The document discusses a survey conducted with students at George Washington Carver Elementary School to understand reasons for absenteeism. Students in K-2 grades reported that transportation issues and sickness were the primary reasons for missing school, while older students mainly missed school due to illness. When asked how the school could improve attendance, older students suggested improving transportation and calling home when students are absent. The survey findings indicate transportation is a key factor the school can address to improve attendance rates.

2. Justification For our
Project
 A problem that George Washington Carver
Elementary School faced in the 2010-2011 School
Year was a large amount of absences in the
student population.
 Attendance was a prevalent factor in the school
reaching AYP by safe harbor (growth not test score
comparison)
 The 2011-2012 SIP discussed ways to improve
attendance (food grant, special activities)
 Last year alone there were 4, 985 absences: 1,869
were lawful and 3,116 were unlawful

3. Our Strategy
 To gain deeper insight into the area of attendance, we
informally interviewed students in grades K-5.
 Grades K-2 were orally interviewed as a class and were asked
two questions. 1. What makes you excited to come to school?
2. What is the main reason you miss school?
 Grades 3-5 were asked three questions. 1. What is the number
one reason you miss school? 2. What could your school do to
get you here? 3. What makes you excited to come to school?
 In having students answer these questions pertaining to
attendance, we were able to find parallels in regards to why
students were frequently missing school.
 In orally asking questions to primary students, the pressures
of writing out responses were removed and they were able to
focus on oral responses.

4. General Research
Questions
 What are the main reasons that students at George
Washington Carver Elementary School are absent?
 What can George Washington Carver Elementary
School do to improve the attendance of the
students enrolled?
 What are the main attendance “motivators” already
in place at George Washington Carver Elementary
School?

5. Data Collection Plan
K-2 Data Source 1 3-5 Data Source 2
1. What makes you Oral Survey 1. What is the Written Response
excited to come to number one reason with Oral Reading
school? you miss school?
2. What is the main Oral Survey 2. What could your Written Response
reason you miss school do to get with Oral Reading
school? you to school?
3. What makes you Written Response
excited to come to with Oral Reading
school?

6. Survey Procedures
 Grades K-2 provided answers to each of the two
questions orally by raising his/her hand and sharing
their responses. The answers were written down and
collected by a member of our group.
 Grades 3-5 received a slip of paper containing the
three questions. The questions were read out loud,
one at a time before the students wrote their
responses.

7. Observation Guidelines
 For grades K-2 we wrote down every single
response that a child provided.
 We emphasized that each response was important.
If a child wasn’t clear about the point they were
getting across, we probed a little bit further to try and
get a clearer view of what they were saying.

8. Findings K-2
 1. What makes you excited to come to school? (Sample Quotes)
Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade
“I like playing outside” “Green Day $1” “I like seeing my school friends
and having fun with my cousins”
“Eating breakfast” “Mom says I have to” “To learn how to read”
Top Answers Were Recess and learning games like computers and
stations (centers)
 2. What is the main reason you miss school? (Sample Quotes)
Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade
“When the bus takes too long” “My mom sleeps in and doesn’t “The clock is broken every day”
wake me up”
“My sister takes too long “I miss the bus” “No feel good”
straightening her hair”
Top Answers Were Transportation and sickness

9. Findings From
Grades 3-5
 Students were asked: “What is the number one
reason you miss school?”
Top Reasons Students Miss School
Transportation
3% 0%
Oversleep
11%
Sick
86%

10. Findings From
Grades 3-5
 Students were asked: “What can your school do to
help you get to school?”
What Can Your School Do?
0%
incentives
14%
medication
11%
Transportation
48%
Call home
27%

11. Findings From
Grades 3-5
 Students were asked “What makes you excited to
come to school?”
What Makes You Excited to Come To School?
0%
recess
14%
friends
18%
Learning
68%

12. Implications
 Our data indicates that the main attendance conflict is
student illness. Grades K-5 all indicated that missing the
bus and being sick were the main reasons for school wide
absence. Improving transportation methods would be the
most feasible way to increase attendance, as sickness
cannot be directly manipulated.
 Our data indicates that the lower grades were mostly
excited to come to school because of food and recess.
(Recess has already been extended this 2011-2012 school
year). Data from grades 3-5 indicates that learning and
school-based friendships were the main motivators for
attendance.

13. Limitations
 K-2: Students in grades K-2 may have agreed with their neighbor
instead of coming up with their own responses as the questions
were asked in an oral group setting (close proximity to peers)
• They might have been nervous to share their real answers in
front of their peers
• They might have been providing us with responses that they
thought we wanted to hear
__________________________________________
 The wording we used in the oral and written surveys confused
some individuals: the interpretation of the words “miss school”
evoked a longing instead of absence
• Limited time to conduct surveys
• Each class was given the survey on one day. If a child was
absent on the day the survey was distributed, their responses
were not accounted for

14. Suggestions
• Smaller sample size, with one-on-one interaction and very
precise wording of questions (carefully planned diction)
• Send home attendance notes in Weekly Folders, which are
available in the native language of the child; reminding the
parent(s)/guardian(s) about the number of days missed with
the dates attached
• Survey is distributed in the language of the student (ELL
Students)
• Need for automated phone service that reaches parents
earlier in the day

15. THE BIG PICTURE…
 In conclusion, after reaching out to the K-5 student body of George
Washington Carver Elementary School and hearing what students
had to say about attendance, we have deduced that transportation is
the single most “controllable” factor that can improve attendance
rates.
 While sickness was the main reason students gave for unlawful
absence, it is critical that we keep in mind the true meaning behind “I
was sick.” This is becoming a popular “excuse” that doesn’t
necessarily mean sickness was in fact the reason for an
unaccounted absence. According to literature like The Role of Work
Group in Individual Sickness Absence Behavior from the Journal of
Health and Social Behavior (2008) we can read “Unfortunately, this
managerial paradigm focusing on “voluntary” absenteeism has
ignored the health-related aspect of absenteeism, medically certified
sickness absenteeism, and it has not specified whether the
absences studied had medical or other reasons.” (Vaananen et