Chronic absenteeism is a critical issue that has been linked to many adverse student outcomes. The current study focuses on improving a key system already in place in many school districts--early warning systems (EWSs)--in order to decrease chronic absenteeism in students' earliest schooling years. Using a demographically diverse population of…

This dissertation examined the relationship that additional recess has on office discipline referrals. The relationship between additional recess time and student attendance was also examined in the study. Many research projects have been completed during the No Child Left Behind era where recess was reduced in many schools to allow for more…

This report evaluates the impact of intensive student support services provided by Communities in Schools of Kalamazoo (CISK) to elementary students of Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS). These intensive services typically follow a case-management format and include activities related to academic assistance, basic needs, enrichment/motivation, and…

We report findings of a convergent validity study examining the internalizing subscale (SRSS-I5) of the newly adapted Student Risk Screening Scale for Internalizing and Externalizing (SRSS-IE12) with the internalizing subscale of the Teacher Report Form (TRF; Achenbach, 1991) conducted in 13 schools across three states with 195 kindergarten…

The study examined the effectiveness of Philadelphia's Renaissance Schools Initiative after one year of implementation. The Renaissance Schools Initiative, which began in the 2010-11 school year, aimed at improving low-performing schools by providing new management, additional resources, and new educational strategies. The study reported that…

This action research study addressed the need to increase student attendance at an elementary school. Previously, this school's Average Daily Attendance (ADA) has been 92%. With having nearly 900 students, there are approximately 70 daily absences, 1,400 monthly absences, and 13,000 yearly absences. To address the challenge, the researcher…

Significant attention is currently focused on ensuring that children are enrolled in preschool. However, regular attendance is also critically important. Children with better preschool attendance have higher kindergarten readiness scores, this is especially true for students entering with low skills. Unfortunately, many preschool-aged children are…

This paper presents initial results from a pilot evaluation of the pre-K component of a new school-based intervention strategy (Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Understanding and Regulation in education, SECURe) for pre-kindergarten through 3rd grade that is designed to build skills in social-emotional learning (focusing on executive function and…

Background/Context: This article addresses which school-level factors contribute to school quality. Previous research has focused on assessing the effects of school-level variables on student-level quality (e.g., achievement). However, the field has been limited in not evaluating the effects of school-level factors directly on measured…

Background: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "Strategies for Addressing Asthma Within a Coordinated School Health Program" recommends a consulting physician for schools to help manage asthma. The literature examines the effects when a school nurse is present, but the addition of a consulting physician is not well understood. The…

This article focuses on how parental school choices affect the degree of racial and academic segregation in charter schools. The research design allows for a direct comparison of the racial and academic conditions of the district schools students exited to the charter schools they entered. Parents choose to leave more racially integrated district…

Researchers have made convincing arguments for the benefits of a smooth transition to school. The passage through this significant social change may have a lasting influence on children's progress. For example, social, emotional and academic difficulties in the early years of schooling have been shown to persist through school and into…

This study captures the impact of school choice decisions by comparing the racial composition of the district schools students exited to the charter schools they entered. Charter school catchment areas are operationalized using a statewide student-level database to track school attendance patterns of individual students over 4 years. Charter…

Elementary school-age children are particularly vulnerable to infections. While handwashing is the best method of preventing infections, many elementary schools are housed in buildings that have barriers to effective hand hygiene. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an alcohol gel as an adjunct to handwashing in…

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…