Chronic Absenteeism in the Classroom Context: Effects on Achievement
Abstract
Although educational policy makers uphold that chronic absenteeism (missing 10% or more of the school year) is damaging to students’ schooling outcomes, there is little empirical research to match. This study considers the role of spillover effects of chronic absenteeism on classmates’ achievement. It does so by utilizing a large-scale administrative urban district data set of elementary schoolchildren—a sample of students where the rates of chronic absenteeism are expected to be higher compared with the national average. The results show that students suffer academically from having chronically absent classmates—as exhibited across both reading and math testing outcomes. Chronic absenteeism not only had a damaging effect on those individuals missing excessive school days but also has the potential to reduce outcomes for others in the same educational setting.
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The one-year lagged dependent variable controls for unobserved historical factors and serves as an alternative to individual-level student fixed effects.
“The one-year lagged dependent variable controls for any unobserved historical factors and serves as an alternative to individual-level student fixed effects, which account for individual-level characteristics that are consistent over time (M. A. Gottfried, 2019).”
From The Effects of Student–Teacher Ethnoracial Matching on Chronic Absenteeism: Exploring the Role of Relational Dynamics in Early Education (2025) · cites this paper as M. A. Gottfried, 2019
Chronic absenteeism has been associated with several negative outcomes, including lower test scores, reduced educational and social engagement, lower rates of high school completion, and higher rates of substance use.
“Chronic absenteeism has been associated with several negative outcomes, including lower test scores,2,3,4 a reduction in educational and social engagement,2 lower rates of high school completion,4,5 and higher rates of substance use.6”
From Virtual Learning in Kindergarten Through Grade 12 During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Chronic Absenteeism (2024) · cites this paper as [3]
Cites
Finn, J. D. (1989) · Review of Educational Research · doi:10.2307/1170412 · Cited by 2,702 · see citing works
Gottfried, M. A. (2010) · American Educational Research Journal · doi:10.3102/0002831209350494 · Cited by 342 · see citing works
Chronic Absenteeism and Its Effects on Students' Academic and Socioemotional Outcomes
Gottfried, M. A. (2014) · Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR) · doi:10.1080/10824669.2014.962696 · Cited by 328 · cited 15× · see citing works
“As absences increase individuallevel school disengagement or alienation (Gottfried, 2014) and as these behaviors in turn produce further social problems in school (Finn, 1989; Gottfried, 2014), then absent students might also”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationExcused versus unexcused: How student absences in elementary school affect academic achievement
Gottfried, M. A. (2009) · Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis · doi:10.3102/0162373709342467 · Cited by 315 · see citing works
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Kearney, C. A., Dupont, R., Fensken, M., & Gonzálvez, C. (2023) · Frontiers in Education · doi:10.3389/feduc.2023.1253595 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Evans, W. N., Muchnick, K., & Rosenlund, O. (2024) · JAMA Network Open · doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.29569 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Chhikara, D. (2025) · Early Education and Development · doi:10.1080/10409289.2025.2484852 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
- Authors
- Gottfried, M. A.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- Corresponding author
- Gottfried, Michael A.
- Venue
- Urban Education
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2015-12-23
- Volume
- 54
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3-34
- ISSN
- 0042-0859 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-8340
- OpenAlex
- W2372834628
- Cited by
- 147
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 16.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Urban Education (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Youth Substance Use and School Attendance
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Education › Innovations in Educational Methods
- Keywords
- chronic absenteeism, spillover effects, peer effects, academic performance, elementary school students, reading achievement, mathematics achievement, school attendance, urban school districts
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