Study-Chronic Early Education Absenteeism Predicts Future Low Performance

Julie Rasicot writes at the Education Week (3/22) "Early Years" blog that according to a new study from the Baltimore Education Research Consortium, "prekindergartners and kindergartners who are chronically absent are more likely than regularly attending students to continue to miss school in later grades and to be held back by grade 3." Rasicot details the study's methodology, adding that researchers "found that one-half of early learners who were chronically absent in pre-K and kindergarten continued to miss as much school the following year. More than a quarter of those chronically absent children were retained by grade 3." However, "Head Start students maintained better attendance records when compared with similar kids."