for
the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens ranged between 86% and 96% for the 1998-
1999 school year. The mean rate of attendance in Brooklyns elementary schools was
90.63% (SD = 2.15), and for elementary schools in Queens the mean rate of
attendance was 92.36% (SD = 1.96). By way of comparison, New York
States Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island had elementary school
attendance rates ranging between 88% and 99% for the 1997-98 school year. The
mean attendance rate for elementary schools in Nassau County was 95.81 (SD =
1.30), and Suffolk Countys mean rate of attendance was 95.33 (SD = 1.32) for
elementary schools. Within the state of New York, attendance rates for different
regions appear to vary substantially (New York State Department of Education, personal
adequate, given 7 days of absence per student per year as based on norms for adults
parts of the country may differ, it is possible that DeLeonibuss criterion is too stringent
an expectation
for school children. For example, only one of a combined 386 elementary
schools in Brooklyn and Queens surveyed by the authors met DeLeonibuss criterion.
The means for suburban districts on Long Island were quite close to the 96% criterion;
however, the majority of schools on Long Island (60.8%) also fell below this
with an example: If we con- sider a school with an attendance rate of 90%, this
means that one of every 10 children may be absent on any given school day. Given
class sizes of 25-30 students per class, this translates to two or three
children missing per school day. The consequences of poor attendance can be
who have high rates ofabsenteeism are more likely to drop out of school before
completing high school (DeRosier, Kupersmidt,& Patterson, 1994; Gerics & Westheimer,
1988; Hersov, 1960; Neilson & Gerber, 1979). Given thepositive correlation
they enter young adulthood. Absenteeism has also been found to be a predictor of
future criminality, alcoholism, and occupational difficulty (Hersov & Berg, 1980)
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