Date of Graduation

5-2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership (EdD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Curriculum and Instruction

Advisor/Mentor

Pijanowski, John C.

Committee Member

Lasater, Kara A.

Second Committee Member

Dougan, Kelli

Keywords

Chronic Absenteeism; Demographics; High School Attendance; Partial Day Absences; Secondary School; Student Characteristics; Systemic Issues

Abstract

Chronic absenteeism is a fairly new concept in education. Many schools have only started tracking chronic absenteeism with the start of Every Student Succeeds Act. The following research studied chronic absenteeism at an Arkansas High School, which answered the two research questions in this study. The first research question studied the demographics of the chronically absent student which included grade level, race/ethnicity, Special Education and English Language Learner status, and free or reduced lunch status. The second research question studied the class period of the chronic absence which included the time of day and type of class. High School X had 40% of free and reduced lunch students who were chronically absent. The research also found that twelfth grade students accounted for the highest-grade level of being chronically absent from one or more of their classes, with 37% in 2016-2017 and 36% in 2017-2018. The Zero-Hour classes accounted for the highest rate of chronically absent students, with at least 20% or more of the students enrolled in Zero-Hour being chronically absent. The research found that the number of students chronically absent from one class period was three times as high as the students chronically absent from all seven periods.

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