ACTION BASED RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON ABSENTEEISM

The Effects of Extra One-On-One Periods and Token Economy on Absenteeism

Madeline Gelmetti

SE 5181 Collaborative Action Research in Special Education

Plymouth State University, New Hampshire

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ACTION BASED RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON ABSENTEEISM

Abstract

There will be one student, an eighth grade girl, who will be the target of this action based

research proposal. She is chronically absent and misses at least one day of school per every two

weeks, if not more. In order to help relieve the stress of school, therefore increasing attendance,

she will be given an extra afterschool help period. Each of her teachers will be assigned a day of

the week, and will be responsible for providing one-on-one help with homework, class work and

make-up assignments. In addition to this, a reward system will also be put into place. There will

be a calendar hung in the Learning Center where she can cross off each day she attends school.

After a set consecutive number of days, she will receive a reward. As her absence decreases, the

number of consecutive days will increase in order to earn a reward.

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ACTION BASED RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON ABSENTEEISM

Action Based Research Proposal on Absenteeism

School is important for all growing children to attend in order to learn tasks and information used

throughout life. Here, students learn academics, social skills, and life skills which include

coping. When a students absenteeism becomes a habit, it starts to affect these aspects taught in

school and needed in life. By finding factors that can help increase attendance, students can

learn motivation and ways to cope in difficult situations that they will experience beyond school.

The purpose of this research project is to help identify factors that will have a positive impact on

encouraging students with chronic absenteeism to attend school.

Absenteeism is a wide spread problem found in many districts. Within Russell Elementary

School, there is one student in which I work with daily and have gotten close with who averages

3 days absent monthly. After collaborating with the principle, a special education teacher and

general education teachers of the student, it was clear that her habit of missing school was an

issue. With the end of 8th grade wrapping up, the student is preparing to enter high school where

chronic absenteeism is not taken lightly and will result in failing classes. We discussed how now

would be an ideal time to see what factors may impact the student enough to attend school daily.

The goal for the action research proposal is to find methods which will make students attend

school on a daily basis unless there is proper reasoning not to. The objective is to get the student

to miss at most, one day a month of school (which is about 20 actual school days). Overall, this

action research proposal is aiming to identify factors to help decrease absenteeism in students so

they can learn to cope in difficult situations they may experience throughout life.

Variables
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ACTION BASED RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON ABSENTEEISM

The first variable that will be implemented is an additional after school one-on-one help period.

Each of the students teachers will be assigned to a day of the week. It is that teachers

responsibility to stay after school on their given day and provide help on homework, class work

and missed assignments. This help period will not be mandatory but will be encouraged,

especially in times of need.

The second variable that will be implemented is a reward system for the number of days the

student attends school. There will be a calendar specifically for the student hanging in the

Learning Center. Each day she attends school, she will be able to cross it off on her calendar.

When the student has attended 5 days of school consecutively, she will be rewarded. Depending

on whether her absence decreases, rewards will start being given over longer periods of attending

school consecutively. Therefore, if the student continues to attend school, she must now be there

for 10 days consecutively in order to receive a reward. The number will gradually increase as

her absence decreases.

Summary

Absenteeism is a large problem in education, especially with middle school and high school

students. The negative effects of absenteeism go much further than just impacting school, it

impacts the students life and habits as a whole. There needs to be further research on this topic so

educators can find a way to get students in school and to learn necessary skills in order to

succeed throughout life.

I personally chose this topic because of an eighth grade student that I work with daily. She is

such a great girl who has been through more than anyone her age ever should. Her attendance

records are horrific; she is guaranteed to miss school at least once every two weeks if not more. I
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knew something had to be done; her absence was affecting her so negatively although she was

such a bright student with so much potential!

There needs to be a study done that digs deeper into the question of why when it comes to

absenteeism. Each student has a different reason, but if we can find out the why, we can target

the problems specifically and then use this knowledge for others.

Literature Review

Absenteeism has always been a prominent issue in almost all school districts. When

students miss school, they miss out on an abundance of things. Due to absence, students do not

get the full understanding of topics or knowledge which was intended. Consistent absence leaves

students behind in school, with an abundance of missing work and gaps in their learning.

Chronic absenteeism not only affects the childs schooling, but their life as a whole too. School

teaches students lessons that they need throughout life such as responsibility, coping methods,

and social interactions. When educators accept absenteeism, they are setting the student up to

fail in life. Allowing them to miss so much school without trying to help or solve the problem

merely reinforces that the behavior of avoidance is acceptable. We as educators need to try and

figure out what it takes for all students to attend school in order to help them learn content

knowledge, responsibility, methods to cope and more.

As I mentioned earlier, teacher involvement has a huge impact on students. Creating a strong

and student focused school climate can make a large positive change for everyone. When

attempting to increase attendance, having an organized plan to increase student self-esteem and

success will make a positive impact. (Education Partnerships I. 2009) Academic support for
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students who are underachievers can increase attendance as well. The student that my action

based research focuses on is an under achiever. She is very bright but does not apply herself.

Mentoring programs has a positive effect on both achievement and attendance. (Education

Partnerships I. 2009)

There has been extensive research on what motivates students to thrive in school. Token

economies are a very popular practice in order to have students set goals and work towards

accomplishing them. There was a study done by Dr. Ronald Girmus on how to motivate

students. One of the first points he makes it how social interactions help make students want to

complete their work. (Girmus 2012) When my student is in school for a predetermined

consecutive number of days, she will earn social rewards. The reward system is an extrinsic

motivator in academic achievements. (Girmus 2012) Combining this with social rewards can

help make token economy that much more effective.

The student in which Im focusing for my action based research is in eighth grade but in a

Kindergarten through eighth grade school. There are many interventions that would work for

students throughout this large variety of grades. Focusing in on attendance and having students

aware that teachers are tracking them may make an impact in itself. (Peek, 2009) Students are

aware that it is important to teachers and therefore becomes an internal importance to them.

Although a large part of the research done by Dr. Peek focused on parental involvement which is

something my student does not have at all, another large portion was also done on a reward

system program. During her research, it was learned that a substantial decrease was seen over

the span of the year due to these student incentive programs using the reward system. (Peek,

2009)
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Motivation is a very hard thing to teach students. There was a study done by Marcus Selart,

Thomas Nordstrom, Bard Kuvaas and Kazuhisa Takemura on the effects of self regulation,

motivation and creativity. When it comes to rewarding students, they must know what is

expected of them and the possible reward in order to self motivate. (Selart, Nordstrom, Kuvaas

and Takemura 2008) It was also discussed how self regulation motivates students through the

process of internalization to succeed. In order for the student, who I am basing my action based

research project on, to receive a reward, she will self monitor and keep track of her own days of

attendance on a calendar in the Learning Center. This has been proved to be an effective means

of motivation and hopefully will help increase her attendance.

Due to the copious amounts of research done to support the positive effects of motivation

through the reward system and extra academic help, I feel as though the variables that I will be

implementing with my student will increase her school attendance.

Hypothesis and Research Questions

The main question I will be exploring is, What factors can be changed in the school setting in

order to help increase student attendance? Within this topic, I will also be exploring the

answers to, Would a reward system help increase student attendance? (e.g. lunch privileges,

extra free time, activity enjoyed by student, etc.) Do designated homework/work periods help

make school less stressful, therefore increasing attendance?

I believe having an extra period provided at the end of the day would greatly benefit Chloe

academically and decrease the stress making her motivation to attend school increase. A reward

system will also help with her motivation to come to school. With both an extra help-period

after school and the reward system in place, Chloes average attendance will increase.
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Methodology

Participants

The study will be performed with an 8th grade student, Chloe*, as the main focus. Within the

first 4 months of the 2013-2014 school year, Chloe was absent a total of 16 times with another

16 days that she showed up tardy. She is a very quiet girl who doesnt socialize often with the

other twenty 8th graders at Russell Elementary School where she has attended since

Kindergarten. Chloe has an older sister who is a junior in high school, an older brother who is a

sophomore, and a younger brother in 7th grade. Both of Chloes parents work third shift jobs,

apparently at the same location, so her parents are gone from late at night until early in the

morning. They have never attended a parent-teacher conference and do not contact the school

often. Chloe is responsible for waking up, taking care of the dogs, feeding herself and getting her

younger brother to school on her own. She often has a tough time staying awake during school

due to a variety of reasons for not getting enough sleep the night before. Chloe has a passion for

music and has let her guard down around me now after working with her for about 4 months.

She talks to me about verbal fights with siblings, running her household, the absence of her

parents and more. She is a very caring and genuine girl, although she is very sad too. Her

reasoning for being absent so often is due to sleeping through her alarm, being too tired to attend

school, or an illness such as headaches and stomach aches.

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Another key participant in this study is me. I will be keeping track of Chloes absences and am

scheduled to work with her during her extra after-school period on Thursdays. Since she is on an

IEP for learning disabilities, I work with her daily in school from 12:30 until 1:30 too. When

using token economy to help motivate Chloe to attend school, her calendar will be in the learning

center, which is where I work out of. Every Thursday Chloe and I will informally meet to talk

about the variable used the past week, how she felt about it, and any reasoning as to an absence.

Other than Chloe and I, the other participants are the social studies teacher, language arts teacher,

and technology specialist. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, they are assigned to stay after

with Chloe if she chooses to attend the provided after-school help period. They will report to me

with the time they stayed after until and what assignments and homework Chloe worked on.

Independent Variables

The first thing that will be implemented into Chloes schedule in order to help increase her

school attendance is providing her with an after school period in which she can do homework

and make up assignments with one-on-one assistance if necessary. There will be a teacher

assigned to each day of the week who can stay after school with her and provide academic help if

she needs it. This extra period after school reduces homework and class work stress that

contributes to Chloes lack of drive to come to school.

After a month of this extra period, Chloe will also be put on a reward system. In the beginning,

Chloe will receive an award of her choice if she attends 5 days of school consecutively. If she

shows that the reward system is proving to be successful, she will receive awards after 10

consecutive days of attending school. Depending on how well the reward system works, it could

turn into a month of school with only one day absent most. Rewards will be things such as the
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ACTION BASED RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON ABSENTEEISM

privilege to have lunch with a teacher, extra free time, homework pass or anything else that is

reasonable that will motive Chloe. She will keep track of the days she attends school by marking

them on her very own calendar that will be in the Learning Center. This way she can see her

progress and get the feeling of accomplishment by marking her own attendance.

Setting

This study will be taken place only in school, during school hours and after school days when

Chloe attends her extra help period. Her hours and assignments done in the extra period will be

logged in the Learning Center. The calendar which the reward system will be based on will also

be in the Learning Center.

Assessments

I will rely on school attendance at the end of each week to check for absences. I will then keep a

log stating any days in which Chloe was absent. At the end of each week I will ask Chloe to

reflect on the previous week to see if the method used was helpful, what changes can be made to

make it better, her current struggles/stressors, and the reason for absence if she had any. When

Chloe stays after school, teachers will keep track of the time she stayed and assignments she

worked on in a log located in the Learning Center. During the use of the reward system, Chloe

will keep track of the days she is in school by marking each day on the calendar that will be

hanging in the Learning Center.

Procedures/Data Collection Process

December 4th December 11th: Initial reflection.

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December 12th December 13th: Discuss Chloes absenteeism with Mrs. Muzzey and

factors that prevent her from attending school. Talk with Mr.

Helgerson, the principle of Russell Elementary School, about possible

variables that may help increase Chloes attendance. Get permission

from Mr. Helgerson to implement a plan to help eliminate

absenteeism.

December 14th - January 3rd: Literature review.

December 20th January 3rd: Gather baseline data by obtaining past school

attendance of the 2013-2014 school year. Have a conversation

with Chloe and write notes on her reasoning for absence and feelings

towards school. Gather notes from educators, such as Mrs. Muzzey, on

her observations of Chloes attendance patterns.

January 3rd : Discuss the new strategies about to be implemented

with Chloe. Explain that school is not only important in order for her

to get an education, but in how to handle other situations throughout

life. Inform her that at the end of each week, we will have an informal

meeting to discuss any missed days, the current strategy and how she

felt.
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January 6th January 10th: The first strategy being implemented is providing a

designated after school homework period begins. Each teacher is

assigned a day to stay after with Chloe to do make-up work,

homework or study. This period is not absolutely mandatory but

strongly suggested by all of her teachers. Days she attends, the time

period and assignments accomplished will be tracked.

January 9th: Conference with the student to discuss feedback on how she felt about

the extra after school period and reasons as to why she may have

missed any school days the previous week.

January 13th January 17th: Continue providing Chloe with the after school period.

Days she attends, the time period and assignments accomplished will

be tracked.

January 16th: Conference with the student to discuss feedback on how she felt about

the extra after school period and reasons as to why she may have

missed any school days the previous week.

January 20th January 24th: Continue providing Chloe with the after school period.

Days she attends, the time period and assignments accomplished will

be tracked.
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January 23rd : Conference with the student to discuss feedback on how she felt about

the extra after school period and reasons as to why she may have

missed any school days the previous week.

January 27th January 31st: Continue providing Chloe with the after school period.

Days she attends, the time period and assignments accomplished will

be tracked.

January 30th : Conference with the student to discuss feedback on how she felt about

the extra after school period and reasons as to why she may have

missed any school days the previous week. Chloe will be informed

that next week a new strategy will be implemented on top of also still

receiving the extra after school homework period. A reward system

will be put into place. Each day Chloe comes to school, she draws a

smiley face on her Attendance Calendar which is in the Learning

Center. Every 5 consecutive days she attends school, she will be able

to pick a reward of her choice.

February 3rd February 7th: Starting this week, each day that Chloe is in school, she

will be able to mark the day on her Attendance Calendar that will

be hanging in the Learning Center. Every 5 consecutive days she will

be able to pick a reward. The option to attend her after school

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homework period will still be offered. Days she attends, the time

period and assignments accomplished will continue to be tracked.

February 6th: Conference with the student to discuss feedback on how she feels

about the reward system and reasons as to why she may have missed

any school days the previous week.

February 10th February 14th: Chloe will continue marking days on her Attendance

Calendar that will be hanging in the Learning Center. She will

continue to be reward for every 5 consecutive days that she attends

school. The option to attend her after school homework period will

still be offered. Days she attends, the time period and assignments

accomplished will continue to be tracked.

February 12th: Write up collected results as of today. Put action research paper

together and submit.

February 13th: Conference with the student to discuss further feedback on how she

feels about the reward system and reasons as to why she may have

missed any school days the previous week.

February 17th February 21st: Chloe will continue marking days on her Attendance

Calendar that will be hanging in the Learning Center. She will

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continue to be reward for every 5 consecutive days that she attends

school. The option to attend her after school homework period will

still be offered. Days she attends, the time period and assignments

accomplished will continue to be tracked.

February 19th Present current findings and research paper.

February 20th: Conference with the student to discuss further feedback on how she

feels about the reward system and reasons as to why she may have

missed any school days the previous week.

February 24th February 28th: Chloe will continue marking days on her Attendance

Calendar that will be hanging in the Learning Center. She will

continue to be reward for every 5 consecutive days that she attends

school. The option to attend her after school homework period will

still be offered. Days she attends, the time period and assignments

accomplished will continue to be tracked.

February 27th: Conference with the student to discuss overall feedback on how she

feels about the reward system and reasons as to why she may have

missed any school days the previous week.

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March 1st March 9th: Analyze data. Compare average attendance rates between no

strategies, after school help, and extra after school help and with the

reward system. Put the data collected from after school help into a

chart. Organize Chloes comments and feelings on each strategy along

with my own observations.

Strategies to Ensure Validity

In order to be sure that the extra period after school is actually beneficial to Chloe, teachers will

be keeping track of what she worked on and for how long. This way, it has been documented

that work was done. If Chloe were just sitting for an hour, this will not benefit her, nor relieve

stress of school and home work. At the end of each week, Chloe is doing an informal student

survey about how she feels the strategies are going and any changes to make it more effective.

There is a possibility that during the study, Chloe actually becomes sick and should not come to

school. The school nurse and I will determine whether Chloes absence is excusable or not. An

example would be, if she is showing signs of the flu one day and then absent the next, it will be

excusable within the study. If she misses school and then has no reasoning, or acceptable

reasoning, it will still be counted against her as an absence. With the amount of data collection

and student feedback, this study will ensure validity if all goes well.

Data Analysis

With the study being based off of absenteeism, there isnt much that bias could affect on the

outcomes and raw data. Either the student is in school, or isnt. The only possibility of bias
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comes from whether Chloes reason for being absent is excusable or not. This will be determined

by the information gathered around her absence and the nurses final say. Chloe has been very

open about reasoning behind her absenteeism in the past; this makes it easier to determine, since

many of the reasons in which she stays home are not excusable. The school nurse and I will both

be very strict about what is an acceptable reason for staying home and determine whether it

should count against her in the study or not.

Disseminating the Results

After keeping track of data for at least two months collected from this action research project, I

plan on sharing the results with Chloe. Discussing what works best with her as well as actual

proof of these strategies giving a positive outcome would be a good thing for her to see. Overall,

I believe a positive impact will be made on Chloe due to the educators showing they care enough

about her to figure out what we can do in order to increase past attendance.

It will also be important to share this information with fellow teachers who may struggle with

other students and their attendance issues. If these strategies work, it could be worth trying on

other students too. The school principle should also know the results so he can suggest the

strategies if needed in the future as well.

Since Chloe is leaving for high school at the end of the school year, passing this information onto

them could play a key role in her future attendance. Transitioning into high school is a big task;

there is much more freedom and opportunity to slack off and not show up too. I think it is

important for the staff there to learn from this study and monitor Chloes absenteeism as well as

possibly put these strategies into place if necessary.

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References

Education Partnerships, I. (2012). Successful attendance policies and programs. Research

Brief. Education Partnerships, Inc,

Peek, S. D. (2009). Integrating effective and beneficial interventions to increase student

attendance in an elementary school setting. Georgia School Counselors Association Journal,

16(1), 9-20.

Selart, M., Nordstrom, T., Kuvaas, B., & Takemura, K. (2008). Effects of reward on self-

regulation, intrinsic motivation and creativity. Scandinavian Journal Of Educational Research,

52(5), 439-458.

Goh, A. E., & Bambara, L. M. (2012). Individualized positive behavior support in school

settings: A meta-analysis. Remedial And Special Education, 33(5), 271-286.

Marvul, J. N. (2012). If You Build It, They Will Come: A successful truancy intervention

program in a small high school. Urban Education, 47(1), 144-169.

Girmus, R. L. (2012). How to motivate your students. Online Submission

Usher, A., Kober, N., & Center on Education, P. (2012). 2. Can money or other rewards motivate

students?. Center On Education Policy

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Appendix A

Weekly questions for Chloe include:

-What is the reasoning behind missing school this week? (Only if she was absent)

-What do you like about having the extra time and help after school?

-What dont you like about having the extra time and help after school?

-Do you feel as though you have a better grasp on your work?

-What could we do to make it more enjoyable?

-Do you want to share anything else regarding your absence, or having the extra time and

help after school?