Annotated Bibliography: Keeping Parents Involved Through High School
Marcia Nupp
Understanding Truancy
University of Pittsburgh
Annotated Bibliography Constantino, S. (2007). Keeping parents involved through high school. Education Digest, 73(1), 57-61.
A survey distributed to families and collected by Family Friendly Schools, supports the organization’s position that students do better when their parents are involved their education. The results of the survey concluded with four main points, one of them being student attendance is better when parents are engaged in school activities and function, which results in the student being more connected to the school and school community. The author offered a range of suggestions to reach challenging families and students. Dembo, G., & Gulledge, L. (2009). Truancy intervention programs: challenges and innovations to implementation. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 20(4), 437-456. The authors analyze the importance of criminologist studying troubled youth who have high truancy rates. Truant students’ defiant behavior has historically cost taxpayers and society a tremendous amount of money as these individuals enter the legal system. The authors feel students with high truancy rates …show more content…
can be rehabilitated starting as early as middle school with the assistance of school interventions. The article recognizes many truant students share common problems: a problematic family history, parents or guardians with substance abuse problems or criminal pasts themselves, and low school achievement mostly due to poor attendance. Interventions started at an early age in schools, offering counseling and involving parents, can prevent dismal futures for truant students.
Enea, V., & Dafinoiu, I. (2009). Motivational/solution focused intervention for reducing school truancy among adolescent. Journal of Cognitive and Behavioral Psychotherapies, 9(2), 185-198. The results of a study done in Romania support the importance of providing truant students with the emotional and parental support needed to decrease student truancy. Findings of the study includes, punishment alone does not decrease truancy but counseling and parental involvement, as well as teaching coping skills improve student participation in school. Gottfried, M. (2010). Evaluating the relationship between student attendance and achievement in urban elementary and middle schools. American Educational Research Journal, 41(2), 434-465. Conducting research on attendance and student achievement in an urban school setting, the author concludes that students who attend school regularly experience greater achievement in school, thus encouraging students and their families to send the students to school. When absentee rates started to grow for students, school interventions helped the families of the students’ to continue attending school, thus continuing students to increase their academic skills. Gottfried, M. (2009). Excused versus unexcused: how student absences in elementary school affect student achievement. Educational Evaluation & Policy Analysis, 31(4), 392-415.
Analyzing the results of said study, elementary school students reading levels and math levels were higher for students who had excused absences compared to students who had unexcused absences. Excused absences included illnesses and doctors’ visits and were fewer than students with unexcused absences. Unexcused absences included but were not limited to students who did not feel like going to school; parents who did not feel like arguing with their children making them go to school. Absenteeism results in lower academic achievement. Hallfors, V, & Luitani, C. (2002). Truancy, grade point average, and sexual activity: a meta-analysis of risk indicators for youth substance use. Journal of School Health, 72(5), 205-211.
A qualitative survey given to students in high school found students with a high number of absences directly correlated with other risky behaviors such as drug and alcohol use, hanging out with deviant peers, and engaging in sexual activity, thus resulting in low academic performance, low grade point average and no connectedness to the school. When two or more of the aforementioned risky behaviors were engaged in, it was commonly reported by the students that many of them used drugs, possibly leading the student down the path to addiction. Truancy was an indicator of a students’ low grade point average. The information obtained from the survey were good indicators of how successful the student would be after high school, as well as an indicator of the student’s work ethic.
Harris, A, & Goodall, J. (2008). Do parents know they matter? Engaging all parents in learning. Educational Research, 50(3), 277-289. The emphasis is placed on parental involvement in a child’s education in this article; however, the article recognizes how challenging it can be to engage parents in their child’s education. Parents with greater social status and incomes willingly become more involved in their child’s education and volunteer in school, while parents of less means and a lower income are more challenging to entice. The authors discuss the need for schools to recognize when they are expending too many resources to engage parents and should know when to stop. Parents who are more concerned for their child’s achievement have children in school who are successful while parents who are faced with numerous obstacles to overcome themselves are less involved.
Hendrick,M, Sale, E, Evans, C, McKinley, L, & DeLozier Carter, S. (2010). Evaluation a truancy court intervention in four middle schools. Psychology in the Schools,47(2), 173-183.
This article analyzes the impact truancy court has on truant students in four middle schools. Despite the attempt to improve school attendance by involving the court system, the results do not produce the desired results. Attendance improves somewhat for the students with less truancy but for the students with greater truancies, there is no change in their school attendance, let alone their test scores and behavior in school. Henry, K. (2007). Who’s skipping school: characteristics of truants in 8th and 10th grade. Journal of School Health, 77(1), 29-35.
After studying the common elements of truant 8th and 10th graders, the one component that is common among the student body analyzed in this study is the lack of supervision when a student is not in school. Students from more affluent families tend to be more involved in after school activities or clubs, whereas students from less affluent families are less involved in activities after school. Unstructured and unsupervised time for students is when they engage in risky behaviors such as drug use and unlawful acts. The author recommends offering support to parents by providing their children a safe place to go after school if the parent cannot be home to supervise their child.
Kronholz, J. (2011). The challenge of keeping kids in school. Education Next, 11(1), 32-38. The author discusses the cost of truancy to the student, family, taxpayers, school, police and community, and the means Washington DC has used to keep students in school. Truancy is identified as a ‘symptom’ not a ‘problem’, in this article, as it is predictable what students will accumulate the highest number of truancies based on their attendance history from elementary school. Involving parents and holding them accountable is not a solid solution, there is only so much a parent can do to make sure their child attends school. The judicial system becoming involved is also ineffective, when both parents and students are brought to court for student attendance. Students with high truancy rates usually are involved in the judicial system for other criminal acts; thus truancy is a minor problem in their life. Mendez, J, Carpenter, J, LaForett, D, & Cohen, J. (2009). Parental engagement and barriers to participation in a community-based prevention intervention. American Journal of Community Psychology, 44(1/2), 1-14. The study of providing parents of students, as young as pre-school, in Head Start Programs, with a community-based prevention interventions faced numerous obstacles; obstacles the authors feel prevention intervention programs should be aware of prior to initiating programs. Despite the services offered to families of young children, parents presented many reasons as to why they could not participate. The authors most importantly realized, if there was a competing program offered the same night as theirs, families would attend the program that gave away more hand-outs. Parents who did not feel the program was necessary simply did not attend. The parents who did attend felt they got a lot out of the program.
Muller, D, Giacomazzi, A, & Stoddard, C. (2006). Dealing with chronic absenteeism and its related consequences, the process and short term effects of a diversionary juvenile court intervention. Journal of Education for Students at Risk, 11(2), 199-219. The authors evaluate the process of Attendance Court in a school district in Idaho and the results it has on a school.
Parents, students, the School Resource Officer, administrators and teachers, and outside community sources were involved in the court process. In the short-term, attendance court makes a difference offering parents and students alike resources they need such as family counseling, housing, and other resources the family may lack that might present itself as an obstacle for students to get to school. Students with a mild truancy record were greatly impacted and their truancy rates decreased; however, students with historical truancy problems, the court made little impact. The study was not based on a long-term study of the
program.
Reardon, R. (2008). An analysis of Florida’s school district’s attendance policy and their relationship to high school attendance rates (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Ebsco (Accession Number ED 502216). The author discusses the different strategies schools can use to improve school attendance but recommends every school select a method that works for their school, especially for schools in the same district.
Reid, K. (2008). The causes of non-attendance; an empirical study. Educational Review,60(4), 345-357.
Although truancy is an indication of greater problems outside of school, Reid holds schools accountable for a great portion of the problem related to student truancy. Reid states the curriculum being so rigid and inflexible drives away students who are not academically driven but vocationally driven. When truant students are made to come to school they are most likely the individuals who disrupt classes and act out because they have fallen behind, are discouraged and bored. Reid explains the need for schools to change their rigorous curriculum to address all student needs, offering more programs to keep students engaged, and overall keep the cost to taxpayers down.
Richtman, K. (2007). The truancy intervention program of the Ramsey country attorney’s office: a collaborative approach to school success. Family Court Review, 45(3), 421-437. After determining truancy is a sign of greater problems, usually outside of school, Ramsey County, in Minneapolis, initiated an aggressive solution to student truancy involving the parents, students, school, assistant district attorney, and the judicial system and community resources, drastically reducing student truancy. The three-step process offers parents and students social work services, drug and alcohol interventions, medical care and any other service needed to promote school attendance. If student attendance does not improve, and the student progresses through the first two steps, needing court intervention, both parent and student incur consequences ranging from paying fees, community service, losing their driver license and other legal problems. Stover, D. (2005). New ways, more reasons to fight truancy. Educational Digest, 70(5), 48-51.
Stover details how new means need to be implemented to discourage students from being truant. He cites how different states are going about this project, such as one governor denying teenagers from getting their driver’s license if they have excessive absenteeism, parents have to go to court and pay fines and fees their youth incurs due to truancy. School districts need to be flexible as well, offering classes in the evening for students who have to work to support their families and offering classes for immigrants in a language they can understand, at their level of education.
Understanding Truancy
University of Pittsburgh
Annotated Bibliography Constantino, S. (2007). Keeping parents involved through high school. Education Digest, 73(1), 57-61.
A survey distributed to families and collected by Family Friendly Schools, supports the organization’s position that students do better when their parents are involved their education. The results of the survey concluded with four main points, one of them being student attendance is better when parents are engaged in school activities and function, which results in the student being more connected to the school and school community. The author offered a range of suggestions to reach challenging families and students. Dembo, G., & Gulledge, L. (2009). Truancy intervention programs: challenges and innovations to implementation. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 20(4), 437-456. The authors analyze the importance of criminologist studying troubled youth who have high truancy rates. Truant students’ defiant behavior has historically cost taxpayers and society a tremendous amount of money as these individuals enter the legal system. The authors feel students with high truancy rates …show more content…
can be rehabilitated starting as early as middle school with the assistance of school interventions. The article recognizes many truant students share common problems: a problematic family history, parents or guardians with substance abuse problems or criminal pasts themselves, and low school achievement mostly due to poor attendance. Interventions started at an early age in schools, offering counseling and involving parents, can prevent dismal futures for truant students.
Enea, V., & Dafinoiu, I. (2009). Motivational/solution focused intervention for reducing school truancy among adolescent. Journal of Cognitive and Behavioral Psychotherapies, 9(2), 185-198. The results of a study done in Romania support the importance of providing truant students with the emotional and parental support needed to decrease student truancy. Findings of the study includes, punishment alone does not decrease truancy but counseling and parental involvement, as well as teaching coping skills improve student participation in school. Gottfried, M. (2010). Evaluating the relationship between student attendance and achievement in urban elementary and middle schools. American Educational Research Journal, 41(2), 434-465. Conducting research on attendance and student achievement in an urban school setting, the author concludes that students who attend school regularly experience greater achievement in school, thus encouraging students and their families to send the students to school. When absentee rates started to grow for students, school interventions helped the families of the students’ to continue attending school, thus continuing students to increase their academic skills. Gottfried, M. (2009). Excused versus unexcused: how student absences in elementary school affect student achievement. Educational Evaluation & Policy Analysis, 31(4), 392-415.
Analyzing the results of said study, elementary school students reading levels and math levels were higher for students who had excused absences compared to students who had unexcused absences. Excused absences included illnesses and doctors’ visits and were fewer than students with unexcused absences. Unexcused absences included but were not limited to students who did not feel like going to school; parents who did not feel like arguing with their children making them go to school. Absenteeism results in lower academic achievement. Hallfors, V, & Luitani, C. (2002). Truancy, grade point average, and sexual activity: a meta-analysis of risk indicators for youth substance use. Journal of School Health, 72(5), 205-211.
A qualitative survey given to students in high school found students with a high number of absences directly correlated with other risky behaviors such as drug and alcohol use, hanging out with deviant peers, and engaging in sexual activity, thus resulting in low academic performance, low grade point average and no connectedness to the school. When two or more of the aforementioned risky behaviors were engaged in, it was commonly reported by the students that many of them used drugs, possibly leading the student down the path to addiction. Truancy was an indicator of a students’ low grade point average. The information obtained from the survey were good indicators of how successful the student would be after high school, as well as an indicator of the student’s work ethic.
Harris, A, & Goodall, J. (2008). Do parents know they matter? Engaging all parents in learning. Educational Research, 50(3), 277-289. The emphasis is placed on parental involvement in a child’s education in this article; however, the article recognizes how challenging it can be to engage parents in their child’s education. Parents with greater social status and incomes willingly become more involved in their child’s education and volunteer in school, while parents of less means and a lower income are more challenging to entice. The authors discuss the need for schools to recognize when they are expending too many resources to engage parents and should know when to stop. Parents who are more concerned for their child’s achievement have children in school who are successful while parents who are faced with numerous obstacles to overcome themselves are less involved.
Hendrick,M, Sale, E, Evans, C, McKinley, L, & DeLozier Carter, S. (2010). Evaluation a truancy court intervention in four middle schools. Psychology in the Schools,47(2), 173-183.
This article analyzes the impact truancy court has on truant students in four middle schools. Despite the attempt to improve school attendance by involving the court system, the results do not produce the desired results. Attendance improves somewhat for the students with less truancy but for the students with greater truancies, there is no change in their school attendance, let alone their test scores and behavior in school. Henry, K. (2007). Who’s skipping school: characteristics of truants in 8th and 10th grade. Journal of School Health, 77(1), 29-35.
After studying the common elements of truant 8th and 10th graders, the one component that is common among the student body analyzed in this study is the lack of supervision when a student is not in school. Students from more affluent families tend to be more involved in after school activities or clubs, whereas students from less affluent families are less involved in activities after school. Unstructured and unsupervised time for students is when they engage in risky behaviors such as drug use and unlawful acts. The author recommends offering support to parents by providing their children a safe place to go after school if the parent cannot be home to supervise their child.
Kronholz, J. (2011). The challenge of keeping kids in school. Education Next, 11(1), 32-38. The author discusses the cost of truancy to the student, family, taxpayers, school, police and community, and the means Washington DC has used to keep students in school. Truancy is identified as a ‘symptom’ not a ‘problem’, in this article, as it is predictable what students will accumulate the highest number of truancies based on their attendance history from elementary school. Involving parents and holding them accountable is not a solid solution, there is only so much a parent can do to make sure their child attends school. The judicial system becoming involved is also ineffective, when both parents and students are brought to court for student attendance. Students with high truancy rates usually are involved in the judicial system for other criminal acts; thus truancy is a minor problem in their life. Mendez, J, Carpenter, J, LaForett, D, & Cohen, J. (2009). Parental engagement and barriers to participation in a community-based prevention intervention. American Journal of Community Psychology, 44(1/2), 1-14. The study of providing parents of students, as young as pre-school, in Head Start Programs, with a community-based prevention interventions faced numerous obstacles; obstacles the authors feel prevention intervention programs should be aware of prior to initiating programs. Despite the services offered to families of young children, parents presented many reasons as to why they could not participate. The authors most importantly realized, if there was a competing program offered the same night as theirs, families would attend the program that gave away more hand-outs. Parents who did not feel the program was necessary simply did not attend. The parents who did attend felt they got a lot out of the program.
Muller, D, Giacomazzi, A, & Stoddard, C. (2006). Dealing with chronic absenteeism and its related consequences, the process and short term effects of a diversionary juvenile court intervention. Journal of Education for Students at Risk, 11(2), 199-219. The authors evaluate the process of Attendance Court in a school district in Idaho and the results it has on a school.
Parents, students, the School Resource Officer, administrators and teachers, and outside community sources were involved in the court process. In the short-term, attendance court makes a difference offering parents and students alike resources they need such as family counseling, housing, and other resources the family may lack that might present itself as an obstacle for students to get to school. Students with a mild truancy record were greatly impacted and their truancy rates decreased; however, students with historical truancy problems, the court made little impact. The study was not based on a long-term study of the
program.
Reardon, R. (2008). An analysis of Florida’s school district’s attendance policy and their relationship to high school attendance rates (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Ebsco (Accession Number ED 502216). The author discusses the different strategies schools can use to improve school attendance but recommends every school select a method that works for their school, especially for schools in the same district.
Reid, K. (2008). The causes of non-attendance; an empirical study. Educational Review,60(4), 345-357.
Although truancy is an indication of greater problems outside of school, Reid holds schools accountable for a great portion of the problem related to student truancy. Reid states the curriculum being so rigid and inflexible drives away students who are not academically driven but vocationally driven. When truant students are made to come to school they are most likely the individuals who disrupt classes and act out because they have fallen behind, are discouraged and bored. Reid explains the need for schools to change their rigorous curriculum to address all student needs, offering more programs to keep students engaged, and overall keep the cost to taxpayers down.
Richtman, K. (2007). The truancy intervention program of the Ramsey country attorney’s office: a collaborative approach to school success. Family Court Review, 45(3), 421-437. After determining truancy is a sign of greater problems, usually outside of school, Ramsey County, in Minneapolis, initiated an aggressive solution to student truancy involving the parents, students, school, assistant district attorney, and the judicial system and community resources, drastically reducing student truancy. The three-step process offers parents and students social work services, drug and alcohol interventions, medical care and any other service needed to promote school attendance. If student attendance does not improve, and the student progresses through the first two steps, needing court intervention, both parent and student incur consequences ranging from paying fees, community service, losing their driver license and other legal problems. Stover, D. (2005). New ways, more reasons to fight truancy. Educational Digest, 70(5), 48-51.
Stover details how new means need to be implemented to discourage students from being truant. He cites how different states are going about this project, such as one governor denying teenagers from getting their driver’s license if they have excessive absenteeism, parents have to go to court and pay fines and fees their youth incurs due to truancy. School districts need to be flexible as well, offering classes in the evening for students who have to work to support their families and offering classes for immigrants in a language they can understand, at their level of education.