Forum Guide to Collecting and Using Attendance Data Forum Guide to Collecting and Using Attendance Data National Cooperative Education Statistics System The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) established the National Cooperative Education Statistics System (Cooperative System) to assist in producing and maintaining comparable and uniform information and data on early childhood, elementary, and secondary education. These data are intended to be useful for policymaking at the federal, state, and local levels. The National Forum on Education Statistics (Forum) is an entity of the Cooperative System and, among its other activities, proposes principles of good practice to assist state and local education agencies in meeting this purpose. The Cooperative System and the Forum are supported in these endeavors by resources from NCES. Publications of the Forum do not undergo the same formal review required for products of NCES. The information and opinions published here are those of the Forum and do not necessarily represent the policy or views of NCES, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), or the U.S. Department of Education. January 2018 This publication and other publications of the National Forum on Education Statistics may be found at the websites listed below. The NCES Home Page address is http://nces.ed.gov The NCES Publications and Products address is http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch The Forum Home Page address is http://nces.ed.gov/forum This publication was prepared in part under Contract No. ED-IES-16-Q-0009 with Quality Information Partners, Inc. Mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations does not imply endorsement by the U.S. government. Suggested Citation National Forum on Education Statistics. (2018). Forum Guide to Collecting and Using Attendance Data (NFES 2017-007). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Technical Contact Ghedam Bairu (202) 245–6644 [email protected] ii Forum Guide to Collecting and Using Attendance Data National Forum on Education Statistics The work of the National Forum on Education Statistics (Forum) is a key aspect of the National Cooperative Education Statistics System (Cooperative System). The Cooperative System was established to produce and maintain, with the cooperation of the states, comparable and uniform education information and data that are useful for policymaking at the federal, state, and local levels. To assist in meeting this goal, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES)—a part of the U.S. Department of Education (ED) —established the Forum to improve the collection, reporting, and use of elementary and secondary education statistics. The Forum deals with issues in education data policy, sponsors innovations in data collection and reporting, and provides technical assistance to improve state and local data systems. Development of Forum Products Members of the Forum establish working groups to develop guides in data-related areas of interest to federal, state, and local education agencies. They are assisted in this work by NCES, but the content comes from the collective experience of working group members who review all products iteratively throughout the development process. After the working group completes the content and reviews a document a final time, publications are subject to examination by members of the Forum standing committee that sponsors the project. Finally, Forum members (approximately 120 people) review and formally vote to approve all documents prior to publication. NCES provides final review and approval prior to online publication. The information and opinions published in Forum products do not necessarily represent the policies or views of ED, IES, or NCES. iii Working Group Members This online publication was developed through the National Cooperative Education Statistics System and funded by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES)—a part of the U.S. Department of Education (ED). The Attendance Working Group of the National Forum on Education Statistics is responsible for the content. Chair Jan Petro, Colorado Department of Education Members Kara Arzamendia, Minnesota Department of Education Dean Folkers, Nebraska Department of Education Laura Hansen, Metro Nashville Public Schools (TN) Mike Hopkins, Rochester School Department (NH) Georgia Hughes-Webb, West Virginia Department of Education Brad McMillen, Wake County Public School System (NC) Zenaida Napa Natividad, Guam Department of Education Linda Rocks, Bossier Parish Schools (LA) Peter Tamayo, Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction Cheryl VanNoy, St. Louis Public Schools (MO) Andrew Wallace, South Portland School Department (ME) Consultants Elizabeth Lieutenant and Kristina Dunman, Quality Information Partners Project Officer Ghedam Bairu, National Center for Education Statistics Acknowledgements Members of the Attendance Working Group would like to thank everyone who reviewed or otherwise contributed to the development of the Forum Guide to Collecting and Using Attendance Data. iv Forum Guide to Collecting and Using Attendance Data Foreword The National Forum on Education Statistics (Forum) is pleased to present the Forum Guide to Collecting and Using Attendance Data. The purpose of this document is to recommend practices that will help education agencies collect, report, and use attendance data to improve student and school outcomes. This publication substantively revises and expands the information included in Every School Day Counts: The Forum Guide to Collecting and Using Attendance Data, published in 2009, and incorporates current best practices, real-world examples, and role-specific tip sheets. It is designed to help state and local education agency (SEA and LEA) staff improve their attendance data practices. One goal of the Forum is to improve the quality of education data gathered for use by policymakers and program decisionmakers. An approach to furthering this goal has been to pool the collective experiences of Forum members to produce best practice guides in areas of high interest to those who collect, maintain, and use data about elementary and secondary education. Improving student attendance data quality, collection, reporting, and use is one of those high-interest areas, and this document aims to provide best practices that meet the common needs of the education community, as determined by the collective experience of our working group members. This document focuses on attendance data from the perspectives of the education data community and does not attempt to present a comprehensive account of the many issues related to student attendance. Intended Audience The Forum Guide to Collecting and Using Attendance Data will be of interest to anyone concerned about the utility of attendance data. More specifically, this document is intended for staff in federal, state, and local education agencies whose responsibilities include any aspect of collecting, reporting, or using attendance data. This audience includes program and data staff, researchers, administrators, policymakers, and others who are tasked with using attendance data to improve student and school outcomes. Publication Objectives In alignment with the Forum’s mission, this resource aims to • explain why high-quality attendance data matter and how attendance data are related to other measures of student achievement and success; • create a standard attendance taxonomy that supports improved attendance data quality and comparability between schools, districts, and states; • identify common challenges to collecting accurate and comparable attendance data in elementary and secondary schools and provide practical suggestions for addressing these challenges; and • define role-based actions that school, district, and state staff can take to improve the collection of high-quality attendance data and promote responsible data use. v Organization of This Document The guide is presented in the following chapters and appendices: • Chapter 1 discusses why school attendance and attendance data matter and describes the relationship between attendance and student achievement and success. • Chapter 2 describes the relationships between attendance, enrollment, and withdrawals. • Chapter 3 explains the importance of using an attendance taxonomy and provides an exhaustive, mutually exclusive attendance taxonomy. • Chapter 4 discusses common challenges and effective practices related to collecting, reporting, and using quality attendance data. • Chapter 5 features tip sheets that summarize the key responsibilities, considerations, actions, outcomes, and motivations for a wide range of local and state stakeholders. • Appendix A features a customizable letter template that can be used to communicate the importance of attendance to parents, guardians, and families. • Appendix B lists additional Forum resources for schools, districts, and states. vi Forum Guide to Collecting and Using Attendance Data Contents National Cooperative Education Statistics System ii National Forum on Education Statistics iii Development of Forum Products iii Working Group Members iv Foreword v Intended Audience v Publication Objectives v Organization of This Document vi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 What Attendance Means 1 Why Attendance Data Matter 2 Using Attendance Data 3 Students Come First 4 Chapter 2: Attendance and Enrollment 5 Barriers to Attendance and Enrollment, and Reasons for Withdrawal 5 Enrollment Transfers 7 Withdrawals 8 Chapter 3: Attendance Taxonomy Category Descriptions 10 Why Does Attendance Data Quality Matter? 10 What Does the Attendance Taxonomy Do? 10 Major Taxonomy Categories 11 Limitations of the Taxonomy 12 Present Attendance Categories 13 Absent Attendance Categories 14 Related Attendance Data Elements 15 Chapter 4: Common Challenges to Collecting Attendance Data and Best Practices for Addressing Challenges 17 Attendance Across Grade Levels 17 Attendance in Virtual Learning Environments 18 Community Collaborations 18 Challenges to Collecting Attendance Data 20 Recommendations for Addressing Challenges Based on Best Practices 23 Checklist of Best Practices and Recommendations 27 vii Chapter 5: Acting on the Data – Tip Sheets for SEA and LEA Stakeholders 28 Attendance Data in Action 28 SEA Tip Sheet – Data Management and Governance Staff 29 SEA Tip Sheet – Data Use and Sharing Staff 31 LEA Tip Sheet – Teachers 33 LEA Tip Sheet – School Office Staff 34 LEA Tip Sheet – Principals and/or Designated School Officials 35 LEA Tip Sheet – Central Office Staff 37 LEA Tip Sheet – Superintendents 39 References 40 Appendix A: Sample Letter to Parents 43 Appendix B: Related Resources from the National Forum on Education Statistics 45 viii Forum Guide to Collecting and Using Attendance Data Chapter 1: Introduction Every school day counts in a student’s education. Regular attendance is essential to providing students with opportunities to learn. From an instructional perspective, any absence, regardless of whether the absence is excused or not, interferes with student learning. While research substantiates the importance of teacher effectiveness on student academic success (Darling-Hammond 2000), even the most effective teachers cannot support student learning unless students are physically or virtually present in class. The relationship between attendance and achievement often appears in early grades, and attendance can influence student outcomes throughout a student’s school life. Absenteeism in prekindergarten and kindergarten is associated with future negative outcomes such as higher rates of absenteeism, slower progression, and lower achievement in later years (Connolly and Olson 2012). Poor attendance also has serious implications for older students. High school students who are chronically absent are less likely to graduate on time and more likely to drop out of high school; and high school students who drop out have been found to have exhibited higher rates of absenteeism throughout their childhood than high school graduates (Attendance Works 2014, Attendance Works and Healthy Schools Campaign 2015). State and local education agencies (SEAs and LEAs) play an essential role in tracking, measuring, and addressing student attendance. Access to accurate, timely data about whether individual students and groups of students regularly attend school is critical to making instructional and programmatic choices targeting student attendance behaviors. High-quality data enable educators and others who support students and families to identify which students are absent, as well as the frequency of and reasons for their absences. By providing SEAs and LEAs with actionable information, these data can guide the design of interventions intended to improve attendance and, in turn, promote positive student outcomes and increased student achievement. What Attendance Means Students are considered “present” if they are attending an instructional program approved by the state, district, and/ or school. This definition applies to attendance in a physical school building or in a virtual learning environment. The codes used to track student attendance, including both present and absent attendance codes, are established based on school, district, and state attendance policies, and attendance data collection must comply with local, state, and federal regulations. Attendance data may be collected in a variety of ways based on the school in which a student is enrolled. For example, attendance may be collected differently in elementary and secondary schools, even if those schools are in the same district. Whereas elementary school students may have their attendance recorded once or twice per day, secondary school students often have their attendance recorded more frequently as they change classroom locations throughout the school day. Chapter 1: Introduction 1