ERIC Number: EJ1381705
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Mar
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1365-4802
EISSN: EISSN-1475-7583
Available Date: N/A
Translating Sophisticated Data Analytic Strategies Regarding School Attendance and Absenteeism into Targeted Educational Policy
Kearney, Christopher A.; Childs, Joshua
Improving Schools, v26 n1 p5-22 Mar 2023
School attendance and absenteeism are critical targets of educational policies and practices that often depend heavily on aggregated attendance/absenteeism data. School attendance/absenteeism data in aggregated form, in addition to having suspect quality and utility, minimizes individual student variation, distorts detailed and multilevel modeling, and obscures underlying causes and disparities of absenteeism. Recent advances in data analytics/mining and modeling may assist researchers and other stakeholders by evaluating large-scale data sets in more targeted ways to identify key root causes and patterns of school absenteeism in a particular community, school, or group of students. This would allow for more accurate educational policies tailored to unique local conditions and student/family circumstances. This article provides a summary of recent algorithm- and model-based efforts in this regard. Algorithm-based efforts include classification and regression tree analysis, ensemble analysis, support vector machines, receiver operating characteristic analysis, and random forests. Model-based efforts include multilevel modeling, structural equation modeling, latent class analysis, and meta-analytic modeling. We then illustrate how these efforts can enhance a full and nuanced understanding of the root, interconnected causes of absenteeism, improve early warning systems, and assist multi-tiered systems of support interventions for absenteeism.
Descriptors: Data Analysis, Attendance, Educational Policy, Causal Models, Algorithms, Data Collection, Identification, Multi Tiered Systems of Support
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A