Class Attendance Miracle

This semester I told one of my classes that they had broken an attendance record. Several weeks had passed and not one of the students in that class had been absent. This is a very rewarding occurrence as, on average, students unfortunately do have a tendency to skip classes every now and then: they are allowed a certain number of absences before the teacher can consider dropping them.

Empirical studies in education have shown that student performance is inversely correlated with absenteeism. Another question arises though: whether making attendance mandatory improves performance. Some studies have shown that it does.  One may add that logically it should, as long as the students are focused. However, other studies have revealed that “forced attendance” can lower student performance. Oosterveen, Kapoor, and Webbink reported recently in “The Price of Forced Attendance” that a long-term study at a large European university had proved this. The detrimental effects were more pronounced in younger students and those that lived far away from the university. These sorts of observations are not entirely new though. Back in 1999, Karen St. Clair argued “A Case Against Compulsory Class Attendance Policies in Higher Education”. It has also been argued – and observed – that student success is only strongly correlated with voluntary attendance.

Some educators – and students - have protested that taking attendance in class is a waste of time, reducing efficiency. However, from personal experience, it can help teachers get to know the students one by one, personalising teaching and learning. In any case, technology can assist disbelievers in checking attendance. For example, ID cards with radio frequency identification can be used – though of course these can be misused if the students are not attending out of conviction.
On another note, the reputation of academic institutions can be tarnished by low student attendance. As long as institutions require attendance data, teachers will gather it. The hope is that classes will be engaging enough for students to attend of their own free will rather than due to fear of punishment.