Interventions targeting absence from school justify themselves with the claim that absence causes negative effects or prevents good effects. I argue that these are empty claims. I propose that absence as a cause makes sense in two ways: (1) in the context of prevention, if we take into consideration our expectations of what would have taken place,…

This First Look publication provides the first results of the 2019-20 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:20), the most comprehensive national study of student financing of postsecondary education in the United States. This report includes information for about 80,800 undergraduate students and 19,700 graduate students attending 2,200…

This First Look report presents selected findings about student financial aid during the 2019-20 academic year. These findings are based on data from the 2019-20 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:20). NPSAS:20 is a national study of undergraduate and graduate students enrolled any time between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020, in…

This First Look report presents selected findings about student financial aid during the 2019-20 academic year. This document contains supplemental tables which feature state-level percentages of students receiving aid and average amounts received by undergraduate students. These findings are based on data from the 2019-20 National Postsecondary…

This executive summary highlights the value of making chronic absence data transparent and available to families, community partners, and other stakeholders outside school systems. Aimed at motivating action, this report: (1) shares key findings from the analysis of the scale, scope, and concentration of chronic absence in schools throughout the…

Over the past decade, chronic absence has gone from being a virtually unknown concept to a national education metric that provides every school in the nation with critical data on how many students are missing so many days of school it jeopardizes their academic success. The inclusion of chronic absence in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was…

This state-by-state analysis of national testing data demonstrates that students who miss more school than their peers consistently score lower on standardized tests, a result that holds true at every age, in every demographic group, and in every state and city tested. The analysis is based on the results of the 2013 National Assessment of…

The data presented in this combined report provide facts about the extent to which local, state, and national governments commit resources to public education. NEA Research offers this report to its state and local affiliates as well as to researchers, policymakers, and the public as a tool to examine public education policies, programs, and…

The School Quality or Student Success (SQ/SS) indicator was one of the most talked about and biggest decisions that fell to the states in drafting their new ESSA accountability plans. This memo summarizes the chosen SQ/SS measures for each state, DC, and Puerto Rico. The most common SQ/SS measures among the states are: (1) Chronic Absenteeism (37…

This article examines the school experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students in the United States and Israel. Through comparison of the sociocultural and edu-cational contexts, the authors assess whether school experience of LGBT students differs or operates similarly across countries. The authors use data from the…

The data presented in this combined report--"Rankings & Estimates"--provide facts about the extent to which local, state, and national governments commit resources to public education. As one might expect in a nation as diverse as the United States--with respect to economics, geography, and politics--the level of commitment to…

School systems are under increasing pressure to improve student performance. Several states have recently explored adopting student count methods for school funding purposes that incentivize school attendance and continuous enrollment by adjusting funding for changes in enrollment or attendance over the course of the school year. However, no…

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is a complex, often invisible, connective tissue disorder that has arguably profound psychosocial and academic impact on postsecondary students. It is an underdiagnosed and misunderstood condition that is the focus of little research, particularly within the social sciences. Several factors influence the academic…

This brief maps the national attendance gap--the who, what, when, where and why of absenteeism--using research drawn from national sources as well as attendance data gathered across states from students taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Health emerges again and again, both as a challenge and as a solution to improving…

The data presented in this combined report provide facts about the extent to which local, state, and national governments commit resources to public education. As one might expect in a nation as diverse as the United States--with respect to economics, geography, and politics--the level of commitment to education varies on a state-by-state basis.…