Getting Students Back in the Classroom: Responding to Chronic Absenteeism and Exclusionary Disciplinary Actions

This training project built on a study that REL Southwest and the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) undertook to examine indicators the state uses to determine students’ progress toward college and career readiness. The study sought to understand the predictive strength of indicators for three postsecondary outcomes of interest: readiness, enrollment, and persistence. When presented with an early draft of the findings, a small group of ADE leaders in the Southwest College and Career Readiness Research Partnership expressed interest in the study findings that the indicators good attendance, never being suspended, and never being expelled in the middle grades were strong predictors of postsecondary enrollment and persistence, but not of readiness. ADE staff were interested in sharing and supporting the use of these findings throughout the department. The short-term goal of this training project was to increase ADE’s understanding of the research on strategies for improving attendance and alternatives to exclusionary discipline practices, and the mid-term goal was for ADE to implement related supports for districts.

Related research partnership: Southwest College and Career Readiness

Resources

• Agenda (192 KB)
• Slide deck: Getting Students Back in the Classroom Responding to Chronic Absenteeism and Exclusionary Disciplinary Actions (4.6 MB)
• Handout: Identifying Indicators that Predict Postsecondary Readiness and Success in Arkansas (229 KB)
• Handout: Strategies to Address Chronic Absenteeism (876 KB)
• Handout: Chronic Absenteeism References and Abstracts (546 KB)
• Handout: Alternatives to Exclusionary Discipline (672 KB)
• Handout: Alternatives to Exclusionary Discipline: References and Abstracts (434 KB)