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Center and highschool attendance nonetheless issues enormously post-COVID, and faculties can do so much to enhance it, in response to a brand new report from the College of Chicago’s Consortium on Faculty Analysis.
In Chicago and throughout the nation, scholar absenteeism surged in the course of the pandemic. In Chicago Public Faculties, the rise has been particularly vital and unabated in the highschool grades, the place a 2025 Chalkbeat and WBEZ investigation confirmed 1 / 4 of scholars missed 35 or extra days the earlier 12 months. Nonetheless, the commencement charge has continued to inch up within the district, the place leaders say CPS has rightfully moved away from penalizing college students for lacking faculty and as an alternative offers them extra alternatives to make up work or submit assignments nearly.
However the Consortium on Faculty Analysis examine launched Tuesday discovered absenteeism has a transparent impression on studying: The extra faculty days college students missed, the decrease their check scores and grades. And, even because the authors acknowledge that many elements outdoors faculties’ management have an effect on attendance, they stress that faculties could make a giant distinction. Campuses with comparable scholar demographics and in comparable neighborhoods have had markedly totally different post-pandemic attendance, the report notes.
At faculties that maintained sturdy attendance, college students reported feeling safer, extra linked to their lecturers and friends, and extra challenged and engaged of their courses, the examine discovered.
“Submit-pandemic, we have been listening to all these questions: Does attendance matter as a lot any extra? And may faculties actually do something about it?” mentioned Elaine Allensworth, one of many report’s authors. “All of the research we do counsel that attendance remains to be vitally necessary in any respect grade ranges.”
Subsequent, Allensworth and her fellow researchers plan to dig deeper into the practices that assist faculties enhance attendance regardless of serving high-needs scholar our bodies.
The report in contrast attendance and different metrics throughout three pre-pandemic and three post-COVID faculties years by 2023-24. It discovered power absenteeism rose dramatically throughout all grades, by 20 share factors general. College students are thought of chronically absent once they miss 10% or extra days in a college 12 months.
Final faculty 12 months, 40% of the district’s college students have been chronically absent, CPS information exhibits.
Extra widespread absences took a toll. The truth is, the examine means that attendance had a fair stronger impression on check scores and grades than it did earlier than the pandemic.
On the similar time, the researchers famous that grades post-COVID have been greater each for college kids with excessive attendance and for many who miss quite a lot of faculty — a improvement they mentioned requires additional examine. As an illustration, sixth graders who have been absent 10% of the time had a median GPA of two.9 earlier than COVID and three.2 within the more moderen years. Doable explanations the examine provides are adjustments in grading practices and requirements, or know-how use that allows college students to finish assignments even when lacking class.
These findings echo these of Chalkbeat and WBEZ’s latest sequence, which discovered a districtwide push to offer college students extra grace that intensified in the course of the pandemic and extra lenient grading scales at some excessive faculties. In response to that reporting, former CEO Pedro Martinez instructed Chalkbeat that whereas he was vastly involved about absenteeism within the early grades, he was much less frightened about highschool absence, the place he mentioned college students are keen to make use of know-how to offer them extra flexibility.
However Allensworth mentioned being in class nonetheless issues, noting earlier analysis linking highschool attendance to school going and efficiency.
“The extra college students are in school, the stronger their studying positive factors and their later outcomes,” she mentioned.
In a press release in response to the examine, the district mentioned attendance in any respect grade ranges is a key focus. It pointed to school-level work to carefully monitor scholar information so lecturers and workers can intervene promptly if attendance or different metrics begin lagging. It additionally famous stepped-up outreach to households and efforts to extend participation in after-school and different enrichment packages, which has been proven to enhance attendance.
The College of Chicago analysis affirms the district’s “dedication to creating faculties the place each scholar feels seen, protected, and linked,” the assertion mentioned.
The examine notes faculties alone are “neither the trigger nor the answer to will increase in power absenteeism charges,” noting that neighborhood security, transportation choices, and financial instability have an effect on attendance. However faculties have appreciable energy to spice up attendance, and actually the examine discovered a college’s neighborhood didn’t seem like a significant component within the COVID-era absenteeism will increase. As earlier analysis has prompt, faculty local weather was key — much more so post-pandemic.
The researchers appeared on the connection between attendance and faculties’ scores on 5Essentials, a scholar and workers survey designed by the College of Chicago. One influential issue that stood out to Allensworth was the power of the relationships between lecturers and oldsters. Research have prompt that these relationships are actually necessary for attendance on the elementary stage, however Allensworth was stunned to see the important thing position they appeared to play in excessive faculties as nicely.
“It’s a lot more durable for some college students to get to highschool day-after-day than for others — we have now to acknowledge that,” she mentioned. “However you may’t simply say there’s nothing we are able to do about it. Should you don’t do something, the scholars who’ve essentially the most limitations would be the ones who will miss essentially the most faculty.”
Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter overlaying Chicago Public Faculties. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.
