Bitesize Research: Attendance

This week, I wanted to share with you a summary of key research that was compiled in 2016 on student attendance by AttendanceWorks, a charity based in the US that looks at tackling chronic absence issues. 

Objectives: To outline the key ‘takeaways’ from recent research on resolving issues around attendance.

Summary:  

• Balfanz et. al (2007): whole-school interventions for attendance, when coupled with behavioural and other interventions can make a significant difference to student attendance.

• Allensworth et. al (2007): freshman year (UK YR10) is a pivotal year for completing secondary education. Attendance percentage in this year group is a better determinant of success at the end of KS5 than YR9 test scores.

• Ready (2010): absence from school serves to widen social divides. If students from low-income backgrounds have worse attendance, the impact this has on them is far greater than those from more affluent families.

• Liu and Loeb (2018): highly engaging teachers can decrease absences by 49%. Personal teacher connections to families can work also to decrease absenteeism.

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

 

• What makes improving attendance so important?

• How does engagement link to both student attainment and attendance?

• What interventions can I enact to support my tutees and students to improve their attendance? How can I communicate home to support this?

If anyone would like to discuss this further with Jaya - please comment below! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations.