Factors Associated With Absenteeism At Prairie View Elementary School

Author

Helen Smoot Arnold, Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical College

Date of Award

8-1956

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Degree Discipline

Education

Abstract

BACKGROUND FOR THE STUDY

A multiplicity of reasons are advanced by teachers, parents, pupils, and persons connected with or interested in the schools to account for the incidence of absenteeism among pupils in the elementary schools throughout the country. It is the purpose of this study to determine what factors are associated with absenteeism at the Prairie View Elementary School and to suggest actions that can be taken by the school to reduce the Incidence of absenteeism. To this end, the following three questions are fundamental:

1. Who are the chronic absentees?

2. What factors have these pupils in common which might be associated with a tendency toward absenteeism?

3. What measures can the school take to cope with the factors which are found to be associated with absenteeism?

Absenteeism as defined in the official teacher registers means the incidence of non-attendance for any day or half-day during the time In which the pupils are officially carried on the registers, regardless of the causes for such non-attendance. As used in this study, "chronic absentees" refer to those pupils who fall in the top quartile of the enrollment in terms of number of absences. School as hereinafter referred to in the study refers to the Prairie View Elementary School while pupils or students refer to the pupils of this school.

The underlying significance of this thesis lies in the democratic philosophy of education which holds that it is the duty of the school system to see to it that all children are educated for citizenship even if attendance must be increased by compulsion. The modern trend is away from compulsion and aims at persuasion and education of the parents and children in regard to the value of education. The democratic philosophy of education is most often interpreted to mean enrollment in the school, yet it is also interpreted to mean that it is the duty of the school to see to it that the children who are enrolled, attend school regularly in order that they may derive optimum benefits.

Publisher

Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical College

Rights

Date of Digitization

11/23/2021

Contributing Institution

John B Coleman Library

City of Publication

Prairie View

MIME Type

Application/PDF

Recommended Citation

Arnold, H. S. (1956). Factors Associated With Absenteeism At Prairie View Elementary School. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/pvamu-theses/776