Background data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress add to the growing pile of evidence that student absenteeism can hamstring a district’s performance on the test dubbed “the nation’s report card.”
Education consultant Alan Ginsburg presented the latest analysis of NAEP background data at a meeting of the National Assessment Governing Board this month. It shows that, in large urban districts, 8th grade students who missed three or more days in the previous month of school had an average mathematics score of 260 on the 2011 NAEP, 21 points lower than those who missed no school. In some districts, the gap was even wider: 25 points in New York City, and 24 in Chicago and the District of Columbia.
