Are Student Absences Worth the Worry in U.S. Primary Schools?
Abstract
Student absences are a potentially important, yet understudied, input in the educational process. Using longitudinal data from a nationally representative survey and rich administrative records from North Carolina, we investigate the relationship between student absences and academic performance. Generally, student absences are associated with modest but statistically significant decreases in academic achievement. The harmful effects of absences are approximately linear, and are two to three times larger among fourth and fifth graders in North Carolina than among kindergarten and first-grade students in the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. In both datasets, absences similarly reduce achievement in urban, rural, and suburban schools. In North Carolina, the harm associated with student absences is greater among both low-income students and English language learners, particularly for reading achievement. Also, in North Carolina, unexcused absences are twice as harmful as excused absences. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.
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Aucejo and Romano (2016) and Gershenson, Jacknowitz, and Brannegan (2017) show that individual absences have significantly worse effects on the outcomes of low-income students.
“and Aucejo and Romano (2016) and Gershenson, Jacknowitz, and Brannegan (2017) show that individual absences have significantly worse effects on the outcomes of low-income students.”
From Educational Inequality* (2022) · cites this paper as Gershenson, Jacknowitz, and Brannegan (2017)
The timing result is relatively novel because earlier studies typically relied on administrative records lacking within-year absence dates (Gershenson et al., 2017; Gottfried, 2009).
“This is a fairly novel result in the literature on student absences, as previous research has generally used administrative data that do not specify when during the year absences occurred (Gershenson et al., 2017;Gottfried, 2009).”
From The short- and long-run impacts of secondary school absences (2021) · cites this paper as Gershenson et al., 2017
The Column 1 estimate resembles prior estimates for North Carolina fourth and fifth graders (Gershenson et al., 2017).
“This effect size is similar to that estimated using similar methods for 4th-and 5th-graders in North Carolina (Gershenson et al., 2017).”
From The short- and long-run impacts of secondary school absences (2021) · cites this paper as Gershenson et al., 2017
This robustness to student fixed effects matches findings for North Carolina fourth and fifth graders (Gershenson et al., 2017).
“This robustness to adjusting for student fixed effects is consistent with results for 4th-and 5th-graders in North Carolina (Gershenson et al., 2017).”
From The short- and long-run impacts of secondary school absences (2021) · cites this paper as Gershenson et al., 2017
Conditioning on classroom fixed effects addresses the concern that classroom-level shocks influence both absences and achievement.
“we follow Gershenson et al. (2017) in conditioning on classroom fixed effects, which addresses the concern that classroom-level shocks (e.g., an especially effective teacher or disruptive student) influence both absences and achievement.”
From The short- and long-run impacts of secondary school absences (2021) · cites this paper as Gershenson et al. (2017)
The effects of annual primary school absences are approximately linear.
“Gershenson et al. (2017) found the effects of annual primary school absences to be approximately linear”
From The short- and long-run impacts of secondary school absences (2021) · cites this paper as Gershenson et al. (2017)
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References 55 · Cited by 218
- Authors
- Gershenson, S., Jacknowitz, A., & Brannegan, A.
- Affiliations
- American University (US)
- Aspire Public Schools (US)
- Corresponding author
- Gershenson, Seth
- ORCID
- Gershenson, Seth
- Venue
- Education Finance and Policy
- Publisher
- MIT Press - Journals
- Published
- 2017-04
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 137-165
- ISSN
- 1557-3060 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-3079
- OpenAlex
- W3122461369
- Cited by
- 218
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 1 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 53.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Education Finance and Policy (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Youth Substance Use and School Attendance
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Education › Parental Involvement in Education
- Keywords
- school absenteeism, academic performance, elementary school, unexcused absences, excused absences, reading achievement, low-income students, English language learners, grade level effects, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, North Carolina
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