Attendance and Students’ School Experiences

Attendance and Students’ School Experiences Selina McCoy, Merike Darmody, Emer Smyth, Allison Dunne NEWB Conference 26 February 2008

Project Background • Review existing international research and policy on attendance • Irish policy • Analysis of data collected for other ESRI studies • Research and policy directions

Methodology/ Data Sources 4 main data sources • School Leavers’ Survey 2002 • Schools Database 1994 • Junior Cycle Longitudinal Study – 1st Yr Data • Part-Time Work among post-primary students • NEWB Data – school level

Methodology/ Data Sources Data Sources • Different measures re. attendance • Different sources of information • Different student groups • Timing • No comprehensive data source • Existing data sources complementary & range of perspectives

Key Issues Main issues • Objective characteristics and attendance • Subjective characteristics and attendance • School factors • Outside school factors • Impact of poor/ non-attendance

Objective Characteristics Key Areas • Gender - males • Age – older students; skipping school starts early • Social Background/Parental Education • Travelling Community • Region

Subjective Characteristics Key Areas • Attitudes towards school • Attitudes towards teachers • Self-ratings • Interactions with peers

Students’ Attitudes Findings • Attitudes to School Better attendance records: • ‘school life is a happy one for me’ • Positive about benefits of schooling re self-confidence, communication skills • ‘School work worth doing’ • Relationship with teachers Students who had skipped school: • More likely to feel teachers didn’t care about them • Could not talk to their teacher if they had a problem • Less likely to feel teachers listen to their views

Students’ Attitudes Findings Contd., • Relationship with peers Those who had skipped school: • Less likely to feel their friends took school seriously • More likely to feel too many troublemakers in class • Academic self-rating Students with poor attendance records: • More negative about present academic performance • More negative about potential opportunities in the future

Students’ Attitudes Findings Contd., • Parental Involvement • No relationship between parental involvement and no. of absences • But is related to no. of times late and skipping classes • Student Identity • Better attendance records among students with strong sense of control over their lives • Students with poor attendance records more fatalistic and higher stress (males)

Outside School Factors Part-Time Work • Majority working part-time • Males more likely to work longer hours and during week Impact: • Students’ feel working does not impact on attendance or schoolwork • Those who work actually have higher absenteeism rates • Part-time work is associated with increased chances of early school leaving • Working students, on average, achieve lower exam grades

Outside School Factors Range of Out-of-School Activities (mid 90s) • Sports: positive impact • Social Life: negative impact • Household labour: negative impact (females) • Part-Time Work: negative impact (particularly long hours)

School Factors School size: • primary – among DD schools, higher attendance in smaller schools (less than 100) • post-primary – smaller schools higher non-attendance Relationship to measures of socio-economic composition of school: • primary – variables in GCEB database, reading and numeracy scores • post-primary – schools serving disadvantaged populations, retention rates to Junior Cert, performance in Junior Cert exam

School Factors School Organisation and Process: • Social Mix in School Additional impact over and above individual background factors Even controlling for social mix, schools vary in attendance levels: Why? • Ability Grouping – absenteeism lower among those in higher stream and mixed-ability • Academic Climate – attendance higher in schools characterised by higher teacher expectations • Social Climate - nature of interaction between teachers and students

Impact of Poor Attendance 4 areas: • Drop-Out • Exam performance • Progression to post-school study • Unemployment

Impact of Poor Attendance Progression to Further Study • Those who frequently ‘skip’ school less likely to progress to further study • Even among those with similar Leaving Cert performance, those who frequently skip school less likely to progress

Impact of Poor Attendance Unemployment • Higher unemployment levels among those who frequently skipped school • Even among those with similar educational attainments

Future Research Opportunities • Data based on 2004 and earlier … considerable policy focus and resources since then on educational disadvantage • Need for up-to-date comprehensive research – • Research at primary level • Sampling based • Need to know causes of non-attendance in order to develop strategies • Are there projects that are working? • Awareness • Resources • Back-up Services

Issues for Schools • School Climate • Student involvement • Nature of curriculum • Learning supports • Targeting schools with concentration of disadvantaged students • Importance of addressing issue (early) as means of preventing drop-out etc

Attendance and Students’ School Experiences