Attendance and Socioeconomic Status 1 · 2014-09-02 · Attendance and Socioeconomic Status 3 INTRODUCTION Background, Issues and Concerns With so many different races and socioeconomic

Attendance and Socioeconomic Status 1

Running Head: Attendance and Socioeconomic Status

Attendance Rates Among Socioeconomic Status Subgroups

By

Jarrett Morris

Submitted to

Educational Leadership Faculty

Northwest Missouri State University

Department of Professional Education

College of Education and Human Services

Maryville, MO 64468

Submitted in Fulfillment of the Requirements for

61‐683 Research Paper

Fall 2013

July 15, 2014


ABSTRACT

The study was completed to find if there is a significant correlation between

attendance rates and those students who receive free or reduced lunch. Students from

low socioeconomic status, specifically free or reduced lunch were used in the study. It

should be noted and taken into consideration that this study was performed in a

suburban school district not the normal urban district where this issue seems to be

more prevalent. Throughout research within this suburban school, it was shown there is

an inconsistent relationship between students who miss school and their socioeconomic

status. There is a moderately strength of relationship with a correlation coefficient of

.64, which means there is a strong practicality with a p‐value of .56, but no significant

relationship. After taking in all the data, collectively determining the findings, it has

been found that there needs to be a focus on low attendance rate for those students

who receive free or reduced lunch


INTRODUCTION

Background, Issues and Concerns

With so many different races and socioeconomic statuses throughout the United

States there is a growing concern regarding the attendance of those students. Many

have wondered if there is a correlation between low attendance rates and low

socioeconomic status. In order for schools in Missouri to be current on the Missouri

School Improvement Program (MSIP 5), the students as a whole must have an average

attendance of at least 90%.

Also the study whether students of low socioeconomic status, which is

determined using free or reduced lunch, may have lower attendance levels than

students who are not on the free or reduced lunch program. This is a concern that has

been very public; this is such a big issue because many educators are attempting to

connect the dots on why certain students struggle.

Practice under Investigation

The practice under investigation will be analyzing attendance data rates of

students from differing levels of socioeconomic status in suburban schools in Missouri.

School Policy to be Informed by Study

The standard this research study will focus on is schools meeting 90%

attendance from 90% of the students. If the attendance from a certain race or

socioeconomic status shows to be below MSIP 5 Standard, steps will be taken within the


school to help increase attendance within this subsection. All schools in Missouri must

meet all MSIP 5 standards to obtain full funding given from the state.

Conceptual Underpinning

The right for a student to learn is theirs from ages 5‐21, but in order to learn

those students must be present in a school. The reasons for students to miss school

vary to the extreme; it is up to the school to determine why certain students are missing

and to develop a plan to help that child meet the goals of the school of 90% attendance

or greater. With students attending school on a more regular basis with the combining

of an adequate time on task ratio throughout the day, student achievement will

increase. Theoretically, the higher the attendance a student has, the higher their

achievement rate will eventually be. Overall with those students who struggle

socioeconomically as well as academically, being in school for 90% of the time or more

will help increase the achievement within the classroom.

Statement of the Problem

If there is an attendance gap among students of a certain socioeconomic status,

an action team within the school should gather to create a plan to help lessen the

attendance problem.


Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to determine the attendance rate of student

subgroups in a suburban middle school, based on socioeconomic status.

Research Questions

RQ#1: Is there a correlation between free or reduced lunch rates and attendance

rate?

RQ#2: If a correlation is shown, what is the district doing to intervene on behalf of

these subgroups?

Null Hypotheses

There is no correlation shown between socioeconomic status and attendance

rate.

Anticipated Benefits of the Study

The anticipated benefit of the study is the recognition of low attendance among

certain subgroups in a specific suburban middle school. In order to meet the current

Missouri State Improvement Program standards (MSIP 5), administrators and teachers

will be able to take this information and focus on initiatives to increase attendance.


Definition of Terms

Free or reduced lunch – A program allowed in schools for students whose family

income falls below a certain level. This data is often used to determine socioeconomic

status in schools.

DESE – Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

MSIP 5 – Missouri State Improvement Program. This is the most current

accountability system used to review and accredit pubic school districts in Missouri.

This is the 5th version.

Action Team – A school site based council made of up administrators and

teachers. Site council serves as a conduit for teachers and administrators to express

concerns and solve daily process issues.

Summary

A study was conducted to see if there was any correlation between

socioeconomic status and the attendance at a suburban middle school in the Midwest.

If the data shows a direct correlation between socioeconomic status and attendance, it

will be recommended to this school that they need to implement practices that will

improve attendance among these groups. The goal of this study is to help schools

determine which socioeconomic groups should be targeted to help increase attendance

to meet the MSIP 5 Standard requirements.


REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The purpose of the MSIP 5 is to create a well‐expressed vision and focused goals

necessary to bring about positive results in schools (MSIP 5, 2013). This resource most

importantly provides links to the MSIP 5 toolkit, which allows administrators to grasp on

the new version of MSIP. On the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary

Education website, there is a description of the newest version of the Missouri School

Improvement Plan. The MSIP 5 program helps build a structure of accountability for

reviewing and accrediting public schools in Missouri.

Funding for a school is very important and when incorporating the MSIP 5 goals

and where each school ranks will determine how much funding is provided by the state.

In order to meet the MSIP goal, one determining factor would be attendance rate. MSIP

5 wants each school to have 90% of students attending school 90% of the time, which

would then give that school a perfect score. If an individual is inquiring or seeking ways

to manipulate the data they may visit The Missouri Comprehensive Data System website

(MCDS, 2013). Principals must make attendance to school a priority for all students in

order for funding to maintain for the next budget.

To determine the correlation between performance of students and their

attendance many studies have been conducted. One determining factor has been the

socioeconomic status and the effects that may have on students. “Several studies have

deemed attendance as important enough to be evaluated as an academic outcome,

thereby suggesting that increased attendance is a direct indicator, rather than

determinant, of school success” (Gottfried, 2010, p. 2). This study developed in order to


evaluate relationships in elementary and middle schools in urban setting, the main focus

being on socioeconomic status amongst other variables.

The desire to reach academic goals is the main focus for raisin attendance rates,

it may seem to be funding through this study but that is not the case. The student

achievement and success is the priority. The importance of student attendance within

urban schools is highlighted through the research of Gottfried. (Gottfried, 2010)

“Research has suggested that the academic, sociological and economic issues

related to both increased and decreased attendance are heightened for youth in

urban schools systems. Thus the importance of attending school in early years

appears to be crucial for urban youth, because it is particularly these minority

and high‐poverty students who fall behind…if the premise is true, then

identifying early strong relationships between attendance and achievement can

be indicative of reduced future academic risk among young urban students”

(Gottfried, 2010, p. 2).

In order to help administrators combat the probability of school failure before the

problems become intensified, Gottfried has suggested several casual effects attendance

has on academic performance and how that would lead to understand the early

educational experiences of urban youth.

For many instances in a school setting it’s not about whether or not the ability to

diagnose a problem but what steps should be taken to help relieve the cause of the

issue. Research has been done to analyze what students truly miss out on when they do

not attend school as well as what other outside factor may be influenced. Students do


not only miss out on the many educational information that is needed to be successful,

studies by several people have concluded that those students also tend to engage in

high‐risk behaviors more frequently than their peers with higher attendance rates. An

article that was compiled by Smink and Reimer (2005) shows effective strategies to

contest low attendance for students. “Several best practices to [improve attendance]

and reduce truancy have been identified: collaboration, use of incentives and sanctions,

family involvement, establishment of a supportive context, and assessment and

evaluation of the program” (p. 5).

Johnson, an education advisor at Utah State University, used the information

from Smink and Reimer as well as data regarding attendance to highlight the need for

effective attendance increasing programs. “Research has identified that early

identification of poor attendance patterns and the truancy problems that follow is vital

to ensuring a successful school experience. These patterns usually develop in the

elementary grades and, when addressed early, enjoy a more positive prognosis for

change.” (Smink & Reimer, 2005 p. 3).

Johnson (2010) focused on reducing dropout rates and how low attendance

during the elementary ages have led to high dropout rates for students at the secondary

level. With the research from Johnson, the emphasis on increasing the implementation

by districts of systematic programs that helps fight early attendance issues.

Along with Johnson, Maynard (2011) has developed an idea of systematic ways

to increase student attendance that will ultimately increase student achievement.

Throughout Maynard’s research she concluded that student respond and benefit


intervention. “Students who exhibit problematic absenteeism benefit from participating

in interventions targeting attendance compared to those who did not receive the

intervention.” This school wide implementation of a program will benefit all students

from different grade levels. Throughout Maynard’s study the type of interventions were

also researched to help decide on what type of interventions, “Both simple programs

and more complex programs were associated with moderate, positive effects” (p. 27).


Research Methods

Research Design

A study was conducted to determine whether different levels of socioeconomic

statuses are shown to have low attendance rates. The independent variable is

socioeconomic status, determined by free or reduce lunch rate. The dependent variable

is the attendance rate. If there is a significantly low attendance rate found in any

socioeconomic group, proposals will be set in place to help foster student attendance.

Study Group Description

Students from a suburban middle school, grades six through eight, in the

Midwest, were used to determine the results of this study. Attendance rates for the

subgroup used will be taken from 2009‐2013, which lends a five‐year cumulative

comparison. The free and reduced lunch percentage for this suburban school is at 62%.

The ethnicity breakdown for this suburban school is as follows; White 54.9%, Black

17.4%, Hispanic 15.3%, Asian 5.8%, and Indian .5%.

Data Collection and Instrumentation

Data was collected from the DESE website and used to show attendance data

from different socioeconomic groups. There will be five years of attendance data

collected ranging from years 2009‐2013.


Statistical Analysis Methods

A correlation analysis was conducted to determine the strength of the

relationship between attendance rates and free or reduced lunch status. The mean, R‐

value, r‐squared value and p‐values were determined for the analyses. The null

hypothesis was tested for attendance using a p‐value of 0.25.


FINDINGS

A correlation analysis was conducted to determine whether there was a

relationship between attendance and free or reduced lunch. The following tables,

graphs and charts will depict the findings based on the raw statistical data found on the

Missouri DESE website in 2013 and from the attendance records of the school in 2013.

Table 1: Correlation Study Free or Reduced Lunch vs. Attendance Rate

N Mean r R² p‐value

Free or Reduced Lunch 411 73.6%

Attendance > 90% 411 78.9% 0.64 0.40% 0.56

Note significance = or < .25

Table one shows the correlation between free or reduced lunch compared to

attendance rate. The independent variable was the percentage of free or reduced lunch.

The dependent variable was the attendance rate. With an r of 0.64, there is a

moderately strong direct relationship. As F/R increases, attendance increases. As F/R

increases, less students paid for lunch. Thus showing there is a correlation between

students who pay for their lunch and the attendance rates around those students. The

practicality is significant because the R‐squared value equals .40 and that is greater than

10. However, the student found that free or reduced lunch and attendance rate are not

significantly related because the p‐value (0.56) is greater than the alpha value of .25.

Which means the null hypothesis is not rejected. The data within this suburban school, it

was shown there is an inconsistent relationship between students who miss school and

their socioeconomic status. There is a moderately strength of relationship with a


correlation coefficient of .64, which means there is a strong practicality with a p‐value of

.56, but no significant relationship.

Table 2:

The chart above shows the percentage of students on free or reduced lunch,

which is 62% of the student population within the school. The amount of student

overall in the school who pay for their lunch without assistance is 38% as of 2013

statistics. This data shows that nearly two thirds of students qualify for aid to help take

care of the price of food at the school. This also means that the socioeconomic situation

of many students in this school is considered very low and the pie chart shows the

correlation of those needing help and those who do not.

FreeorReducedLunchPercentage

FreeorReducedLunch

PaidFull

38

62


Table 3:

The chart above has been broken down into 3 sections or subgroups and also will

show what percent of those students either reached 90% attendance or did not reach

90% attendance based off stats taken by the School District. The chart shows those

students who receive completely free lunch but come to school 90% of the time is at

84%. The chart then shows those students who receive a reduced lunch price but attend

school 90% of the time is a little higher at 88%. However those students who pay for

their lunches fully and come to school 90% of the time is calculated at 90%.

This chart shows a slight inconsistency in the numbers. According to MSIP 5

every student should be meeting the 9090 rule, which is 90% of all students in the

school should be attending school 90% of the time. The chart above shows that only

one group of these students is meeting that goal and that are those 90% of students

who are paying for their lunch in full. This chart explains the correlation very well,

although remember that the number of students on Free or reduced lunch is

9090 Breakdown >=90% % <90% % Free 404 340 84% 64 16%Reduced 97 85 88% 12 12%Full Pay 303 274 90% 29 10%

Totals 804 699 87% 105 13%

Data as of 1/22/14 asj

Source: QV


dramatically higher than those who pay for their lunch in full, data may be seen that in

chart 2 above.


Conclusions and Recommendations

The outcome of this study shows that there is a relationship between students

who receive Free or Reduced lunch and attendance rates. There was moderately high

correlation found because of the .64 R‐value. Conversely, the study shows that the null

hypothesis was not rejected because of the p‐value (0.56) was significantly greater than

the alpha value of (0.25). This data would lead you to believe that there is a relationship

between free or reduced lunch and attendance rate at this specific suburban school.

From looking at the data the r‐value is equal to .64, which means as Free or Reduced

Lunch % increases, the attendance rate also increases. From these results, it can be

stated that F/R Lunch has a positive effect on attendance

Also discuss practically and significance specifically with data to support conclusions.

The conceptual underpinning for this research is that in order for students to

learn they must be present in the classroom. It is up to the school, administrators and

staff to determine the factors that affect those students who do not come to school and

create an intervention plan. There are multiple plans and strategies that one may use to

address the attendance issues for students who struggle. With there being so many

students, the benefits of using different strategies are the same as if you were in the

classroom using different instructional strategies. All students are different and react

differently to certain approaches and strategies, so the more strategies the more

opportunities to reach all the students.

With this study being concluded, it’s very obvious that there are many ways to

study this topic and based on the results more research may be needed to understand.


Unfortunately with MSIP 5 being on the doorstep of every district and school it should

be at the top of the agenda for any district. With funding, accreditation being affected it

is very important for schools to find a way to implement a plan to reach this goal. The

study could be narrowed so that the school could focus on procedures, implement a

plan within the school to fix the attendance issues.

Another way to help the district is by conducting a district‐wide survey to discuss

the results. This would ultimately help the district determine the differences in

demographics, which would then allow those in charge to distribute their resources

properly. Once that occurs the MSIP 5 goal would be met and a plan for the future

would be taking place.

Overall the results of this study show that the school has work to be done to

address the attendance issues from those students on free or reduced lunch. With there

being no noteworthy relationship between free or reduced lunch and attendance, those

students who qualified for help are still slightly below the attendance rate of those

students who pay full price. The school should implement a plan to help reach those

students who are not meeting the 90% attendance requirements and help narrow that

gap so that MSIP 5 standard is met.


REFERENCES

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