2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

ESSAY
A Solvable Problem
Hidden in Plain View
When Monitoring the Right Data
Makes All the Difference
Hedy N. Chang
Research confirms what we know from common sense: missing
too much school makes it harder to succeed in school. Beginning
in kindergarten and even preschool, chronic absence (missing 10 percent
or more of school for any reason, including excused as well as
unexcused absences) can predict lower third-grade reading scores, especially
for children living in poverty who experience more than one year of
chronic absence (Chang and Romero 2008; Connolly and Olson 2012).
By middle and high school, chronic absence is a proven early warning
sign of dropping out of high school for all students regardless of their
socioeconomic status (Spradlin et al. 2012). If too many students have
poor attendance, the classroom churn can slow down learning for everyone
(Musser 2011).
What is much less well-known is that chronic absence doesn’t affect
just a handful of children. An estimated 7.5 million students (1 of 10) in
the United States miss so much school that they are academically at risk.
In some communities and schools, more than one of four children are
chronically absent.
Yet many schools and communities don’t know how many and which
students are chronically absent. Most schools monitor average daily
attendance and truancy rates, but both of these indicators can mask high
levels of chronic absence. Consequently, schools and communities are
missing out on the opportunity to use an easy-to-understand, readily
available attendance measure that could help them engage in prevention
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