Two key attendance patterns for middle school students emerge in the second year. First, many students did not return to programs after having attended in the previous year. Second, among returning students who attended in the second year, attendance was low, comparable to the low attendance levels observed in the first year.
About 59 percent of students who attended in the first year no longer had access to centers in the second year, because they had gone on to high school or had transferred to other middle
schools that did not operate centers. Among the remaining 41 percent who had access to centers, about half (47 percent) attended. The remaining 53 percent did not attend (Figure III.1 shows the breakdown). For the total sample of students who had participated in centers in the first year, average attendance in the second year was nine days (Table III.1).
Among students who participated in the second year, attendance levels were similar to those in the first year. Average attendance in the second year was 30 days, compared with 33 days in the first year (Table III.1). Eighty percent of students attended 50 days or less, and 59 percent
F i g u r e I I I . 1 A t t e n d a n c e i n S e c o n d Y e a r
S o u r c e : P r o g r a m A t t e n d a n c e R e c o r d s a n d S t u d e n t T r a c k i n g D a t a .
S t u d e n t s W h o D o N o t H a v e A c c e s s t o th e P r o g r a m 5 9 %
S t u d e n ts W h o A t t e n d e d
4 7 % S t u d e n t s W h o D i d N o t A t t e n d
5 3 % S t u d e n t s W h o H a v e A c c e s s t o t h e P r o g r a m
4 1 % F u l l S a m p l e o f S tu d e n t s
1 0 0 %
Table III.1
21st Century Middle School Center Attendance, Year 2
All Treatment Students
Participating Treatment
Students Percentage of Students Who Attended the Program
in the 2001-2002 School Year 29.5 100.0
Average Days Attended in 2001-2002 8.8
29.5 Number of Days Attended (Percentage of Students)
0 70.0 0.0
1 to 25 17.7 59.0
26 to 50 6.4 21.3
51 to 75 2.8 9.2
76 to 150 3.1 10.4
Attendance Ratea (Percentage of Students)
10 or less 80.7 35.2
11 to 25 6.9 23.2
26 to 50 6.3 21.3
51 to 70 2.4 8.1
71 to 85 2.1 7.0
86 to 100 1.5 5.2
SOURCE: Center Attendance Records. The sample size for all treatment students is 1,629. The sample size for participating treatment students—students who attended the program at least one day in the 2001-2002 school year—is 488.
aThe attendance rate is the number of days students attended as a proportion of the number of days centers were open, which centers provided in their annual performance reports. Totals may not add to 100 percent because of rounding.
attended for 25 days or less. Sixty percent attended less than one-quarter of the days that centers were open (which averaged about 96 days). Students who participated in the second year were younger (in 6th or 7th grade rather than in 8th), as would be expected since many older students moved on to high school, but they were also more likely to be white, speak English at home, and had mothers who were more highly educated.
The week-to-week pattern of attendance in the second year was similar to the pattern in the first year (Figure III.2). The average number of days a week students attended fell throughout the school year and declined sharply around major holidays. The figure shows that the average attendance for the second year was well under the average attendance in the first year, because of the large number of students not attending during the second year. Restricting the sample to only students who attended (at least one day) shows that the attendance pattern in the second year was similar to that in the first year, with the same average frequency and about the same seasonal pattern (Figure III.3).
Additional analysis found large differences in average student attendance across grantees.
For example, one grantee had average student attendance of 17 days a year, whereas another had average student attendance of 39 days a year. Variations in average attendance across grantees explained much of the overall variation in student attendance.28
Few student characteristics were related to frequency of attendance at centers. We investigated almost 30 characteristics and only a few were statistically significant. Students who attended more frequently during the second year were younger, were more likely to be over-age for their grade, had fewer school-day absences, and rated their school more highly.
28Models of student attendance explained 36 percent of its variation; 33 percent of the variation was explained by grantee variables, and 3 percent was explained by student characteristics.
Source: Center Attendance Records.
Note: Figure includes all participating students except students who transferred during the year.
Source: Center Attendance Records.
Note: Only students who attended in the second year are included, except for students who transferred during the year.
Figure III.3
Average Days Attended Each Week, Second-Year Participants and First-Year Participants
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
October November December January February March April
Average Number of Days Attended
Year 2 Participants Year 1 Participants Figure III.2
Average Days Attended Each Week, Second Year and First Year
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
October November December January February March April
Average Number of Days Attended
Year 2 Year 1