Search

A study examined the effect of grading attendance on reducing absenteeism. A five-week block of the 1979-1980 and 1980-1981 attendance records of a group of 242 students in grades 9 through 12 were compared in order to determine the effect of a policy, implemented in the 1980-1981 academic year, of substracting eight points from student grades for each unexcused absence. The comparison revealed lower rates of perfect attendance and higher rates of absenteeism (.593 higher) for the 1980-1981 school year. Factors which may make these results invalid for interpretation include such variations in the controls as replacement of some of the faculty, the fact that students attending morning sessions for one year attended in the afternoon in the second year and vise-versa, and the maturation threat to validity. The five-week block of study may also have been inadequate. Therefore, a more in-depth study is recommended. (MN)