CC @sarahcfuller.bsky.social @kevincbastian.bsky.social

Finally, for those following closely, we published a working paper version of this study about a year ago. That version only went through 22-23. Adding 23-24 data yielded important new insights, most especially that the weakened effect of absenteeism on achievement was only temporary!

We additionally make a case for devoting effort to understanding not only how to reduce absenteeism, but also how to reduce the negative effects of absenteeism. Students will always miss some school; making this less costly could also boost achievement.

Overall we suggest these results show that addressing absenteeism is an important, but only partial, piece of the learning recovery puzzle. This result makes sense when considered in light of the many other challenges beyond absenteeism that schools and students are also facing today.

In addition, we found that the relationship between absenteeism and achievement weakened immediately post-pandemic, but only temporarily. Each absence typically lowers student achievement by ~0.0055 SDs. In 2022-23 this number was only 0.0032 SDs. But in 2023-24 it jumped back to 0.0057.

We arrived at this by 1) identifying how much more school students missed in 23-24 than their peers in 18-19 (~3 days on average); 2) estimating the effect of each day absent on student test scores in 23-24 via first-differences (-0.0057 SDs/day, + peer effects); and 3) multiplying these together.

An ungated preprint copy is available on my website: tswiderski.web.unc.edu/wp-content/u...

Also, this study is based on public data (mostly IPEDS). I'm happy to share my code. Also happy to post it somewhere but I'm not sure where I should do that. OpenICPSR? Recommendations welcome!

@sarahcfuller.bsky.social @kevincbastian.bsky.social

If this looks familiar, it's because we've previously posted about this on our website & at Brookings! The EEPA version updates the years analyzed ('22-24 instead of '21-23) & incorporates a host of great feedback we've picked up along the way. www.brookings.edu/articles/stu...

It's also worth noting that high-attenders are also missing more school than usual, even if they're not chronically absent. The median student has gone from missing 6-7 days of school per year to 10-11 days per year. In that sense, attendance issues are also broad (affecting many students)!

This study highlights that chronic absence (an indicator of being highly absent in a single year) may be insufficient for understanding current attendance issues. For some students, absenteeism has become especially deep (very high within a single year) and persistent (continuing across years).

Key results: 1) ~10% of students were chronically absent every year between 2022 and 2024, 4x more than a similar pre-COVID period. 2) ~5% of students accrued 100+ absences over these 3 years (30-35 per year, each year!). 3) These rates are higher at high-pov schools & for Black/Hispanic students.

My hope is that sharing these thoughts can spark new conversation about possible solutions to the problems schools continue to face due to COVID's impacts. Agree/disagree with what's here? Please let me know!