Linking Teacher Quality, Student Attendance, and Student Achievement
Open accessAbstract
Research on the effectiveness of educational inputs, particularly research on teacher effectiveness, typically overlooks teachers’ potential impact on behavioral outcomes, such as student attendance. Using longitudinal data on teachers and students in North Carolina I estimate teacher effects on primary school student absences in a value-added framework. The analysis yields two main findings: First, teachers have arguably causal, statistically significant effects on student absences that persist over time. Second, teachers who improve test scores do not necessarily improve student attendance, suggesting that effective teaching is multidimensional and teachers who are effective in one domain are not necessarily effective in others.
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Four studies found weak relationships between teacher effects on academic performance and effects on other outcome measures.
“Four of the studies described above found weak relationships between teacher effects on students’ academic performance and effects on other outcome measures.”
From Teacher and Teaching Effects on Students’ Attitudes and Behaviors (2017) · cites this paper as Gershenson (2016)
The Discussion (p. 19) reports essentially zero correlation between this study’s teacher effects on attendance and academic achievement. The literature review (p. 5) describes similar contrasts for Jennings and DiPrete and for Jackson, but its four cited studies investigated character skills; it does not say all four found weak relationships with academic performance. (LLM, conf=0.87)
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Cites
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Teachers, Schools, and Academic Achievement
Rivkin, S. G., Hanushek, E. A., & Kain, J. F. (2005) · Econometrica · doi:10.1111/j.1468-0262.2005.00584.x · Cited by 4,501 · see citing works
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Teacher and Teaching Effects on Students’ Attitudes and Behaviors
Blazar, D., & Kraft, M. A. (2017) · Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis · doi:10.3102/0162373716670260 · Cited by 591 · see citing works
Are Student Absences Worth the Worry in U.S. Primary Schools?
Gershenson, S., Jacknowitz, A., & Brannegan, A. (2017) · Education Finance and Policy · doi:10.1162/edfp_a_00207 · Cited by 218 · see citing works
Self-citationThe short- and long-run impacts of secondary school absences
Liu, J., Lee, M., & Gershenson, S. (2021) · Journal of Public Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104441 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
Self-citationChhikara, D. (2025) · Early Education and Development · doi:10.1080/10409289.2025.2484852 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
“Chronic absenteeism has been consistently associated with a range of adverse effects for children, including lower academic performance and an increased risk for behavioral challenges (Gershenson, 2016; M. A. Gottfried, 2014).”
- Authors
- Gershenson, S.
- Affiliations
- American University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Gershenson, Seth
- ORCID
- Gershenson, Seth
- Venue
- Education Finance and Policy
- Publisher
- MIT Press
- Published
- 2016-04
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 125-149
- ISSN
- 1557-3060 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-3079
- OpenAlex
- W1914601706
- Cited by
- 215
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 3
- FWCI
- 91.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Education Finance and Policy (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- American University Research Archive
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Education › School Leadership and Teacher Performance
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Educational Assessment and Improvement
- Keywords
- teacher quality, teacher effectiveness, student attendance, school absenteeism, academic performance, value-added assessment, elementary school students, behavioral effects, North Carolina
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