October 2024 Research Rundown
By Madie Spartz
For October’s Research Rundown—our curated list of recent, relevant research we think is worth adding to the education equity conversation—we’re sharing articles about:
- Individual student attendance patterns in the post-COVID years
- How to improve Minnesota’s statewide standards & assessments
- New nationwide & state-level data on dual enrollment
The Persistence of Post-Pandemic Chronic Absenteeism
Education Policy Initiative at Carolina (EPIC), May 2024
This study looks at the pertinent issue of chronic absenteeism through a unique lens. Rather than studying average attendance rates, the authors examine individual student attendance patterns to answer the question: is post-COVID absenteeism a short-term pattern in response to a major event, or is it a persistent trend resulting from greater changes to how students and families perceive school? They accomplish this by analyzing total accumulated days absent and the number of times a student was chronically absent from 2021-2023, and comparing that to a similar pre-COVID dataset.
They present three major findings. First, many more individual students have been chronically absent at least once post-pandemic than were chronically absent in the years leading up to 2019. Second, extreme and persistent chronic absenteeism has become more common. For example, 5% of students in the sample missed a cumulative 111 days of school in post-COVID years, where virtually no students reached that threshold pre-pandemic. Finally, the authors found that chronic absenteeism has increased the most at high-poverty schools and among Black and Hispanic students. While the share of students who were chronically absent all three years went up about 1.5% at low-poverty schools in the sample, it grew by about 8% at high poverty schools.
Why This Matters in Minnesota
While we know chronic absenteeism rates have shot up in Minnesota, we are missing a lot of information that could help inform policy solutions to this problem. For example, Minnesota only reports on whether students were chronically absent, not how absent they were. A student who missed 10% of school days is placed in the same category as a student who missed 50%. We don’t know what share of students are just over the threshold for chronic absence vs. those who are severely and/or persistently chronically absent. Furthermore, we lack detail on the age group distributions of absences. This is critical because a 2nd grader missing school likely requires different interventions than an 11th grader missing school.
Data like this, as highlighted in this report, is critical if we are going to design effective interventions to reduce chronic absenteeism in Minnesota schools. A legislative study group met over the summer and fall of 2024 to develop recommendations to better assess and address chronic absenteeism in the state, and adopting these next steps will be critical to tackling the issue.
A Beacon, a Barometer, and a Bridge: Imagining More Equitable, Student-Centered State Standards and Assessments in Minnesota
Education Evolving, September 2024
This report offers recommendations to improve Minnesota’s statewide standards and assessment practices. Through research, conversations with stakeholders like teachers and students, and best practices from other states, the authors provide recommendations in three areas: creating more focused state standards, modifying state assessments in grades 3-8 to be growth-focused, and revamping high school assessments to a “badge” system.
Each theme area includes three more detailed recommendations, including involving youth in test development, increasing the focus of state standards while reducing overall quantity, and using the “badges” students earn in high school for college and/or job credit. The authors emphasize that the recommendations were created with equity at the forefront, highlighting the tensions inherent in the standardized testing. Namely, that assessments were often historically used to evaluate people with “explicitly racist intentions,” but that today, a common statewide assessment can be used to monitor inequities in our education system.
Why This Matters in Minnesota
This Minnesota-specific report, built from local insights and feedback, took a comprehensive look at our state’s assessment systems; it’s not often that such state-specific reports are published. Furthermore, it tackles the important topic of assessments, which drive much of the education conversation in our state, ranging from how communities use test scores as markers of school quality to whether we should have them at all. The reality is that while they are imperfect tools, statewide assessments are required under federal law, so it’s imperative that we work to make them as accurate, useful, and learner-centered as possible. The recommendations in this report provide important food for thought as we strive to improve our statewide assessment and standard system.
How Many Students Are Taking Dual Enrollment Courses In High School? New National, State, and College-Level Data
Community College Research Center, August 2024
A new dataset, summarized in this blog post, sheds light on how many high school students take advantage of dual enrollment courses at colleges in their community, disaggregated by race & ethnicity. This is the first time the U.S. Department of Education has released this data publicly, providing an important opportunity to analyze which students are accessing an important resource in college & career readiness. The authors highlight several important takeaways from this dataset.
First, the majority of high school students taking college courses are doing so at community colleges, rather than four-year universities. In Minnesota, for example, 27% of community college students are actually in high school, participating in dual enrollment. Another important finding is that nationwide, Black and Hispanic students are underrepresented in dual enrollment when compared to the undergraduate population as a whole. This is true in Minnesota, where Black students make up 6% of dual enrollment students and 14% of the undergraduate population. Hispanic students represent 6% of dual enrollees and 8% of undergraduates overall. The blog post contains data visualization tools to explore trends in Minnesota and nationwide.
Why This Matters in Minnesota
As illustrated via this new data, dual enrollment programs in Minnesota are not accessed equitably across lines of race. This is true for most types of rigorous coursework that our state offers, meaning we have work to do to ensure that all kids in Minnesota have access to these courses. Data show that participating in rigorous coursework increases the likelihood that underrepresented students will graduate and attend college. Policies like automatic enrollment, where qualified students are automatically placed into advanced classes, have a track record of improving equity in those classes. It’s important that policymakers and school leaders explore options like this to address the gaps in rigorous coursetaking.