CHAPTER II

Review of Related Literature

This chapter presents the conceptual and research literature to present

studies gathered from both published and unpublished materials and from

private and public studies.

RESEARCH LITERATURE

The aim of this study was to examine the direct and indirect relationship

between student school absenteeism, personal factors (academic self-perception,

attitudes towards teacher and school, goal valuation and motivation/self-

regulation), family factors (parents’ educational level and income), and academic

achievement in structural equation model. Four hundred and twenty three high

school students participated in the study. The findings revealed that student

absenteeism was negatively related to academic self-perception, attitudes

towards teacher and school, goal valuation, motivation/ self-regulation, and

academic performance. Results also revealed that student absenteeism differed

in respect to parents’ educational level and income. Results from SEM analyses

noticed that personal and family factors significantly predict previous and current

student absenteeism. SEM analyses also revealed that previous student

absenteeism significantly predict previous academic achievement. Finally, SEM

analyses noticed that previous student absenteeism and previous academic

achievement can predict current student absenteeism. Contribution and

implications of these findings were discussed in detail.

 A major problem faced by schools across the country is student

absenteeism. Although the problem is pervasive in American schools, the

attention focused on this issue has been inadequate. Poor student attendance

has far reaching effects on the individual, the school, and society in general. The

intent of this paper is to document the problem, summarize existing research on

mediating factors, provide a summary of interventions for improving student

attendance rates in schools, and to offer specific suggestions for school

psychologists. In addition, specific attention is given to suggestions for future

research to help expand the current understanding of the causes and

remediation of poor student attendance.

One major barrier to learning faced by students and teachers in American

schools today is a lack of consistent attendance in classrooms. In fact, the United

States Department of Education (1994) has cited absenteeism as the most

important factor linked to performance differences among students, and

absenteeism has recently been identified as being at crisis proportion (Kearney,

2003). Although many schools realize the importance of this issue, educational

researchers have not consistently given this topic the attention it deserves

(Corville-Smith, 1995). Additionally, while some attempts to increase

attendance rates have been successful, the methodologies used have had

notable disadvantages including cost, drainage of faculty resources, difficulty of

implementation, or time consumption (DeKalb, 1999; Lamdin, 1996).

 Decreasing the rate of student truancy and absenteeism has been and

continues to be the goal of school districts across the nation for over a

century.Amazingly, little research focuses on what schools can do to increase

and maintain student’s daily attendance and even fewer studies explore how

families-school-community can build a partnership to work together towards this

goal. Corville and Smith, (1995) state that “Despite the long history of

concern over student attendance, the issue has received relatively little attention

from educational researchers”.Instead of focusing on student attendance,

researchers have mainly focused on students who drop out of high school before

receiving their high school diploma. Even though a great deal of research exits

on students dropping out of school more so than on truancy, research on

students who dropout points to early detection of truancy in their lives before

they drop out of school.

“Dropping out of school, although defined by a single event reflects a long

process of disengagement and withdrawal from schooling and educational

institutions”, (Finn, 1989, Newman, Wehlage, & Lamborn, 1992). In order

to understand and reduce the problem of students dropping out of school

researchers should first investigate the early warning signs in students behavior

before it escalates to students actually leaving school. Studies of students who

dropout of school shows long-term patterns of students who may be having

difficulties at home and or in school at a very early age. Research has shown

that students who eventually drop out of school are absent more often than
other students beginning as early as the first grade. As the student gets older

their patterns of being absent from school increases. So efforts to decrease

students from dropping out of high school might be better spent on identifying

early warning signs of truancy at the elementary and middle school level.

It is a fact that poor attendance predicts dropping out of school; chronic

absenteeism can have a negative impact on the student and school. Students

who are not in school are not learning and are not being adequately prepared to

be successful in school and in life. Research on truancy and absenteeism

suggests that “students with better attendance score higher on achievement

tests than their more frequently absent peers” (Lamdin, 1998). If schools

across the nation are being met with the challenge of making adequate yearly

progress, which is a state mandate, then more programs need to be funded in

schools to address the issue of truancy.

To deal with the issue of truancy at the James P. Timilty Middle School

students have been identified with five or more absences. The identified

students prior and current standardized test scores will be reviewed. Forty-one

six, seventh and eighth grade students were identified with attendance concerns.

A conference will be held to inform students of scores and attendance concerns.

A contract will be made with the forty-one students and weekly positive rewards

will be discussed with students for coming to school everyday on time. The

conference will be followed by a phone call/letter to parents to talk about the

attendance concerns. The student’s attendance will be monitored on a daily

basis with weekly scheduled student check- ins to talk about attendance.

Violators of the contract will be informed of consequences of being absent from

school and a yellow card will be filed which will alert the attendance officer. In

the past my buildings response to filing yellow attendance cards has been slow,

causing many students with attendance issues to go unnoticed. It is my hope

that the process can be handled expeditiously with students being monitored and

frequent phone calls home to alert and inform parents of a student’s absence

from school.

Historically, schools have always held the student accountable for truant

behavior. Corville-Smith, (1995) and Hoyle (1998) state that “Truant and

chronically absent students were considered deviants”. Frequently schools did

not contact families until the problem was so severe that the student was failing

their courses. Also research shows that the learning environment of an entire

school can be affected by an individual student’s attendance problem. Most

schools receive funds by the population they have attending school on a regular

basis. If Districts and school attendance rates are low, educational programs

and resources are in jeopardy of being cut. Also, in some locations student

attendance is used as an indicator of how well a school is functioning and

requirements are set and monitored for rating (Maryland State Department

of Education, 1999)

Studies investigating family practice have suggested that “not all parental

involvement activities are associated with attendance” (Lee, 1994) for example;
parent involvement that requires “checking homework and reading with a child is

associated with improved report card grades, achievement scores, and subject-

specific skills” (Epstein 1991; Epstein, Simon, & Salinas, 1997; Muller,

1993). Other researchers have reported that “specific family involvement

practice such as parental monitoring, parent-child discussions, parent

participation at the school PTA membership are linked to student attendance”

(Astone& McLanahan, 1991; Ducwork & Dejong, 199l Lee, 1994,

McNeal, 1999). Research shows that some parent activities are more likely

than others to affect attendance. Furthermore studies show that schools who

want to increase daily attendance need to reach out and work with parents to

encourage parental involvement in specific ways to address this problem.

Innovative schools see the need to develop productive school-family

community connections to address this growing epidemic of truancy. Kesler-

Sklar and Baker (2000) reported that over “90% of the school districts they

surveyed had at least one policy supporting parental involvement”. Epstein and

her colleagues have been working with schools, school districts, and the state

department of education to develop programs of school, family and community

partnerships (Epstein, Coates, Salinas, Sanders, & Simon, 1997; Sanders

& Epstein, 2000).

TrygFonden’s Centre for Child Research in 2013-2015 – has shown

that frequent school absenteeism especially affects children with low well-being

and children from homes with a poor cooperation with school. Among pupils with
especially problematic absenteeism from school – i.e. pupils who are absent

more than 10 % of all school hours – you find a range of specific characteristics.

The children often have divorced parents, are pupils in the lower secondary

school, have a lower academic level, attend more often special classes, have a

lower well-being and have a more frequently contact to the Educational

Psychological Counselling in the municipality. Likewise, overweight children have

a higher propensity to school absenteeism. More have emotional problems or a

problematic behaviour, have a chronic disease and have, to a greater extent, a

social phobia (according to the parents’ reporting). Finally, the parents’

cooperation with the teacher is typically lower.

Student’s class participation becomes affected due to absenteeism. The

effects of absenteeism in class participation, miss the chance to become a part in

class participate, can’t raise questions about any confusion regarding topics.

Can’t clear the concepts, Poor participation in tutorial discussion; miss the chance

of small group discussion within the class. They neglect much value able

information which students can gain in class. It leads to poor coordination with

teachers, poor coordination with their class mates in their group studies. Also

affect the performance of students especially when they are in a teamwork or

group assignments and projects. Unable to update for their assignments, unable

to take the guideline about preparing the assignments, Absenteeism leads the

students to drop out graded activities. Poor performances in class quiz which

lead to poor GPA. Unable to prepare and the assignments on due dates which
badly effect the GPA of students. Poor performance during exams leads to poor

GPA that’s why they have to repeat the session or drop out from the university.

This means that students that miss their class will not have the opportunity to

foster their learning and often compensated with poor grades. Kamla Raj quoted

in his article, Bowen (2005), have established that students who attend classes

more regularly seem to be more successful in their studies than those who

regularly absent. In addition, students that attend class regularly are more likely

to remember well the information and apply the knowledge effectively

throughout their life (Crede, Roch&Kieszczynka, 2010).

Kamla-Raj quoted in his article in 2011. Absenteeism is the most

important factors which impact on the assembly line function in the development

of administration of University. These absenteeism levels decrease the level of

production because of work specialization. One analysis given that, absenteeism

brings out hundreds of cases of negative impact on the building of future of

students. Empirical evidences confirm that absenteeism produce the high level of

problems and failure. There is decline in value of specialization among the

students and significant decrease the achievements of students (Steyn& Van,

2002). Kamla-Raj quoted in his article in 2011, Physical presence of student on

discussion in class and learning performance of students’ relationship is close

relative. The only way of measuring the learning ability of students is class

participation. In the units of learning of student, student and teacher relationship

is one of fundamental unit in the class (Moore, Armstrong et al. 2008). Due
to absenteeism teacher have to reteach lesion take instructional time away from

students those who attend regular classes. They spend extra time over absentee

extra homework and class assignments. It is beyond the planning period of

lecturers and time needed to provide individual assistance to students (Weller,

1996). Student miss valuable information when they are absent from classes.

They also missed the interaction lecturer and benefits of specific examples which

are used to clarify the difficult concepts. They valuable information cannot be

repeated when teacher re-teach lecture to absent students (Williams, 2000).

Kamla-Raj quoted in his article in 2011, Absenteeism affects the abilities of

students which can be reason of decreasing the grades and in the result of this

the students may get failed and they have to repeat same year level.

Performance of students becomes prominent and effective when they attend the

classes on regular basis and it positive impacts on the performance. Student who

are attending the classes on regular basis, they get higher grades and marks in

the examination than those students who got absent from classes.

Absenteeism leads the difficult effect on the performance. Once the

student is absent from class, he or she will miss the opportunity to learn new

techniques. If he missed the class there is chance of missing study material and

misses the opportunity in the examination to get high grade. Students who

attend the regular classes get high marks as compare to absent students

(Sharma, 2005). There is a strong positive correlation between attendance and

grades. (Moor, 2003),Absenteeism at higher education level affects the

learning process of the students as well. As the final result at the end of

academic session. Lecture and tutorials provide a policy where students interact

with the teachers, observe them and differentiate them as role models. Low

attendance hence may affect this process and obstruct their professional growth.

On the other hand the role of teachers in improving student’s attendance in

lectures cannot be denied. Good attendance is maybe the most important and

direct sign of the student’s perception of the effectiveness and usefulness of the

lectures delivered. Teachers with good teaching skills deliver lectures which are

organized and structured; have good communication skills which attract students

and shows higher attendance rates .(hafeez 2014, Indiana: and

Achievement 2014) Kamla-Raj quoted in his article in 2011,the continue

absenteeism or poor academic achievement among the students leads to drop

out from the University. It is indicating by one author that absenteeism is act as

crime which is more commonly among the student who got low grades, have

spotted attendance and they dropped from class (Robbins and Coulter 2007)

It is also given by one author, students who missed the class on specific date,

they are more likely to respond wrongly to question related to material covered

in that day than those student who were present. It is given in the hypothesis

that there is correlation between the students learning which had inquired

empirically in educational literature. It is most surprisingly, there are inverse

relation between the course performance and absenteeism in most of the studies

(Marburger 2001).
 Student miss valuable information when they are absent from classes.

They also missed the interaction lecturer and benefits of specific examples which

are used to clarify the difficult concepts. They valuable information cannot be

repeated when teacher reteach lecture to absent students (Williams, 2000).

According to PNC rule learners are likely to maintain 100% attendance in all

theory classes. However in cases of emergency/sickness learners may miss up to

15% (collective) of classes. If learners miss more than 15% (collective) per

semester/term he/she may be asked to repeat the semester/term/year or be

withdrawn/expelled from the programmed if theproblem persists. It is the

responsibility of the learners to catch up for the missed inside of the class if

absence is due to reasonable reason. (Curriculum PNC, 2006).

CONCEPTUAL LITERATURE

Rodgers (2001) found that attendance has a small but statistically significant

effect on performance in a sample of 167 introductory statistics course. Kirby

and McElroy (2003) study the determinants of levels of attendance at lectures

and classes and the relationship with exam performance in a sample of 368 first

year economics students, finding that hours worked and travel time are the main

determinants of class attendance, and that the late, in turn, has a positive and

diminishing marginal effect on grade. Among studies who reach less robust

conclusions about the positive effect of attendance on performance.

Ubogu (2004) says illness, financial difficulties, age, social rank, geographical

region, attitudes of teachers, weak school management, high education cost and

weather condition can cause absenteeism. Mervilde (1981) also reveals that;

family health or financial concerns, poor school environment, drug and alcohol

use, transportation problems, and differing community attitudes towards

education are all conditions that can cause a child not to attend school.

Literature review shows that students' absenteeism can be grouped into these

sub-titles: A. The causes of absenteeism sourced from school: School climate

constituted by human relationship affects students' and teachers' behaviours

(Mizelle, 1992).

School absenteeism has been consistently identified by educators as a

major concern. Truancy and excessive absenteeism influence an entire spectrum,

from pupils whose education is affected, to teachers whose instruction is

disrupted, to principals who must account for empty desks, to superintendents

who must rely on attendance for state aid, to attendance officers, home school

counselors, and law enforcement officials who must contact parents and locate

absent students, to judges who occasionally rule on truancy cases, and to

merchants who complain of daytime crime due to truancy (Mervilde, 1981).

Absenteeism is expensive in terms of academic achievement, economic loss to

school districts, and teacher efficiency.

Truancy is a problem that is seriously affecting the overall success of the

large urban school district, and in particular, the specific school in which I am

employed. For the purpose of this paper, truancy will be defined as consecutive

illegal absences from class or school. The purpose of the research is to develop a

solution that can be proposed to my administrator in an effort to decrease, or

eliminate truancy altogether and is to be initiated at the beginning of our next

school year.Therefore, the first objective is to identify causes, effects, and

solutions to truancy based on a review of literature. The second objective is to

verify the causes of truancy in my school and compare these results with teacher

opinions of the same causes. The final objective is to identify how teachers feel

about truancy and realize what, or how much time the teachers are willing to

offer in an effort to decrease, or eliminate the problem altogether.

Recent policy dialogue suggests that chronic absenteeism is not only

underdocumented, but is also detrimental to the success of students as early as

kindergarten. That said, almost no empirical research has examined the effects
of chronic absenteeism on student outcomes. This study addresses this

underresearched issue in more depth. Using a nationally representative dataset

of kindergarten students from the 2010–2011 school year, this study evaluates

the effect of chronic absenteeism on both achievement and socioemotional

outcomes. The findings suggest that chronic absenteeism reduces math and

reading achievement outcomes, reduces educational engagement, and decreases

social engagement. Hence, this study offers new evidence on how an

undermeasured aspect of missing school impedes students’ attainment.

Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

A recent report by the U.S. Department of Education (USED) identifies

“chronic absenteeism” as a hidden educational crisis.In 2013-14, roughly 14

percent of students nationwide were chronically absent—defined as missing 10

percent or more of school days, excused or unexcused, which in most states

would correspond to about 18 days of school missed each year. In some cities,

that rate is considerably higher, with Detroit topping the list at 57.3 percent of

students chronically absent.

The precocious teen who’s too cool for school earning high marks despite

skipping class is a pop-culture standard, the idealized version of an effortless

youth for whom success comes easy.Too bad it’s largely a work of fiction that

belies a much harsher reality: Missing just two days a month of school for any

reason exposes kids to a cascade of academic setbacks, from lower reading and
math scores in the third grade to higher risks of dropping out of high school,

research suggests.

A new analysis of federal data shows that the problem of chronic

absenteeism is both widespread and concentrated. Of the more than 6 million

students who are chronically absent, half attend just 4 percent of the nation’s

school districts and 12 percent of the nation’s schools. Nearly nine in 10 districts

report chronically absent students, based on data from the 2013-14 school year,

a figure that some experts believe is an undercount. The report defines chronic

absenteeism as missing at least 15 school days each year, which is roughly 10

percent of the academic calendar.

Some districts with high levels of chronic absence have more resources

than others. Chang and Balfanz’s research shows that affluent suburban districts,

such as those in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Montgomery County, Maryland,

post some of the highest absenteeism numbers in the country, likely as a result

of their growing low-income populations, though the communities’ wealth can

provide the financial backstop to support students who are missing too much

class. In fact, recent reporting from U.S. News & World Report found that some

rich suburban districts receive more federal aid for low-income students than

smaller but far poorer districts.

Also at risk are the hundreds of thousands of students in smaller, post-

industrial cities, “places like Utica, Schenectady, and Albany in New York, and

Syracuse and Buffalo, all of them have very high rates of chronic absenteeism,
often topping 50 percent, and they all often have very high rates of concentrated

poverty," said Balfanz. "That's part of the challenge, that many states have these

sort of economically and socially isolated cities spread out across the state."

The economic malaise of these cities rarely receives national attention,

argued Paul Jargowsky, a Rutgers University professor, at an Education Writers

Association seminar in Chicago last fall on poverty and education. UCLA’s Howard

joins other scholars in advocating for more social workers and psychologists on

school campuses to address the factors that may drive chronic absenteeism. An

NPR story recently spotlighted a principal in St. Louis who acquired several free

washers and dryers after learning some students avoided school because they

lacked clean clothing.

Other researchers and school leaders point to districts collaborating with

local charities or agencies to address chronic absenteeism. The Nashville school

district joined forces with the city’s after-school program, called Nashville After

Zone Alliance (NAZA), to share student demographic data and results on interim

tests. The program identifies students who are struggling academically and pairs

them with tutors to receive additional learning. School and city leaders in Grand

Rapids, Michigan, launched an advocacy and training campaign for educators

that has resulted in the absenteeism rate dropping by a quarter and student test

scores increasing over time.

Truancy, described as missing school without permission, is a growing

problem in today’s schools. Truancy is a problem for the entire society.

Problematic truancy can lead to lowered student achievement, delinquency, drug

involvement, and even early pregnancy. A student’s truancy can signal low

attachment to school and produce negative relationships with peers who also

have issues attending school. In some instances, these tendencies seem to be

associated with those also experiencing drug abuse. The effect of student

truancy not only affects the student, but also continues to impact schools and

communities. Truancy has the potential to cause a decline in the economy of our

nation and therefore be viewed as the serious problem it is. In order to prevent

or reduce high school dropout rates, elementary and middle schools must look at

strategies to reduce absenteeism, therefore improving student attendance which

ultimately may create an increase in student motivation.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, over one-quarter

(15 million) of school-aged children (aged 5–17 years) in the United States did

not have perfect attendance during the previous surveyed year due to illness or

injury. During the survey year, five percent of children missed 11 or more days

of school due to illness or injury. Children from families with low incomes were

more than twice as likely to have absences of 11 days or more (9%) compared

to children from families with the highest income (4%). Children from single-

parent families were more than twice as likely to have been absent from school

for 11 or more days during the past survey year due to illness or injury as

compared to children from two-parent families.

 Education has a huge impact on any human society and it can safely be

assumed that no society is optimally functional until it is properly educated. In

the global perspective, it is an undeniable fact that the progress of a nation is

very much dependent on the education of its citizens. Similarly, in Uganda

education is a fundamental human right and it is the duty of the state to

promote free and compulsory education to the citizens. This constitutional

mandate gave birth to free education from primary to secondary under Universal

Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE) since 1997

and 2007 respectively. The purpose of this study was to investigate the major

causes of students’ absenteeism; and the possible solutions to the vices in

Universal Secondary Education Schools in Uganda. The study applied a

descriptive cross sectional research design. The study also employed both

qualitative and quantitative approaches/methods. Data was collected using

secondary and primary sources. Secondary sources consisted of publications,

reports and literature related to students’ absenteeism whist primary data was

collected using questionnaires and interviews. The collected data was analyzed

using descriptive statistics from the study population of one thousand (1000)

constituting a sample of 278 respondents of which 226 returned their fully

completed questionnaires giving a response rate at 81.3%; obtained from 17 out

of 36 USE schools in the four (4) districts of Serere, Ngora, Soroti and Kumi

comprised of 07, 04, 03, and 03 USE schools respectively. The four districts were

considered ecause they have all categories of secondary schools in Uganda.

 Investigated the relationship between student and teacher perceptions of

the social environments of 19 high school classes and student absenteeism rates

and the average final grades given by the teacher. 19 classes of high school

students were administered the Classroom Environment Scale. Results show that

classes with high absenteeism rates were seen as high in competition and

teacher control and low in teacher support. Classes in which teachers gave

higher average grades were seen as high in involvement and low in teacher

control. Results are discussed in light of their implications for understanding the

differential effects of classes, as well as for identifying and changing high-risk

classroom environments. Moos, R. H., & Moos, B. S. (1978)

Reducing student absenteeism and truancy is a goal of many schools

across the country. Surprisingly little research focuses on what schools can do to

increase and sustain students' daily attendance, and even fewer studies explore

how family-school-community partnerships may contribute to this goal. In this

longitudinal study, data were collected on schools' rates of daily student

attendance and chronic absenteeism and on specific partnership practices that

were implemented to help increase or sustain student attendance. Results

indicate that several family-school-community partnership practices predict an

increase in daily attendance, a decrease in chronic absenteeism, or both. The

data suggest that schools may be able to increase student attendance in

elementary school by implementing specific family and community involvement

activities.
 According to School Social Work Journal . Spring2008, Vol. 32

Issue 2, p21-38. 18p. 2 Charts. With the current emphasis on accountability

in kindergarten through twelfth-grade education, greater demands have been

placed on school social workers. In fact, many federal, state, and school officials

are demanding the use of evaluative outcome research that demonstrates the

potential impact of supportive services. The present study examined the impact

of school social work services on reducing risk factors related to truancy as well

as student absenteeism among students in urban secondary schools. A total of

115 students participated in the study. Seventy-four students receiving school

social work services were matched with seventy-one comparable students not

receiving services. Overall, results indicate that school social work services had a

statistically significant impact on reducing various risk factors related to truant

behaviors among students who received the intervention. On the other hand, no

significant differences were uncovered between the experimental and

comparison groups on student absenteeism. Implications are discussed in

relation to the importance of school social work services in K-12 educational

settings.