Review of Literature Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Review of Literature - Dissertation Example Even if not all of the education content is retained, exposure to the education content can lead to additional knowledge that can be useful for both the child and to the society he or she lives in. Thus, attendance is crucial and measures to improve school attendance are just as crucial as education content itself. 2. Importance of Attendance Based on the data and analysis of the National Center for Children in Poverty, around 11 percent of children in the kindergarten and about nine percent in the first grade are chronically absent (Chang and Romero, 2008, p. 7). Chronic absence means that the student has at least 11 percent absences during a 180 days schooldays (Chang and Romero, 2008, p. 6). Chronic absence among third grade students is about six percent (Change and Romero, 2008, p. 7). The National Center for Children in Poverty researchers even believe that the estimates are even conservative because attendance data are missing among schools serving low-income and minority stude nts At the same time, Chang and Romero (2008, p. 4) pointed out that chronic absence can be masked even when average daily attendance appears high. In their elaboration, Chang and Romero said (2008, p. 4): â€Å"Suppose, for example, a school has 200 students and an average daily attendance rate of 95%. The same 10 students, however, are not absent for all 180 days as they would be dis-enrolled. Rather, it is quite possible that the 10 students missing each day occurs because the school is serving 60 students who are taking turns being absent but when absences are added together, miss a month or more of school over the course of the school year. In summary, even in a school with 95% daily attendance, 30% of the student population could be chronically absent.† ... In summary, even in a school with 95% daily attendance, 30% of the student population could be chronically absent.† The key point of the Chang and Romero analysis (2008, p. 4) is that an absences rate of even a very small percentage like 5% can imply that a large number of students may be chronically absent from classes. Unfortunately, however, the incidence of chronic absences are high although chronic early absences from school ranged from one percent to 54.5 across schools in a district where the prevalence of chronic absences among elementary students was about 13.8 percent overall (Chang and Romero, 2008, p. 7). Data from Yeide and Kobrin (2009, p. 2) proved that Chang and Romero (2008) were right about their analysis: in New York City, more than 30% of the youth were chronically absent during school year 2007-08 but the average attendance rate for each grade during the year was at least 90 percent. Yet, despite the high chronic absenteeism associated with the attendance r ate of at least 90%, many schools consider 90 percent attendance rate as an acceptable target (Yeide and Kobrin, 2009, p. 2). In addition, Yeide and Kobrin (2009, p. 2) reported that dropouts are excluded from truancy calculations. The combination of chronic absenteeism, truancy, and dropouts resulted to a situation in which only about two-thirds of ninth graders were expected to graduate in New York City during the year. Studies show that chronic absenteeism is a serious problem among elementary students in the United States. For instance, in New York City, more than 20 percent of elementary school students missed at least a month of school during school year 2007-2008. There even districts of the City where around 30 percent of