Term of Award
Fall 2010
Degree Name
Doctor of Education in Education Administration (Ed.D.)
Document Type and Release Option
Dissertation (open access)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Leadership, Technology, and Human Development
Committee Chair
Charles Reavis
Committee Member 1
Bryan Griffin
Committee Member 2
Randal Carlson
Abstract
Absence rates in school districts have been a concern for educational stakeholders before the passage of NCLB act. The state of Georgia along with the United States has had to face the effects of this law in the area of attendance. Attendance as Georgia's second indicator requires school districts to become accountable for their absence rates within their districts by changing their attendance policies. The overarching question for this research was, "Have absence rates differed since the implementation of the NCLB Act and the subsequent changes in attendance policies?" The following sub-questions guided the over-arching research question. 1. What were the absence rates of students prior to and subsequent to enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act? 2. What were the fundamental differences between the attendance policies from each Georgia county that was observed in this study? 3. Does severity of attendance policy correlate with, and predict, post-policy absence rate once school and district factors are taken into account? The researcher's purpose was to provide an analysis of local district initiatives subsequent to the passage of the NCLB act, the focus was primarily middle school absence rates. There were 30 school districts and their middle schools involved within the study. There were 189 middle schools used within the four year study which spanned during the 2003-2007 academic school years. The retrieved data focused primarily on the absence rates of students two years prior and two years subsequent to the mandated attendance law. Within the study, there was one dependent variable, and five independent variables. The researcher used regression analysis, descriptive statistics, t-tests and correlational models to answer the research questions. Data analysis revealed the following findings: Pre-absence rates were higher than the post absence rates, Attendance policies were comprised of various combinations of 21 components, Some attendance policy components were considered more severe than others by respondents, Severest policy districts tended to be more effective in decreasing absence rates, Some school districts did not follow Georgia state's mandated attendance policy components.
Recommended Citation
Myles, Lori, "An Analysis of Local District Initiatives to Reduce Student Absence Rates Subsequent to Passage of the No Child Left Behind Act" (2010). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 317.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/317
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
