Research Review on The Effects of Absenteeism on Academic and Social-Emotional Outcomes: Lessons for COVID-19 David Zhang University of Columbia Word Counts: 898 The research study on the effects of Absenteeism on Academic and Social-Emotional Outcomes through the lessons for COVID-19 is conducted by Lucrecia Santibanez and Cassandra M. Gurino with the goal to provide an overview of absenteeism on both academic and social-emotional development through a span of grades and different subgroups of students. In regard to school absenteeism, it was found that absences are the highest for kindergarten and Grade 10 to 12. This can be explained that over the fear of the pandemic parents would rather have their children in a domestic setting due to their such young age. However, students of high grades would tend to be more influenced by the notion to skip school. Thus, evidence suggests that chronic absence is more prevalent in grades 9 to 12 than any other earlier grades. However, the negative effects of absenteeism is the greatest on social awareness and self-efficacy for the middle school level. The characteristics of the study are rich and diverse and they are chosen from CORE districts which are a group of the largest districts in California. With a diverse population like this, there would be abundance of data available for students for every school year, more social backgrounds, disability status, behaviors, enrollment patterns, and more indicators to arrange them into corresponding subgroups. On the other hand, because of the challenges of studying absenteeism among many unobserved factors, such unobserved factors would bias estimates of the effects of absenteeism on student outcomes both academically and on the social level. To counter this barrier, the study used a “student fixed effect model” which essentially uses each one student as their own control. Thus, this is why the methods employed by this particular research study is different from an ideal one and it had to be designed this way to present the most valid estimate/prediction while avoiding all potential bias from the external environment outside the academic setting at school. The study indicates that absenteeism negatively affects student achievements, but it is shown more strongly within mathematics than ELA, and more so for middle school students than elementary students. This difference can be accounted for by the drastic age difference between the two stages of schooling. Considering the social background of the students studied, it is said that low-income students or ones with disabilities are more likely to suffer from loss of learning than other students from different subgroups. Academically, the research studied the effect of absinthe on academics through the measure of test scores. Absences affect test scores differently based on the grade level, such as that elementary students have a “flatter curve” for predicted effect of absenteeism. Considering all subgroups, it is stated that absences happen to come with greater negative impact on test scores in the middle school students relative to those at elementary school. At the social-emotional level, the SEL construct is influenced differently by absenteeism with different grade levels, but middle school is the level at which extended absence from school has the strongest negative impact on social development, with SE and SA with the steepest slopes. Furthremore, it is suggested that absences affect SA and SE more or less equally across groups. Absences harm “non-vulnerable students” more adversely than others in SM, and they harm non-vulnerable students and SWDs more than others in GM. As for the intended audience from this research study, it can be concluded with certainty that the pandemic negatively influences both the academic and social-emotional development of student, or more significantly for students in certain grades and other vulnerable subgroups.Thus, for us to make up for these students with what was lost during the pandemic it is crucial that we attend their needs from both the academic and the social perspectives. Furthermore, it can be stated that additional research is needed under this context of the mechanisms by which school absinthe affect students of all groups so that the fullest effect of COVID-19 or any other similar shocks to the school system can be better comprehended in the future. Last but no least, as it was mentioned at the method section of the study, there is a measurable difference among districts in California, and thus, it would be wise for the administration of these districts to gauge the potential effects of absenteeism differently to have better prediction and make effect address to these on-going effects from COVID-19. All in all, the overall results of this study highlight the fact that student outcomes generally suffer more from absenteeism in mathematics than in ELA with the caveat that the largest negative effect is present at the middle school level, and that the strong negative associations with absences are found for self-management and self-efficacy. As for suggesting the research question for this particular study rather than simply stating the aim of this study, it would be better to state that “ To what extent does the impact of school absenteeism affect both the academic and social-emotional outcomes of students from different grades at school?” This research question is concise in nature and encompasses all the factors that the study aimed to investigate. This revised question includes a comparison among students of different grades/subgroups while also mentioning the metric of measurement. This revised question is more inline with the aim of the study and it outlines the factors of investigation in clear and simple terms.
