ORCID

https://orcid.org/https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3958-347X

Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Administrative and Instructional Leadership

First Advisor

Catherine DiMartino

Second Advisor

Steven Kotok

Third Advisor

Joan Birringer-Haig

Abstract

The purpose of this mixed method study was to examine the relationships between teachers' academic department, years of experience, tenure status, and their knowledge of chronically absent students and the existing programs and interventions to support absent students in their schools. The study utilized a district of five junior-senior high schools in a suburb of New York, which is ethnically and economically diverse. Participants of this study took a survey composed of questions from two different surveys from the organization Attendance Works (an organization dedicated to the improvement of school attendance nationwide). Interviews followed to better interpret and triangulate the survey data. While studies around student absenteeism have examined academic effects of chronic absenteeism (Balkis et al., 2016; M. Gottfried et al., 2019; Kirksey, 2019) and others have studied programs and interventions that attended to this issue (Eklund et al., 2020; Finning et al., 2018; M. Gottfried et al., 2019) there were very few studies that examined the role of the teacher or the teachers’ input and perceptions on the issue at hand or the programs used to alleviate it. This study fills a gap in the literature as teachers’ perceptions had not generally been considered in prior research. The results can be used to inform teachers and administrators as to how they can best support chronically absent students and the teachers who work with them.

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