This booklet is one in a series of "hot topics" reports produced by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. These reports briefly address current educational concerns and issues as indicated by requests for information that come to the Laboratory from the Northwest region and beyond. Each booklet contains a discussion of research and literature pertinent to the issue, how Northwest schools and programs are addressing the issue, selected resources, and contact information.

One objective of the series is to foster a sense of community and connection among educators. Another is to increase awareness of current education-related themes and concerns. Each booklet gives practitioners a glimpse of how fellow educators from around the Northwest are addressing issues, overcoming obstacles, and attaining success. The goal of the series is to give educators current, reliable, and useful information on topics that are important to them.

During a period of two months, the author surveyed the last decade of research that discusses strategies or experiments to increase attendance. Although the intention was to find research that is considered "scientifically based" by the No Child Left Behind Act¹, it was quickly determined that little research of that kind exists. Thus, the search was broadened to include a range of research designs—peer-reviewed, published and unpublished, mixed quantitative and qualitative research, case studies, surveys, expert opinions based on personal experience, and promising practices from community-based organizations. As certain themes emerged from the research, key studies were collected to represent those themes. Research on factors that contribute to student success for students of different cultures, especially Latino, African American, and Native American, was also reviewed. Although individual studies may not have been reviewed in depth, a full reference list enables the reader to explore the research further.

¹A summary of the definition used in NCLB of "scientifically based research" is "research that involves the application of rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain reliable and valid knowledge relevant to education activities and programs" (No Child Left Behind, p. 126).