We used self-report surveys to gather information on a broad set of non-cognitive skills from 1,368 eighth graders. At the student level, scales measuring conscientiousness, self-control, grit, and growth mindset are positively correlated with attendance, behavior, and test-score gains between fourth grade and eighth grade. Conscientiousness,…

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,…

Background: Data from a school-based study concerning fourth-grade children's dietary recall accuracy were linked with data from the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) through the South Carolina Budget and Control Board Office of Research and Statistics (ORS) to investigate the relationships of children's school absenteeism with body…

The purpose of this study was to examine two types of school organizational structures: elementary open-enrollment charter schools and elementary traditional public schools. The study examined the degree to which attendance rates (based upon the prior school year's data), class size and average number of years of teaching experience were related…

A wide variety of school-based physical activity contexts have been recently associated with various measures of academic performance. Of these studies, a small number employing objective measures of student fitness have identified a relationship with academic achievements. However, even among these studies, the fitness-academic link has not been…

The literature on school absences has focused predominantly on the reasons for student truancy, or it has assessed only aggregate student absences in their effect on achievement. However, this study brings forth a new issue: the relationship between types of absences--excused versus unexcused--and school performance. With a quantitative model of…

This study was designed to answer the question "Does excessive absenteeism affect student academic achievement?" During the 2002-2003 academic year, 188 students attending grades 3 through 5 at an urban Tennessee elementary school with a high poverty level participated in the study. Demographic data were gathered to provide descriptive…