A LOOK BACK
Are compulsory attendance laws outdated?
By Howard M. Johnson
December 1973, pp. 226-232
A half-century ago, Howard M. Johnson — an associate director with the Bureau of School Service and Research at the University of Washington — argued that compulsory attendance laws no longer serve a purpose in modern society. In his view, the individual “economic and social rewards” of school attendance are “more than adequate” to meet the needs of the nation’s workforce. School officials, he argued, should therefore move away from a focus on compulsory attendance and instead make attendance “a matter of individual teacher responsibility as related to classroom instruction.”
Alongside Johnson’s article, Kappan published responses from five educators. Some supported his argument. Others pushed back. For example, John W. Brubacher, chair of the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Connecticut, argued that seeing education in terms of individual rewards misses the point. “[A] democratic society requires that all youths know more than what a job requires,” Brubacher wrote, citing Thomas Jefferson’s assertion that a nation cannot be both ignorant and free. He further argued that compulsory education laws protect the nation’s most vulnerable members. “Compulsory education, mandated by the state, is critical; otherwise, children from disadvantaged homes might not receive sufficient education. In general, this is not a problem with children from advantaged homes.”
“If kids are not here, they are not forming relationships. If they are not forming relationships, we should expect there will be behavior and discipline issues.”
– Quintin Shepherd, Victoria, Texas, school superintendent, quoted in “Why school absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere,” The New York Times, March 29, 2024
CONVERSATION PIECE
This issue of Kappan focuses on how schools can address absenteeism and encourage school attendance. Use these questions to reflect on the topic with your colleagues:
- What trends have you observed in your school or district when it comes to attendance? Have things changed since the pandemic?
- Which students seem to struggle with school attendance? What are the reasons for their absences?
- What strategies has your school or district put in place to encourage school attendance? How successful have they been?
- In his article, Thomas Dee encourages schools to tailor their solutions to their communities. How does your school connect with the community to understand what solutions will work?
- What strategies would you put in place to encourage school attendance? What initial steps would your school need to take for those strategies to work?
PDK members have access to discussion guides related to specific articles in each issue of Kappan. Log in to the member portal and access the discussion guides at https://members.pdkintl.org/PDK_Member_Discussion_Questions.
“Chronic absenteeism stands apart from [other] contentious issues. Not only is it not polarized, it is the most important issue facing schools today.”
– Hedy Chang, Denise Forte, & Nat Malkus, The Hill, Aug. 29, 2024
RESEARCH CONNECTIONS
School leaders note a ‘cultural shift’ surrounding attendance
Eleven of 12 school district leaders interviewed by researchers from the RAND Corporation said they believed a “cultural shift” has occurred “whereby more students and families see school as optional and of less importance.” Further, they hypothesized that standard interventions, such as calls home, were insufficient to address the current attendance crisis. “The district leaders we interviewed speculated that continued heightened chronic absenteeism rates can be attributed, at least in part, to changing cultural norms about whether schooling is really compulsory and pandemic-era changes to schooling (such as the proliferation of devices and learning management systems) that make it easier for students to check in and check out of school,” the researchers note. Improving school-family relationships and taking steps to make school more relevant for students are among the strategies needed to boost attendance rates, school leaders theorized.
Source: Diliberti, M.K., Rainey, L.R., Chu, L., & Schwartz, H.L. (2024, August 27). Districts try with limited success to reduce chronic absenteeism: Selected findings from the spring 2024 American School District Panel Survey and interviews. RAND Corporation.
The pandemic effect on school attendance
The average rate of chronic absenteeism went from 15% in 2019 to 28% in 2022, according to data from 39 states. Yet even as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, absenteeism rates remained elevated. Moreover, the students most likely to be chronically absent — including minority and low-income learners — are the same students whose pandemic learning losses tend to be the greatest. “Chronic absenteeism is arguably the number-one problem facing public schools today, and it will likely hamper pandemic academic recovery and further widen achievement gaps in the coming years,” notes report author Nat Malkus, senior fellow and deputy director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute.
Source: Malkus, N. (2024, January). Long COVID for public schools: Chronic absenteeism before and after the pandemic. American Enterprise Institute.
Attitudes about absenteeism
Chronic absenteeism rates remain high following the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet despite increased media attention, parents and even educators have been slow to recognize the seriousness of the issue. In a Brookings Institution poll conducted from December 2023 to January 2024, less than half of caretakers with kids who were at risk of being chronically absent reported being concerned about it. Similarly, in a November 2023 survey from the U.S. Department of Education, just 15% of school leaders reported being “extremely worried” about chronic absenteeism. Yet both parents and educators will have to work together to increase school attendance, note researchers who oversaw the Brookings poll.
“[W]e also need deeper understanding of what is driving ongoing absence so we can work to reduce it.”
Source: Saavedra, A., Polikoff, M., & Silver, D. (2024, March 26). Parents are not fully aware of, or concerned about, their children’s school attendance. Brookings Institution.
Community schools tackle chronic absenteeism
A recent report from the Learning Policy Institute highlights efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism at four community schools in California. Successful strategies included 1) engaging families through regular communication about their student’s attendance and the importance of attendance more generally, 2) creating advisories, extracurriculars, and other programs that increased students’ enthusiasm to come to school, 3) tracking attendance and using the data to offer personalized resources and support for families, 4) leveraging existing community partnerships to address unmet needs that contribute to chronic absenteeism, and 5) deploying community school coordinators to build systems that support school attendance.
Source: Germain, E., Hernández, L.E., Klevan, S., Levine, R.S., & Maier, A. (2024, August). Reducing chronic absenteeism: Lessons from community schools. Learning Policy Institute.
CALL TO ACTION
Take the Attendance Champions Challenge
What do young people think is driving the high rates of chronic absenteeism? The U.S. Department of Education is calling on students, ages 13 to 19, and the organizations that serve them to share their experiences and ideas for addressing absenteeism. The Attendance Champions Challenge invites participants to identify and address barriers to school attendance through a school-based participatory research project, essay, social media campaign, or other activity.
The submission deadline is Nov. 29. Proposed solutions should be backed by research and real-world insights. Each participant will receive a certificate and may be invited to share their ideas at future Department of Education events.
Learn more: https://bit.ly/47K5Ahx
This article appears in the November 2024 issue of Kappan, Vol. 106, No. 3, p. 5-6.
