Classroom teachers in the United States are absent on average approximately 6 percent of a school year. Despite the prevalence of teacher absences, surprisingly little research has assessed the key source of replacement instruction: substitute teachers. Using detailed administrative and survey data from a large urban school district, we document…

School districts have adopted policies to limit chronic absenteeism, including changing policies to incentivize teachers to take fewer days off from the school year (Mershon, 2015) due to the effects of a teacher being out of the classroom. These effects include the effects on student achievement (Clotfelter et al., 2006; Ehrenberg et al., 1991),…

Classroom teachers in the US are absent on average approximately six percent of a school year. Despite the prevalence of teacher absences, surprisingly little research has assessed the key source of replacement instruction: substitute teachers. Using detailed administrative and survey data from a large urban school district, we document the…

Policymakers had hoped that the 2021-2022 school year would be a chance to recover from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic--related disruptions to schooling. Instead, media reports of staff shortages, heated or even violent school board meetings, increased student misbehavior, low student and teacher attendance, and enrollment declines…

Throughout the school year, recommendations were revised several times to reflect what was currently known about the SARS-CoV-2 virus and best public health practices as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS). The situation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic…

Despite evidence that many schools and districts have considerable discretion when hiring teachers and the existence of an extensive literature on teacher quality, little is known about how best to hire teachers. This is, in part, because predicting teacher quality using readily-observable teacher characteristics has proven difficult and there is…

Of all the work that occurs within the P-12 education institutions, the interaction involving the teacher and pupil is the most significant contributing factor of student success (United States Department of Education, 2013). Yet, the problem of teacher absenteeism persists in schools throughout the United States. The accumulated results of…

The COVID-19 pandemic may be one of the greatest challenges our provincial education system has ever addressed. In the spring of 2020, many governments around the world ordered schools to suspend in-person instruction for most of their students, requiring education systems to pivot almost overnight to online or remote teaching and virtual…

Many studies have documented small negative relationships between teacher absences and student achievement. The purpose of our research was to explore relationships between teacher absences and student achievement in a large urban school district in the southeastern United States. The work emerged from a question directed to the Accountability…

Using a causal-comparative research design, this study analyzed and compared absence data of teachers in relation to specific teacher demographics to determine if certain teachers were more susceptible to absenteeism than others. Additionally, school level placement and whether or not a teacher was teaching in a Title I school were analyzed to…

This document provides results of a survey of all public schools and school districts in the United States. The CRDC measures student access to courses, programs, instructional and other staff, and resources--as well as school climate factors, such as student discipline and bullying and harassment--that impact education equity and opportunity for…

The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) collects data on key education and civil rights issues in the nation's public schools for use by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR), other Department offices, other federal agencies, and by policymakers and researchers outside of the Department. The CRDC collects information about…

Many districts struggle with multiple--and often incompatible--data systems for tracking payroll, collecting teacher evaluations, recruiting and hiring. Aligning these systems and annually assessing where a district stands is the first step towards developing a smart human capital strategy. This checklist outlines the goals, data and questions a…

School districts across the country are developing information and special programs to assist substitute teachers. The following examples of such initiatives illustrate creative, often cost effective practices to improve the effectiveness of substitute teachers or to reduce the district's need for them: (1) Many districts have developed handbooks…

While preparing a previous ERS Report, Employee Absenteeism: A Summary of Research, Educational Research Service found relatively few published studies on teacher absenteeism as compared to the immense literature on absenteeism in business and industry. ERS found no nationwide data relating specifically to either teacher or school support staff…