High School Attendance Essay

High school represents a stage where majority of students grow up and attain an advanced degree of self-comprehension. This period is therefore very vital both to immediate school life and the life beyond school. Mandatory school turn out could well reflect the importance placed on schooling as well as the appreciation of the role education plays in preparing children and youth to become productive adults. Students who consistently attend school are exposed to more learning than their counterparts who exhibit infrequent school turn out. Chances for students excelling academically are directly proportional to the number of instances students are present in school. On the contrary, scholars who skip school are more likely to be involved in grave social harms and enter into troubles. Truancy, or Skipping School, is the term given to unjustifiable school absenteeism with no knowledge of guardians or parents. Recurring illnesses and family problems usually result in absenteeism. However, such absenteeism is not of crucial concern to school administrators. Rather, unjustifiable absenteeism is the bone of contention plaguing schools both in America and elsewhere. Chronic absenteeism predisposes student offenders to both academic and social problems. Every state requires all school-age juveniles to be present at school. Research has persistently established that a student’s academic accomplishment is more closely linked to school punctuality and attendance than any other factor that is controllable by the student and their families. Recurrent student absentees depict poor performance and are prone to penalization through exam scores. It is necessary that students are present in classrooms to profit by listening to teachers and interacting and exchanging ideas with fellow students and teachers. Extreme nonattendance influences the classroom culture by occasioning unsatisfactory or incomplete work, undermining of academic progress, reduced course scores and limited ability to satisfy curricular principles. Thus students who desire to excel academically ought to consistently attend classes; instructors ought to also courage school attendance. Constant absenteeism and truancy usually are prerequisites to premature exit from school and negatively affect students, the grown ups they eventually become and surrounding society. The National Center for School Engagement in 2007 stated that truants exhibit lower scores, get barred out of school, leave school or they have lower high school graduation rates than counterparts exhibiting lower instances of unjustifiable absenteeism. It was also established that particular schools expel student low-achievers and truants with a view to push up mean academic performance as reflected by grade promotion, grades and graduation frequencies. Chronic truancy student offenders exhibit some mannerisms that interrupt classes thus making teachers’ instruction work difficult and hampering students’ learning experiences. Administrators are thus obligated to spend more time attending to disciplinary concerns at the expense of normal school activities. Findings of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) 2001 research link truancy to additional problems like drug and substance misuse, mob activity, vandalism, delinquency, weighty criminal activity( burglary and automobile theft) and quitting school. Other researchers have determined that truancy per se can result in, (or strengthen present) risk activities, provided that out-of-school students are not supervised and are alienated from positive peers’ and adults’ influence. Male criminal tendencies’ studies have linked truancy with later-year violent offences. In addition, grown ups who exhibited truancy in juvenile years have increases likelihood of having poor social dexterity, hold low paying occupations, are extra probable to depend on Welfare Support and are increasingly likely to be imprisoned. Gangs of young individuals roaming the streets at school times appear menacing. Increased truancy in Tacoma Washington was linked to juvenile-committed crimes like vandalism and burglary. School districts having elevated truancy instances exhibit rock bottom educational performance rates. Such connection usually is established by way of truancy regulations which consider automatic course failure where scholars are often absent. Thus scholars who inconsistently attend school are less likely to clear from high school. The National Center for Education Statistics estimates that from 1992 to 2002, 3 million juveniles (16-21 years) have not completed or have not been admitted to high school. Such figures represent close to eleven percent of United States juveniles. In the group, disproportionate minority scholars’ numbers exist. For instance, thirty percent Hispanics don’t successfully go through school. The figures go up to forty four percent if overseas-born students are included. High school failure affects individual students as well as the society. Affected scholars are unable to join college, are more prone to getting low-salaried occupations and experience political indifference. In return, such individuals represent losses in levy income, may have health complications, and are a burden on communal services. The US Department of Labor estimates that 6. 7% of adult persons without high school qualifications are probable to be without a job. On the other hand, as concerns those having an undergraduate degree, a mere 1. 8 percent have unemployment probabilities. Truancy affects not only the youth offenders but also the grown ups they ultimately become. Grown ups who exhibited youth chronic truancy at school are faced with higher risks of experiencing many problems such as poor mental and physical health, welfare and poverty, incarceration and bringing up children who also depict problem mannerisms. A 1996 to 1997 research indicates that school administrators regarded absenteeism, tardiness, physical disagreements, and skipping classes as the leading three grave discipline matters in schools. Past studies have revealed that school attendance rates start dwindling at middle school. a mere 55. 1 percent of Latino learners, 87. 5 percent of Korean American scholars, 42. 6 percent of African American learners, 90 percent of Japanese American scholars , 94. 1 percent of Chinese American scholars and 52. 1 percent of Native American learners are present in 91 to 100 percent of their entire classes. A 1995 study in Los Angeles Unified School District concluded that five percent of scholars unjustifiably absent themselves from school per day. A similar Denver survey established that twenty percent of students in community schools satisfied the requirements to be regarded as truant in 2006. By high school, numbers progressively drop thus upholding inter-group gaps. A mere 37. 8 percent of Filipino scholars, 21. 5 percent of native American scholars, 24 percent of Latino scholars, 59. 8 percent of Korean American scholars, 68. 43 percent of Chinese American scholars and 18. 6 percent of African American scholars attend ninety one to one hundred percent of classes. A Minneapolis study established that learners who attended 95% of class time had double chances of excelling in State language-arts examinations as compared to counterparts who attended for 85% class time. After review of attendance guidelines, it was established that Minnesota students having one percent attendance increase had I% State mathematics and reading examinations increases. It was also determined that mathematics grades are principally sensitive and responsive to attendance variations. In Rochester and Buffalo, research concluded that learners having between eighty five and one hundred percent State English Examinations’ scores had been present in school for a mean of ninety three percent of stipulated time. Students scoring below fifty four percent had attended for eighty five percent of school time. San Franciscan reports illustrate conspicuous disparities between achievement and attendance which recently prompted the city’s school monitor to instruct local authorities to maintain consistent school attendance rates. A Connecticut Naugatuck High School study revealed that ninety percent of frequent student absentees failed in not less than one course in First Quarter scores. Timely school attendance is crucial in maintaining the knowledge environment as well as satisfying personal learning requirements. Students increase the probabilities of achieving sustainability in learning and nurturing of desirable habits cherished by potential post-school employers by observing punctuality and consistent school turnout. Poor school turnout can result in poor examination results, pre-mature school exit and poor life opportunities for students. Research findings have established that students, who consistently attend school thus obtaining higher scores, enjoy school-life more and are happier after exiting school. Proper school attendance also results in better employment prospects and consequently reduced welfare reliance. By consistently attending classes, students area able to obtain the knowledge, attitudes plus skills which are essential for efficient school and later-life learning. Poor turn out is linked to learner alienation plus disengagement, factors which could result in school drop out. The consequences arising from school non-attendance are grave for students. Research has established that students who develop the habits of being punctual and ever-present at school have the inherent conviction that school life will aid them attain future objectives. Such students also gain skills in budgeting their time so as to maintain punctuality, since they know in their subconscious, that their presence in class maximizes learning experiences. Such students grow to become a mutual society of learners who attain educational excellence and develop essential skills necessary to transform them into imaginative thinkers, enduring learners and accountable community associates in a dynamic diverse world. When large numbers of students are consistently absent, co-operative efforts between teacher and students to develop skill are thwarted. Other than failing academically, frequent student class absentees have higher probabilities of finding themselves on the wrong side of the law and occasion community problems. An Arizona Rodel Community Scholars 2008 research involving tracking scholars from nursery school to high school established that exit patterns and poor attendance are related. Obvious behavioral disparities, between students who pursue education up to graduation and drop outs, were detected. Drop outs had absented themselves by a mean of one hundred and twenty four days by the time they were in grade eight. Truancy negatively affects school and communities economically in the long run. State assistance is usually disbursed to districts and schools on the basis of mean daily turn out. This is especially true for schools that depend on financial assistance on the basis of Full Time Equivalent principles. Monetary losses owing to high absenteeism rates are extreme. For instance, absenteeism results in $19 loss for each student for every day in Unified School District of Oakland. The figures translate to $4 million each year. Truancy therefore has the potential to influence the outcome of a school. Numerous States’ school expenditure projections are developed based on mean daily turn outs per school. Such expenditure projections are harmed owing to student absenteeism. Incase numerous students consistently absent themselves; schools are left with little money to cater for necessary classroom requirements. Utilization of turnout as a pointer to the effectiveness of a school influences the disbursement of national wealth to districts and schools. Since truancy is usually a prerequisite for quitting school, public coffers are ultimately affected by the vice. Research has determined that a person who drops out of high school expends a life-span mean of $200,000 of public finances more than similar expenditure for conventional high school students. Such additional public expenditure results from lost levy income, criminal integrity, medical care and expenditures on community services and imprisonment. In most schools, students are accountable for make-up activities related to excusable absenteeism. An appropriate time, prior to or following conventional school time, is sought to by students handle the work assisted by teachers. Incase students are unavailable during this time, they have to set other occasions to pick assignments and submit the same to teachers. This is quite inconveniencing for students and could lead to low productivity and thus lower grades. Schools exhibiting high truancy rates experience reduced student learning and also reduced instructional instances. When absent, students miss learning experiences and teachers have to attempt top offer remediation upon resurfacing of the students. This results in extra reduction of instructional occasions by fellow students. Absenteeism consequences pour out of the school into the community. Low educational achievement coupled with progressive reduction of tuition time among chronic student absentees is a sure recipe for imminent school quitting. Drop outs adopt delinquent and criminal lifestyles affecting society tremendously. A 1999 Lee and Lotz research has revealed that delinquency is more among poor performing students with erratic attendances who then quit school. Another 1993 study states that truancy precipitates delinquency and grown up crime later as is depicted in Georgia where 82% of prisoners are drop outs from high school. Some schools require that students be present at school for a minimum of ninety percent of school sessions each term. School management boards could reject progression to subsequent grades to students who violate these stipulations. some existing regulations state that class absenteeism, with the exception of conventional instances, is factored in determining percent attendance as well as promotion eligibility. Some tougher penalties have been determined elsewhere. For instance, Connecticut’s authorities have enacted regulation that calls for imposition of fines amounting to $25 per day, to the offending student, the parents or both, for chronic truancy.