Observation #2: Considering Student Attendance Patterns

I have noticed that some students do not come to class during the first week of school. Some never show up while others begin coming after 5-6 class days have passed. I wonder why this occurs. In the case of students who never come, I wonder why they would sign up and pay for a class and not attend. It seems like a waste of money to me, but I wonder if something else is going on. Of course, students might be in the wrong class, but even then, I wonder why the student and/or the teacher does not notice why the student is not appearing on the roll. I have also heard that a student can still receive financial aid for failing a class. I wonder if sometimes people sign up for classes that they have no intention of taking so that they can have enough credits to qualify for financial aid. I have had other students tell me that they didn't think that they could attend class while they were waiting for their financial aid to come in. Unfortunately, by the time the financial aid does arrive in students' accounts, if those students have not been missing class, they have missed so much class that they are now so far behind that it seems overwhelming to try and catch up.

Other students begin coming and seem consistent for the first couple of days, but have sporadic attendance after the first week and then stop coming altogether by around midterm.This pattern is more troublesome for me as a teacher. In the first case (a student that never comes or displays a sporadic attendance pattern from the beginning), I can assume that I, as the teacher, am probably not the cause. However, in the case of a student who comes and then suddenly stops, it feels like there is likely a problem with the class--whether that is confusion on the subject matter, a conflict with the teacher, a conflict with another student in class--that is causing the changed attendance pattern. Of course, general stress from other sources could be equally to blame. I also wonder if some students are just not aware of how importance attendance in class can be.

I just wonder if there were a way to study student attendance patterns and determine from the patterns warning signs of impending problems. I also wonder if there is a way to teach students the importance of attendance in a way that doesn't feel like preaching (or preaching to the choir, since if anything is said in class about attendance, generally the people who need to hear it might be missing that day). And while I don't want to know students' financial history, I wonder if the financial aid office is aware that some students may think that they are not allowed to attend class while they are waiting for financial aid to fund.

My point in my observation is that it seems like if we understood more about why students do not come to class, we could provide information and/or interventions that would encourage more students to come to class, get them out of the wrong classes earlier (opening up space for waitlisted students), and recognize problems before students were so far behind that they couldn't catch up. I personally would rather work with students than see a faceless name on a roll for a semester.