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The literature on school absences has focused predominantly on the reasons for student truancy, or it has assessed only aggregate student absences in their effect on achievement. However, this study brings forth a new issue: the relationship between types of absences - excused versus unexcused - and school performance. With a quantitative model of educational achievement on a longitudinal multilevel data set of all second- through fourth-grade students in the Philadelphia School District from 1994 to 2000, this study disaggregated absence information to provide new insight on the attendance-achievement relationship. Specifically, a model using fixed effects with classroom-level clustering was employed to determine how the distinction among varying proportions of excused versus unexcused absences related to students 'standardized test performance in reading and math. This article demonstrates that distinguishing between students with high rates of excused or unexcused absences is significant. Having a higher proportion of excused absences to total absences exhibits a positive relationship between reading and math test scores. Conversely, students with a higher proportion of unexcused absences places them at academic risk, particularly in math achievement and as early as in elementary school. Implications for policy are discussed.
Keywords: academic achievement, student attendance, economic analysis, statistical analysis, elementary education
THIS ARTICLE demonstrates the necessity of differentiating between excused and unexcused absences within research on elementary school performance. Distinguishing between these absences yields a more accurate picture of how trending toward having a high proportion of one type of absence can positively or negatively predict academic achievement. Moreover, conducting this analysis on a sample of elementary school students allows for the early identification of at-risk students in primary years of schooling, before they progress into later grades where truancy problems can be intensified (Lehr, Sinclair, & Christenson, 2004; Slavin, 1999).
Being absent from school has been found to be detrimental to learning and academic achievement, and an increase in absences may exacerbate academic and sociological risk factors in later years (Dryfoos, 1990; Finn, 1993; Lehr et al., 2004; Stouthamer & Loeber, 1988). Academically, truant students receive fewer hours of instruction and may consequently perform more poorly on exams (Chen & Stevenson, 1995; Connell, Spencer, & Aber, 1994; Finn, 1993). Sociologically, they may feel a greater sense of alienation from their classmates,...