While policymakers have been directing considerable attention to teacher effectiveness, one basic aspect of effectiveness has received relatively little attention: teacher attendance. No matter how engaging or talented teachers may be, they can only have an impact on student learning if they are in the classroom. This paper asks a simple question:…

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…

Five years ago Alaska's high school graduating class of 2011 became the first with the opportunity to accept the state's "invitation to excellence," the Alaska Performance Scholarship (APS), to pursue their postsecondary studies. Eligible graduates could receive up to $4,755 per year for up to four years to study at a participating…

Ninth Grade Academies (NGAs)--also called Freshman Academies--have attracted national attention as a particularly intensive and promising approach for supporting a successful transition for high school freshmen. An NGA is a self-contained learning community for ninth-graders that operates as a school within a school. NGAs have four core structural…

In this article we explore the challenges of adapting a standard introductory MBA course in applied macroeconomics to a student audience in a small open economy with a pegged currency. Our focus will be on the Kingdom of Bahrain, with reference to other countries in the Arabian Gulf region, where one would expect to use an open-economy theoretical…

Chile operates one of the oldest and largest school feeding programs in Latin America, targeting higher-calorie meals to relatively poorer schools. This paper evaluates the impact of higher-calorie meals on the education outcomes of public, rural schools and their students. It applies a regression-discontinuity design to administrative data,…

Despite claims of a negative impact on Indigenous school attendance due to mobility no attempt has been made to estimate the number of school-age Indigenous children away from a home base at any one time. This paper uses census data to derive such estimates for the first time. It finds that Indigenous children are mostly sedentary within their…

These Web Tables use nationally representative data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) to provide descriptive statistics regarding nontraditional characteristics in the U.S. undergraduate population. Using the most recent data available, the statistics presented in the tables update and augment previous NCES reports that…

Class attendance is directly tied to student learning and student-faculty satisfaction. Although learning style and attitudes have evolved in college students of the internet generation, the reasons why students skip classes and assignments, and measures to improve the situation have not been comprehensively studied. Increased numbers of students…

The web tables in this report provide original and revised estimates of statistics previously published in 2007-08 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:08): Student Financial Aid Estimates for 2007-08 (NCES 2009-166). The revised estimates were generated using revised weights that were updated in August 2013. NPSAS:08 data were…

One of the most enduring and contentious debates in education circles concerns the best way to hold schools and districts accountable for improving outcomes for students and closing achievement gaps. Lawmakers, teachers, district administrators, parents, and other stakeholders--all with strong and differing opinions--have wrestled for decades with…

Although mandatory attendance is easily determined in a traditional, brick-and-mortar school, monitoring and enforcing attendance and truancy in an online environment is less obvious. Despite this challenge, virtual schools, especially those that are publicly funded, have a requirement to ensure that students who are enrolled are actually logging…

This article reviews 66 clicker technology-based studies focusing on student perceptions/outcomes. Eight major perceptions/outcomes are noted, including high levels of performance (actual and perceived), student attention span, attendance, and participation, as well as student perceptions of satisfaction, feedback, and ease of use. Because the…

The study examined the effectiveness of Philadelphia's Renaissance Schools Initiative after one year of implementation. The Renaissance Schools Initiative, which began in the 2010-11 school year, aimed at improving low-performing schools by providing new management, additional resources, and new educational strategies. The study reported that…

The Alaska Performance Scholarship was established in state law in 2011 and first offered to Alaska high school graduates beginning with the class of 2011. Described as "an invitation to excellence" to Alaska's high school students, its goal was to inspire students to push themselves academically in areas that correlate to success in…