How Schools Combat Chronic Absenteeism in Detroit: A Research-School-Community Approach to Continuous Improvement

• In Event: Using and Developing Research-Practice Partnerships in Educational Improvement

Abstract

Research partners have the potential to play an important role in supporting district improvement around attendance, as they can serve a boundary-spanning role between education and community leaders and use the research process to illuminate potential solutions and effects. This study reports on the first year of a developmental evaluation of a new attendance initiative in Detroit, supported by a research-community-school partnership. Using a continuous improvement framework, we analyze how attendance teams identified the root causes of absenteeism, how they organized to improve, and the role that formal guidance played in shaping their activities. This study has implications for school districts seeking to improve attendance at scale and the ways in which community and research partners can support those efforts.

Authors

• Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, Wayne State University

• Erica B. Edwards, Wayne State University

• Kate Rollert French, Wayne State University

• Joi Claiborne, Michigan State University