Key Points:
School absences are detrimental to educational attainment in national exams at the end of compulsory (S4) and post-compulsory schooling (S5/S6) in Scotland.
Truancy, sickness-related absences, and absences due to exceptional domestic circumstances each have a unique negative impact on educational attainment at both stages.
Our findings suggest three additional pathways through which absence may affect academic achievement: a behavioural pathway, a health pathway, and a psychosocial pathway.
Our research challenges previous assumptions that unexcused absences are more harmful than excused absences and calls for equal emphasis on tackling all forms of school absence.
Research and interventions need to focus on mitigating the harmful consequences of school absenteeism, considering the reason for absence.
Key Points:
Key points:
2021
“Family background and academic achievement: An investigation into the mediating role of school absenteeism” was presented at the European Consortium for Sociological Research (ECSR) Annual Conference 2021.
“Are school leavers’ post-school destinations associated with their school attendance during secondary education? was presented at the Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse (SLLS) Annual Conference 2021: https://www.slls.org.uk/2021-conference
“Family socioeconomic status and educational achievement: Examining the mediating role of school absenteeism” was presented at the BPS Psychology of Education Conference 2021: https://www.delegate-reg.co.uk/pes2021/
“School absenteeism and academic achievement: Is missing out on school more detrimental to students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds?” was presented at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) Annual Conference 2021. https://eera-ecer.de/ecer-programmes/conference/26/contribution/50021/
“School absenteeism and academic achievement: Is missing out on school more detrimental for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds” was presented at the ISA RC28 Spring Meeting 2021 in Turku (virtual conference). For more information see here: https://rc28turku.utu.fi/
2019
“School absenteeism and educational attainment: Is missing out on school more detrimental to students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds? was presented at the Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies (SLLS) Annual Conference 2019 in Potsdam, Germany.
“Who is missing out on school? Exploring socioeconomic inequalities
in school absenteeism” was presented at the European Conference on
Educational Research (ECER) 2019 in Hamburg, Germany. For more
information see here: https://eera-ecer.de/ecer-programmes/conference/24/contribution/47563/
2021
Together with Dr Markus Gehrsitz (University of Strathclyde), we organised the Strathclyde Engage Event “Data Can Tell Us ‘What Works’ in Education: Insights from Quantitative Education Research”. https://www.engage.strath.ac.uk/event/804
2019
We presented first results from our project at the Engage Strathclyde
event “Who is Missing Out on School? The Role of School Absenteeism in
the Poverty-Related Attainment Gap”. For more information see here: https://www.engage.strath.ac.uk/event/604
2021
Dr Claire Cassidy (University of Strathclyde) interviewed us for the School of Education’s podcast series “Meet an academic”: https://anchor.fm/strathclyde-education/episodes/Podcast-21-Meet-an-academic-Dr--Edward-Sosu-and-Dr--Markus-Klein-e11an8n
We published a podcast summarising our first and second research brief as part of Education Scotland’s Signposting Equity Issue 12: https://sway.office.com/x5EJ7G2hrOjsTgnG?ref=Link
The media and communications team at Strathclyde published a press release on our second research brief: https://www.strath.ac.uk/whystrathclyde/news/schoolabsenteeismroseamidpandemic-predominantlyinmoredeprivedareas/
Our first research brief was discussed in the report “The Poverty-related Attainment Gap: A review of the evidence” by Poverty Alliance and the Robertson Trust. https://www.povertyalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/The-Poverty-related-Attainment-Gap-A-Review-of-the-Evidence-2.pdf
Our second research brief was discussed in an article in The Herald: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19054348.agenda-tackling-disadvantage-faced-young-people-locked-poverty/
2020
Our project is discussed in the GTCS publication Teaching Scotland (Issue 86): https://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=217750e9-ff63-45d8-8f1a-8e4e3fd6a35f
The media and communications team at Strathclyde published a press release on our paper published in Children and Youth Services Review: https://www.strath.ac.uk/whystrathclyde/news/broadermeasuresneededtoaddressinequalitiesinschoolabsenteeism/
We published a blog for the School of Education at the University of
Strathclyde summarising our results so far: https://www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/schoolofeducation/blog/schoolattendanceandthepoverty-relatedattainmentgap/
2021
The PI was invited to give a talk in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow and presented a summary of our current project findings.