Student absenteeism and its influence on academic performance

One in five eighth-graders missed three or more days of school in the month before they took the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics test, according to a new report by EPI’s Emma García and Elaine Weiss, former National Coordinator of the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education. 

The report takes a deep dive into student absenteeism and its influence on academic performance, using NAEP data to describe how much school children are missing, on average; which groups of children miss school most often; and whether there have been any changes in these patterns between 2003 and 2015. The authors also present evidence that higher levels of absenteeism are associated with lower levels of student performance.