Student Absenteeism

Student Absenteeism

Introduction

This framework suggests that explanations for poor attendance fall into two main clusters: a school-related cluster of factors and an outside-school-related cluster. Using a structured interview format with probes linked to individual factors in the framework, the researcher interviewed the respondents, coded all the responses according to the elements of the conceptual framework, and then analyzed the data. Among this student population, five factors appear to be more significant than others in the students' explanations of poor attendance. Three were from the school-related cluster and included homework issues, scheduling-school time issues, and teacher conflicts. In the present study we analyze the phenomenon of truancy among students from two different middle schools, Truman Middle School and Jackson Middle School. The study takes into account a number of predicted reasons behind truancy in these schools. For the investigation of absenteeism will be considered the first and second half of 2003. The study focused on identifying and understanding the factors behind truancy in the educational establishment.

Analysis of Data

From the data provided in the tables for both schools, Truman Middle School and Jackson Middle School respectively, the most common excuse or reason behind student absenteeism is illness. When parents of absent students were interviewed, most of them stated their ward was sick (science.education.nih.gov). This reason has the highest number of entries from the interviews conducted. A stark similarity was also witnessed in the nature of sick. Parents resorted to sicknesses such as diarrhea, headache, stomach ache, fever and vomiting. One probable reason for this similarity of answers is that these kinds of diseases are common and can make an individual ill. The occurrence of sicknesses such as fever, diarrhea and vomiting could be genuine or fake. Given the results of the interviews, there is a possibility that health conditions at school do not meet the set standards, if sickness is genuine. There is a possibility that the children were exhausted after the battle of the bands event which is the reason they made up excuses not to go to school. However, this is too much of a coincidence that so many students were home sick with the same symptoms. This indicates to the fact that the reason is that they were really sick. As per the calendar, it is shown that the students had a major event on 19th May and they called in sick on 20th and 21st May (science.education.nih.gov). When the disease is occurred it usually takes a day for the symptoms to appear. This shows that the students fell sick probably due to the food they ate at the event.

Common Reason for Absences

After the analysis of the data, the common reason for the absences is concluded to be diarrhea and food poisoning. This was probably attained from the food which the students had eaten in the battle of the bands which was held one day before the students got sick. Food poisoning is a "poisoning", which occurs through a record of toxic, contaminated, or bacterially contaminated ...