Advancing an Ecological Approach to Chronic Absenteeism: Evidence from Detroit

Abstract

Background/Context Chronic absenteeism has received increased attention from educational leaders and policy makers, in part because of the association between attendance and important student outcomes. Student attendance is influenced by a range of student-, school-, and community-level characteristics, suggesting that a comprehensive and multilayered approach to addressing chronic absenteeism is warranted, particularly in high-poverty urban districts. Given the complexity of factors associated with chronic absenteeism, we draw from ecological systems theory to study absenteeism in Detroit, which has the highest rate of chronic absence of major cities in the country. Purpose/Research Questions We use administrative and public data to advance the ecological approach to chronic absenteeism. In particular, we ask: (1) How are student, neighborhood, and school characteristics associated with individual absenteeism? (2) How are structural and environmental conditions associated with citywide rates of absenteeism? Our study helps to fill a gap in the research on absenteeism by moving beyond a siloed focus on student, family, or school factors, instead placing them in relationship to one another and in their broader socioeconomic context. It also illustrates how researchers, policy makers, and administrators can take a theoretically informed approach to chronic absenteeism and use administrative data to conceptualize the problem and the potential routes to improving it. Research Design Using student-level administrative data on all students living and going to school in Detroit in the 2015–2016 school year, we estimate a series of multilevel logistic regressions that measure the association between student-, neighborhood-, and school-level factors and the likelihood of a Detroit student being chronically absent. We also use publicly available data to examine how macrosystemic conditions (e.g., health, crime, poverty, racial segregation, weather) are correlated with citywide rates of absenteeism in the 2015–2016 school year, and we compare Detroit with other large cities based on those conditions. Findings/Results Student-, neighborhood-, and school-level factors were significant predictors of chronic absenteeism in Detroit. Students were more likely to be chronically absent if they were economically disadvantaged, received special education services, moved schools or residences during the year, lived in neighborhoods with more crime and residential blight, and went to schools with more economically disadvantaged students and less stable student populations. Macro-level factors were also significantly correlated with citywide rates of absenteeism, highlighting Detroit's uniquely challenging context for attendance. Conclusions/Recommendations Our ecological understanding of absenteeism suggests that school-based efforts are necessary but not sufficient to substantially decrease rates of chronic absenteeism in Detroit and other high-absenteeism contexts. Policies that provide short-term relief from economic hardship and aim to reduce inequalities in the long-run must be understood as part of, rather than separate from, a policy agenda for reducing chronic absenteeism.

School Transit and Accessing Public School in Detroit

“…Even for those who live relatively close to school, walking to school may be challenging. For example, compared to other large U.S. cities, Detroit has the highest violent crime rate and residency vacancy rate, which may make walking to school or a bus stop a potentially dangerous endeavor (Author, in press; Burdick-Will et al, 2019). Furthermore, Detroit has one of the lowest average temperatures among large cities (Author, in press), therefore walking to school in the cold months may be particularly challenging for low income families who may lack access to adequate clothing.…”

“…Student attendance is influenced by a host of factors across home, community, and school environments (Author, 2018, in press; Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012; Gottfried & Gee, 2017). The work presented here has a specific focus on the contextual nature of school sponsored transportation and its potential association with student attendance.…”

“…The transportation policies and infrastructure are layered on the community characteristics of Detroit. In addition to having high rates of school choice, out of cities with over 500,000 residents, Detroit has the highest rates of poverty, violent crime, unemployment, and residential vacancy (Author, in press). These factors not only operationalize in individual households (e.g., poverty effects on car ownership), but also at the community level.…”

“…Additionally, the provision of school sponsored transportation (i.e., a school bus or subsidized public transportation) within DPSCD and across charter schools is limited for many students, with varying eligibility requirements and access (Singer et al, 2020). Access to transportation to and from school has important implications for student attendance (Gottfried, 2017), and Detroit has the highest rate of student chronic absence (i.e., missing 10% or more days) among large cities (over 500,000 residents) (Singer et al, 2021). In 2017 to 2018, 69% of students in DPSCD and 38% of students in city charter schools were chronically absent (Lenhoff et al, 2019).…”

A Collaborative Problem-Solving Approach to Improving District Attendance Policy

“…Detroit has an exceptionally high rate of chronic absence, corresponding to extremely high rates of poverty, unemployment, vacancy, and other structural and environmental conditions related to attendance (Singer et al, in press). Yet, the challenges of reducing absenteeism and the strategies commonly used to do so are likely to be similar in other large cities, where chronic absence is highest and structural conditions for school attendance are most difficult.…”