Stacy B. Ehrlich, Julia Gwynne, Amber Stitziel Pareja, and Elaine M. Allensworth

1. Attendance Matters! Understanding School Attendance among Chicago Public Schools’ Youngest Students Stacy B. Ehrlich, Julia Gwynne, Amber Stitziel Pareja, and Elaine M. Allensworth with Paul Moore, SanjaJagesic, and Elizabeth Sorice University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research With generous funding from The McCormick Foundation

2. Research Questions • What does attendance look like for CPS students in preschool and the early grades? • Is attendance in preschool related to learning outcomes in preschool? • Is attendance in preschool related to attendance and learning outcomes later on? • Why are students absent from preschool?

3. Preschool programs and children included in study • Children enrolled in school-based preschool programs in Chicago Public Schools • Excluded Montessori and children in non-inclusive special education programs • Programs: • Serve 3- and 4-year-olds • Most are ½-day • Students: • 88% qualify for free and reduced lunch • 29.4% qualify for English Language Learners (ELL) services Data retrieved from Office of Early Childhood Education, CPS (updated June, 2012): http://www.ecechicago.org/about/glance.html

4. Defining various attendance terms • Average Daily Attendance • The % of enrolled students who attend school each day. It is used in some states for allocating funding. • Truancy • Typically refers only to unexcused absences and is defined by each state under No Child Left Behind. It signals the potential need for legal intervention under state compulsory education laws. • Chronic Absence • Missing 10% or more of school for any reason – excused,unexcused, etc. It is an indication that a student is academically at risk due to missing too much school. Source: Hedy Chang, Attendance Works

5. Research Question 1:What does attendance look like for CPS students in preschool and the early grades? • What is the extent of chronic absences among preschool students in CPS? • How does it compare to absences among students in kindergarten and the early elementary grades? • Who is most likely to exhibit chronic absences?

6. Preschool students have very high rates of chronic absenteeism

7. African American preschool students more likely to be chronically absent, even after taking into account neighborhood poverty

8. Research Question 2:Is attendance in preschool related to achievement in preschool? • At what absence level do students have significantly lower achievement than their peers with regular attendance? • Is the relationship between absenteeism and achievement the same for all groups of students?

9. Kindergarten Readiness Tool (KRT) • Used in CPS from 2009-2012 • Administered at the end of preschool (spring before students enter kindergarten) • Includes 86 items administered individually, 8 items filled out by teacher • Four subtests identified through Rasch Analysis: • Math (31 items) • Letter Recognition (30 items) • Pre-Literacy (24 items) • Socio-Emotional Development (8 teacher ratings)

10. Students with lower preschool attendance have lower kindergarten readiness scores on all subtestsNot controlling for prior knowledge 90% 84% 88% 82% 79% 75% 73% 69% 68% Not Chronically Absent Chronically Absent * Indicates that scores are significantly different from scores of students who absent 0<3.3%, at p<.05 level; **p<.01; ***p<.001

11. Students with lower preschool attendance have lower kindergarten readiness scores on most subtestsControlling for prior knowledge and background characteristics

12. In math and letter recognition, the relationship between absences and outcomes is stronger for students with lower prior skills than for those with higher prior skills Analyses control for priorpreschool experience, race, gender, neighborhood poverty and social status, special education status, ELL status, and program type. Missing data points represent values with fewer than 30 students.

13. Research Question 3:Is attendance in preschool related to attendance and learning outcomes later on? • Is attendance during preschool predictive of later attendance? • Are early attendance patterns related to learning outcomes in 2ndgrade?

14. Roughly 1/3 of chronically absent 4-year-olds continue to be chronically absent in kindergarten

15. Students who are chronically absent in preschool are 5 times more likely to be chronically absent in 2nd grade than other students

16. Multiple years of chronic absenteeism puts students at risk of needing academic intervention before 3rd grade Risk for intervention+ Risk for substantial intervention+ • * Indicates that scores are significantly different from scores of students who are never chronically absent, at p<.05 level; **p<.01; ***p<.001 • +In the DIBELS 6th Edition Assessment and Scoring Guide (Good & Kaminksi, 2002), these are labeled as “Some Risk,” indicating • the need for additional intervention and “At Risk,” indicating the need for substantial interventions.

17. Research Question 4:Why do preschool students miss school? • What are the most common reasons why preschool students are absent from school? • Do these reasons differ for different students? • What family characteristics are related to these reasons?

18. Data Collection • Attendance Logs (filled out by teachers) • 1,229 students in 57 classrooms • Collected 3 times over school year (3-week periods) • Parent Surveys • 627 parents in 55 classrooms • Collected on report card pick-up day (April 2012) • Parent Interviews • 40 parents from 11 classrooms • Interviewed by phone in May-June 2012

19. Health, logistics, and family-related reasons account for 80 percent of why preschool children miss school Data source: Attendance logs Note: "Other" includes school phobia, lack of sleep, religious observances, weather, safety issues, and a general other category.

20. African American and Latino children miss more school due to being sick, and African American families face more logistical obstacles Data source: Attendance Logs

21. Some family circumstances can make managing these obstacles more difficult Data source: Parent survey

22. Many of these family circumstances help account for higher absence rates of African American students Data source: Parent survey

23. The more circumstances a family faces, the more their preschool child misses school Data source: Parent survey Circumstances include: single-parent household, being a young parent, using public transportation to travel to school, poor parental health, high poverty, having a parent without a job or a college degree, and using the emergency room for primary medical care

24. Most parents believe regularly attending preschool is important • Almost 2/3 of parents believe that attending preschool regularly matters • These beliefs are related to children’s attendance in preschool Data source: Parent interviews

25. Implications of findings • Monitoring attendance data • First step in identifying children and families who may need additional support • Creating partnerships with community organizations • Reasons for absences vary, but often stem from poverty-related struggles families face (e.g., health, transportation, child care) • Informing parents of the importance of regular preschool attendance • Many parents believe preschool is important, but some do not see attendance in preschool as important as in later years