Recently The Oregonian newspaper published a special series called "Fixing High Schools" (Betsy Hammond, Bill Graves, and Melissa Jones, January 11–13, 2004). The series examined ways successful high schools motivate and challenge students. As part of the series, a reporter shadowed three Gresham high school students last year. For these youth, school wasn't so engaging or positive.

Jessica has had a chronic absence problem, struggles with classes, and had not been able to connect with teachers. Olivia failed two classes after missing a few weeks of school during a family trip to Mexico, but is working hard to catch up. Although she tries to get involved in her school, Olivia says that respect is a big issue, especially for cultural and sexual minorities. Blake, who hopes to go to college, is taking easier courses to get better grades, and "carefully tracks his unexcused absences as they neared the number that would prevent him from getting a parking pass" (Jones, p. 3).

These stories are not uncommon. Schools report high dropout and absentee rates—some cities across the nation report absenteeism as high as 30 percent (Garry, 1996). And with the emphasis on ensuring that students are meeting and exceeding academic standards, schools are struggling to increase attendance rates knowing that chronic absenteeism contributes to students' lack of educational progress.

Although the importance of attendance is well understood, effective strategies for increasing it are not so definitive. Much of the research in this area has looked at the effectiveness of intervention programs— programs that are put into place once a student has been identified as chronically absent. Although promising practices exist across the country, there are no "silver bullet" approaches proven to keep children in school.

Other research has investigated how school disengagement relates to decreased attendance. In addition to asking "How can we help students deal with their problems in coming to school?" many researchers, schools, and community members are also asking, "How are the schools contributing to absenteeism and how can schools work with communities and parents to keep youngsters engaged, in school, and learning what they need to know to be successful?"

This booklet attempts to briefly summarize the research on this very complex issue. It presents some research-based ideas as a starting place for those who want to develop better policies and practices for attendance and to understand the factors that contribute to increased attendance, engagement, and a lower dropout rate. This booklet emphasizes, as does other research on attendance and dropouts, that strategies and policies must not be implemented in isolation from each other; that attendance policies, family engagement, student engagement, and community engagement must all connect for any strategy to really succeed.