How much school students attend is a powerful indicator of their wellbeing and a strong predictor of their future success in school. Prior research has documented the myriad in-school and out-of-school factors that contribute to high levels of student absenteeism, many emerging from the root causes of poverty and disengagement. The shift to online…

School transportation may increase student outcomes by providing a reliable and safe means of getting to and from school. Little evidence of the effects of such policies exists. In this paper, I provide some of the first causal evidence of transportation impacts on student attendance and achievement using a rich panel of student-level enrollment…

Background/Context: Chronic absenteeism has received increased attention from educational leaders and policy makers, in part because of the association between attendance and important student outcomes. Student attendance is influenced by a range of student-, school-, and community-level characteristics, suggesting that a comprehensive and…

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen an unprecedented shutdown of society. Among the various safety measures taken, much attention has been given to school closure as a non-pharmaceutical mitigation tool to curb the spread of the disease through ensuring "social" (physical) distancing. Nearly 1.725 billion children in over 95% of countries…

We contribute to the school start time literature by using statewide student-level data from North Carolina to estimate start time effects for all students and for traditionally disadvantaged students. Descriptively, we found that urban high schools were likely to start very early or late. Later start times were associated with positive student…

This four part series of research briefs summarized detailed analysis of attendance and chronic absenteeism in Oregon. Brief 1 highlighted the importance of tracking chronic absenteeism rather than average daily attendance. The second brief in this series focused on student outcomes and attendance. Research suggests, and Oregon Department of…

One important question about school discipline is whether it helps or harms those being disciplined. But a second, equally important question is whether a push to reduce the number of suspensions is harmful to the rule-abiding majority. This study examines outcomes in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP), which made dramatic changes to its…

This brief highlights the importance of using a measure like chronic absenteeism, rather than average daily attendance, in order to identify concerning patterns in elementary attendance rates. The chronic absenteeism measurement is better able to shine a light on the number of individual students struggling with attendance. Subsequent briefs in…

Expanded learning time (ELT) is a practice that entails increasing the length of the school day for all students, with the goal of improving student outcomes, especially in low-performing schools. Boston Public Schools (BPS) has been implementing ELT as an improvement strategy in low-performing schools since 2006. In 2015 the district drastically…

This report highlights several trends in Oregon that show the correlation between chronic absenteeism and various academic outcomes. Oregon student patterns follow the national trend in that students with better attendance have better outcomes. Fifth-grade chronic absenteeism is a moderately strong predictor of chronic absenteeism in subsequent…

Seven schools in an economically challenged area of an urban school district in central California implemented mentored peer mediation programs under the guidance of a university-K-12 partnership project, Mediator Mentors. Individual student outcomes for social-cognitive dispositions, perceptions of school climate, conflict strategy choices, and…

This study hypothesized that HISD prekindergarten participation consistently correlated with better educational outcomes for students. Taking into account students' age differences through kindergarten enrollment, propensity score matching controlled for students' background characteristics. Three cohorts of students in this study were eligible or…

The interaction between deprivation and education is a critical relationship with profound implications for a country's economic prosperity and the social mobility of its citizens. This is highlighted by the Welsh Government which states that: "A good education is critical to better life chances and a commitment to achieving this has been an…

In 2010-2011, AISD prekindergarten enrollment was 5,614, an increase by 3% from the 2009-2010 year. The cost per student for pre-K was approximately $3,234 for the 2010-2011 year, a $94 per student decrease from 2009-2010. [For "Prekindergarten Evaluation Series, 2010-2011. Issue 2: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Performance by Vertical…

It is widely accepted that postsecondary education has become a necessity for US youth. College access, however, has been found not to be equal for all. As a result, federally funded college-readiness programs, such as Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), have been established to increase the numbers of…