Search

Students in the foster care system tend to have lower educational outcomes than their peers, including more frequent disciplinary events. However, few studies have explored how transitions into and out of foster care placements are associated with educational outcomes. Using longitudinal data from four California school districts, this study investigated the dynamics of entering versus exiting foster care to predict school discipline and how this relationship ultimately influences absenteeism. Our findings suggest that students in foster care are more likely than their peers to face disciplinary action, especially exclusionary discipline, particularly when entering foster care. We also find suggestive evidence that disciplinary actions upon entry increase student absenteeism for students in foster care.

Despite substantial interest in Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses in U.S. high schools--and associated scholarship on this topic--very little is known about characteristics of CTE teachers who are a critical resource for program implementation and expansion. Using eight years of statewide data from Maryland, we document key facts about the CTE teacher workforce and pathways into the profession. First, a sizable share (17%) of CTE teachers enter the profession with a high school diploma or associate's degree, aligned to state policy that allows Professional and Technical Education-certified teachers to substitute years of professional experience for higher degrees. Relatedly, CTE teachers are substantially more likely than non-CTE teachers to enter the profession through an "alternative" path that bypasses traditional undergraduate teacher education (54% versus 30%). Finally, there is a larger share of Black teachers in CTE versus out of CTE (25% versus 16%), leading to greater opportunities for teacher-student race matching. We hypothesize that these patterns are related: decreased barriers to entry into the CTE teaching profession may support more Black individuals to become CTE teachers.

The EdResearch for Action "Overview Series" summarizes the research on key topics to provide K-12 education decision makers and advocates with an evidence base to ground discussions about how to best serve students. This overview brief discusses the causes and effects of chronic absenteeism and three tiers of evidence-based practices to reduce it: (1) Reaching all students with broad-based and preventative supports; (2) Targeting students with signs of risk; and (3) Responding to chronic absenteeism with coordinated supports. Ineffective practices to avoid are also provided.

Background: While chronic absenteeism hurts all students, one particularly vulnerable group, students with disabilities (SWDs), has received little attention in research or policy. Particularly troubling is the dearth of research into the patterns of absences for SWDs and GENs who attend school together in urban school systems, given relatively higher absenteeism when compared to suburban and rural districts. Research Questions: First, how do rates of chronic absenteeism compare between SWDs and students without disabilities (GENs) attending the same schools (hereafter traditional schools)? Second, are there differences between SWDs who are educated in "GEN-majority" classrooms and those educated in "SWD-majority" classrooms? Finally, do these patterns differ for students with different disabilities? Subjects: Our study consists of GENs and SWDs in grades 1-6 who attended a traditional NYC public school between 2006 and 2012. Our sample includes 653,736 students across 37,867 classrooms, and 1,148 public elementary schools. Measures include race/ethnicity, gender, age, foreign-born status, limited English proficiency, free/reduced price lunch eligibility, grade level, classroom ID, school ID, the number of days each student was absent, and the total number of school days each student was registered in the district. For SWDs, the data include indicators for the thirteen disability classifications defined under IDEA and a primary assigned special education setting. Research Design: We begin with a baseline model, where being chronically absent (i.e., missing 10% or more of the school year) is regressed on an indicator for being a SWD, controlling for grade and year. We build on this model by first including demographic control variables, then school fixed effects, and finally classroom fixed effects. We then explore this model for differences by type of classroom setting as well as by type of disability. Findings: Chronic absenteeism is considerably higher for SWDs than GENs in traditional schools, and there is important heterogeneity by disability classifications. Specifically, students with emotional disturbances exhibit extremely high rates of chronic absenteeism and the largest group of SWDs, students with learning disabilities, have quite high rates as well. Further, SWDs in GEN-majority classrooms are less likely to be chronically absent than those in SWD-majority classrooms, again with variation by disability. Conclusions: As the nationwide trend of providing SWDs with more education in GEN-majority classrooms continues to press forward, our study shows that increasingly GEN-majority settings are associated with fewer absences for SWDs. And while school attendance, among other non-achievement outcomes, are not the primary focus of IDEA, our findings point to how some school settings might be beneficial to some but put others at risk. [This paper was published in "Teachers College Record."]

Context: As schools themselves became held accountable for absences, researchers and policymakers have consequently focused on what at school might be driving absenteeism and what are the consequences. Yet overall, research on classrooms and absenteeism remains sparse. What has been established is that absent students negatively affect their classmates around them, thereby changing the classroom context for learning. Yet, almost entirely missing from the conversation is teachers. Of the few existing studies that have considered teachers and students' absences, the work has focused on the effects of teachers on student absenteeism rather than the effect of student absenteeism on teachers. This study is the first to examine this issue. Research Questions: (1) Do teachers perceive their relationships with absent students differently compared to how they perceive their relationships with less-absent students? (2) Do teachers perceive absent students' classroom social skills differently compared to the skills of less-absent students? (3) Do teachers perceive absent students' academic abilities differently compared to those of less-absent students? Population: We used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011), sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education. In our analysis, we used data from the spring waves of kindergarten through 2nd grade. To arrive at our final sample, we imputed missing data using chained multiple imputation (Royston, 2004), with a total of ten imputed datasets (N = 14,370). Data: "Outcomes." For research question 1, the outcomes were teacher reports of relationships with students. Each year, teachers were asked questions about the student-teacher relationship, from which the conflict and closeness measures were derived. Both measures were determined on a 5-point scale (with 5 being the highest level of conflict/closeness). For research question 2, we used four measures of teacher reports of student social skills. Teachers rated how often students exhibited externalizing problem behaviors, internalizing problem behaviors, self-control, and interpersonal skills. All problem behaviors and skills were rated on a 4-point scale. For research question 3, we used three measures of teacher reports of the academic abilities of students. Teachers rated approaches to learning on a 4-point scale, and language and math skills on a 5-point scale. "Absenteeism." The key predictor in our analyses was student absenteeism. The dataset included the number of days a student was absent during the school year (ranging from 0-20 days). In addition, we created a binary indicator to represent chronic absenteeism, as defined by having 11 or more absences in a school year (Author, 2014). "Control variables." As shown in Table 1, we controlled for various child and family characteristics. We also included measures of parental involvement in school. Research Design: For all three research questions, our baseline regression model was as follows: Y[subscript icst] = [beta] [subscript 0] + [beta] [subscript 1]ABS[subscript it] + [beta] [subscript 2]I[subscript it] + [beta] [subscript 3]F[subscript it] + [kappa[ [subscript t] + [epsilon] [subscript icst] where Y represents a teacher-reported perception about student "i" in classroom "c" in school "s" in year "t." ABS is the predictor variable for student absenteeism (both as days absent and as chronic absenteeism). I and F denote child and family characteristics, while [kappa] is a term indicating school year. Model adjustments. Although we included a variety of child and family control variables in our model, we could not account for every factor that might bias the relationship between absenteeism and teacher perceptions of that student. Therefore, we utilized fixed effects to account for variation at different levels of analysis: first by school and then by classroom. School fixed effects controls for all variation between schools that might impact our estimates. This allowed us to focus on within-school variation in absenteeism. However, we believe classroom fixed effects to be more robust because it controls for all differences between teachers/classrooms, which vary within a single school. Moreover, since all our outcomes are teacher-reported, classroom fixed effects allow us to examine how the same teacher rates multiple students in the same classroom. Findings: For our first research question, results indicate that while teachers generally did not perceive more conflict with absent students, they felt less close to these students. The associations were larger when chronic absenteeism was the key predictor. For our second research question, while we did not find a link between student absenteeism and perceptions of externalizing behaviors or self-control, we did see a significant association with perceptions of internalizing behaviors and interpersonal skills. That is, teachers reported more internalizing behaviors for more-absent students compared to less-absent students and gave them lower ratings of interpersonal skills. For our third research question, results were significant across outcomes, suggesting that within a classroom, teachers gave lower ratings of academic skills for students who were more frequently absent. Conclusions: Thus far, absenteeism and teacher perceptions have been separate silos in research. Our study bridges the gap by finding that teacher perceptions may differ for students who are more absent. Our findings have several important implications. First, our work suggests that there is a classroom ecosystem when it comes to absenteeism. The outcomes resultant from missing school are not restricted to the child engaging in this behavior but also affect the teacher. Relatedly, while absent students harm their own outcomes directly by missing opportunities to learn, they may also be hurt through lowered teacher perceptions. Thus, absenteeism puts students at a double disadvantage. Our study also finds that absenteeism is associated with feelings of alienation and loss of closeness rather than antagonism or perceived rise in externalizing behaviors. Therefore, strategies to mitigate the effects of absenteeism should focus on community-building strategies rather than behavior remediation. Finally, our results were significant even after controlling for parental involvement. Thus, the impetus to address absenteeism and mitigate its negative effects cannot be placed solely on parents; teachers (along with their perceptions) have an important part to play.