Why does attending school matter? A student’s attending class matters because it is essential to achievement in school as well as in adult life. Also, because truant students can not learn as well as those attend class, it is much more difficult for them to succeed. As Trujillo (2006) states, “truant youths are often absent from school for such a period of time that it is difficult if not impossible for them to catch up.” While students with regular attendance tend to learn such job related skills as punctuality, completing assignments, and meeting deadlines, truant students tend to dropout which adversely impacts their lifetime income earning potential. Trujillo (2006) links truancy with a high probability of dropping out by referring to Baker.
Students with the highest truancy rates have the lowest academic achievement rates, and because truants are the youth most likely to drop out of school, they have high dropout rates as well. The consequences of dropping out of school are well documented. School dropouts have significantly fewer job prospects, make lower salaries, and are more often unemployed than youth who stay in school (Baker, 2001).
It may be just common sense that attending school enables students not only to learn but also to succeed while the likelihood of academic achievement or success in adulthood for students who are truant or dropout is rather low. And it shouldn’t be surprising that research supports this.
In today’s knowledge-based economy in which most jobs require at least a college degree or even post-graduate study, the employment opportunities for the relatively less well educated, such as those without a high school diploma, are slim. In addition, many low wage jobs have been outsourced to other nations. But it is not only the costs to the dropout that are high, the costs to society are as equally severe because dropouts are more likely to be unemployed, underemployed, or dependent on governmental services or charities as well as to be imprisoned during their lifetime. As Trujillo (2006) summarizes:
Truancy affects the student, school, and community. The cost of truancy reduction programs is inconsequential compared to the societal cost of high school failure and juvenile delinquency. School failure is so costly that there need only be minor success with truancy reduction programs in order to achieve a positive payback (Heilbrunn and Seeley, 2003). Truant students are far more likely not to graduate from high school and are thereby much more likely to become a burden on society, requiring taxpayer-supported welfare programs, such as income assistance, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Women, Infants, and Children (Baker, 2001). High school dropouts are more than twice as likely to be in poverty, and two-and-a-half times more likely to be on welfare than a high school graduate (Baker, 2001). Not only are truant youths less likely to graduate from school, but truancy has been established as a risk factor for substance abuse, delinquency, and teen pregnancy, resulting in increased tax dollars spent on additional police forces and social services (Gonzales, Richards, and Harmacek, 2002).
Although the degree to which a student attends school is perhaps the most important factor in determining whether the student succeeds not only in school but also in adult life, research suggests that other variables could also play a critical role. The United States General Accounting Office (GAO) summarized many studies of truancy and dropping out:
Research has shown that multiple factors are associated with dropping out, and that dropping out of school is a long-term process of disengagement that occurs over time and begins in the earliest grades. NCES and private research organizations have identified two types of factors—those associated with families and those related to an individual’s experience in school—that are related to dropping out. For example, students from low income, single-parent, and less-educated families, often enter school less prepared than children from more affluent, better educated families, and subsequently drop out at a much higher rate than other students do.
Factors related to an individual’s experience in school often can be identified soon after a child begins school. These factors, such as low grades, absenteeism, disciplinary problems, frequently changing schools, and being retained two or more grades, are all found at a much higher than average rate in students that drop out (GAO 2002).
A number of these findings are emphasized by Coleman (1990) such as that the background and family circumstances of the student have a great influence on whether the student is truant or becomes a dropout. In addition, Coleman (1990) finds that the “social composition of the student body” within a school is significantly related to student achievement and, therefore, to the tendency of a student to drop out.
Because the marketplace for employment is now governed by a knowledge-based economy, all students need to be well-educated, highly literate and technologically fluent. A quality education is, therefore, both the backbone of a successful economy as well as the key to individual success. Thus, making it essential that every student is well educated especially those students who are truant and, therefore, at risk of dropping out.
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References:
Baker, M. L., Sigmon, J. N., & Nugent, M. E. (2001). Truancy reduction: Keeping students in school. Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Washington, D. C.: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Coleman, J. S. (1990). Equality and Achievement in Education. San Francisco: Westview Press.
Gonzales, R, Richards, K., & Harmacek, M. (2002). Youth Out of School: Linking Absence to Delinquency. Denver, Colorado: The Colorado Foundation for Families and Children.
Heilbrunn, J. & Seeley, K. (2003). Saving Money Saving Youth: The Financial Impact of Keeping Kids in School. Denver, Colorado: The Colorado Foundation for Families and Children.
Trujillo, L. A., (2006). School Truancy: A Case Study of a Successful Truancy Reduction Model in the Public Schools. University of Colorado Journal of Juvenile Law and Policy, Volume 10. 69-95.
United States General Accounting Office (2002). School Dropouts: Education Could Play a Stronger Role in Identifying and Disseminating Promising Prevention Strategies. United States General Accounting Office, GAO-02-240.
