An Evaluation of the Attendance Policy and Program and Its Perceived Effects on High School Attendance in Newport News Public Schools

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative study is to determine the effects of the attendance policy and attendance program after one year of implementation in Newport News Public Schools with a total high school population of approximately 5,820 students. The school district recently implemented a new attendance policy and program to address high school student absenteeism.

This multi-faceted study examined the effects of this new policy by conducting statistical analyses of attendance data, programmatic data, and surveys of students, parents, and teachers. This allowed for the examination of the primary question. Whether there is a differential impact of the policy among the grades (9,10,11) during the 1996-1997 school year with respect to high school attendance after adjusting for initial differences on the 1995-1996 high school attendance through the use of an analysis of covariance? Additionally, the perceptions of students, parents, and teachers regarding the new attendance policy were examined along with the degree to which a specially-designed program, Saturday Redemptive School, affected the academic pass rate of participants. Findings show significant main effects and non-significant interaction at the pre-established alpha level of .05. Survey results may have implied a change in the attendance policy and Saturday Redemptive School. The findings from the Chi-square Test were not significant at the pre-established alpha level of .05.

The results of this study provides valuable information in the formulation of attendance policies by local and state inner-city district level administrators regarding the effectiveness of school attendance policy and attendance programs.