This dissertation aims to elucidate the complexities of chronic absenteeism in Head Start Programs post-COVID-19 to enhance early childhood education practices and policies. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the study investigates the causes of absenteeism by surveying and interviewing 50 participants from a Head Start Program in the New York…

School attendance is strongly associated with academic success and high school completion, but approximately one-in-seven students miss nearly one month of school each year. To address absenteeism, we partnered with four public school districts in the metro-Atlanta area and experimentally deployed email and text messages to inform parents about…

Parental involvement is essential to children's learning engagement activities and academic performance. Much research revolves around the impact of parental involvement on students' academic performance or the relationship between student engagement and grades. However, few studies have used process data to examine the relationship between…

School attendance is strongly associated with academic success and high school completion, but approximately one-in-seven students miss nearly one month of school each year. To address absenteeism, we partnered with four public school districts in the metro-Atlanta area and experimentally deployed email and text messages to inform parents about…

Background: School-based health centers (SBHCs) fill critical pediatric health care access gaps but typically require parental consent for enrollment. Families' responses to SBHC consent form outreach efforts may reflect broader school engagement. This study investigated whether SBHC consent form return predicted subsequent chronic absenteeism and…

The annual assignment of elementary students from one classroom to the next is a ubiquitous cycle in schools. Since student class assignment has an effect on students' educational trajectory, understanding how placement procedures impact student equity is an important area of research with benefits for all stakeholders. In this action research…

Future Forward (FF) is an early elementary literacy program that pairs one-on-one tutoring with parent engagement. In 2017, Education Analytics (EA) received an Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Mid-Phase grant to expand FF to 14 schools in seven school districts across three states. The randomized control trial (RCT) study of the 2019-20 FF…

The problem addressed in this study is that chronic absenteeism of special education students impacts school performance, graduation rates, and future employment opportunities. The purpose of the phenomenological study was to document the lived experiences of parents of high school special education students as chronic absenteeism of their special…

This sequential mixed methods study evaluated the impact of the Chicago Parent Program (CPP) in 12 Baltimore Title I PreK programs on parent engagement and student outcomes from kindergarten through 2nd grade. Phase 1 (quasi-experiment; N = 11,996) compared PreK students whose parents enrolled in CPP with those whose parents did not enroll in CPP…

This dissertation in practice focused on the use of Motivational Interviewing in the school environment between school staff and families. More specifically, this program evaluation sought to see if the use of Motivational Interviewing by school staff could improve parent participation rates in student attendance improvement conferences (SAICs).…

Attendance in kindergarten and elementary school robustly predicts student outcomes. Despite this well-documented association, there is little experimental research on how to reduce absenteeism in the early grades. This paper presents results from a randomized field experiment in 10 school districts evaluating the impact of a low-cost,…

Educational attainment is an important determinant of one's success. Yet, absenteeism among adolescents jeopardizes chances of achieving their educational goals. Absenteeism can lead to an increasing disinterest in school and the chance of dropping out in school. Thus, this study determined how parental involvement affects absenteeism among 60…

This article examines the determinants of private school choice for elementary school students in India with emphasis on school characteristics. We also analyze the gender differences in the demand for private schools among the households, a relatively less explored issue in the school choice literature in India. We find that private schools are…

Aims: Educational research often relies on the self-reports of students to determine their grades/GPA for reasons including ease of administration, time constraints, IRB approval, and assumption of accuracy. The main purpose of this study was to determine the validity of student self-reports on their academic grades, and if the benefits outweigh…

The 2021 Tribal Education Status Report presents information and data related to students, teachers, funding, and other indicators regarding American Indian students attending New Mexico's public school districts for the 2020-2021 academic year. This report was prepared by the New Mexico Public Education Department (NM PED) and the PED's Indian…