Descriptively, prior-year chronically absent students achieved over half a standard deviation below their peers at the start of the following year¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2020 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Before any controls, mean starting achievement declines consistently by prior-year attendance category, with chronically absent students over half an SD below peers. → King 2020

Evidence¶

King 2020¶

King, G., & Jensen, N. (2020). Looking Back: How Prior-Year Attendance Impacts Starting Achievement. (The Center for School and Student Progress at NWEA Working Paper). https://www.nwea.org/research/publication/looking-back-how-prior-year-attendance-impacts-starting-achievement/

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Preliminary descriptive analysis using boxplots of standardized RIT scores by attendance bin (Figure 2), unadjusted for covariates. Chronically absent students were "over half a standard deviation below their peers"; Figure 1 further shows CA and HA students falling further behind each subsequent year.

"The boxplots, standardized across grade, subject, and year demonstrate that students who were chronically absent achieved at over half a standard deviation below their peers (prior to controlling for any other variables or separating by subject)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Students chronically absent (10%+) in the prior year start the following school year 0.22 to 0.47 SDs lower in mathematics than peers with no prior-year absences — related
• Students highly absent (5-9.9% of days) in the prior year, below the chronic threshold, start the next year .14 to .22 SDs lower in mathematics than no-absence peers — related
• Even moderately absent students (0.1-4.9% of days) start the following year at significantly lower mathematics achievement (.07 to .15 SDs) than no-absence peers — related
• Each single prior-year absence is associated with a .010 to .016 SD decrease in fall mathematics starting achievement the following year — related
• Prior-year absence effects on starting achievement are much smaller in reading than mathematics and non-significant in most grade levels — related
• Low attendance is linked with lower academic skills, grades, and high school graduation, and high attendance with higher ones — a broader claim this one bears on