DeepSummary
In this episode, Derek Thompson discusses the issue of chronic absenteeism in schools across America with Nat Malkus, a former teacher and the deputy director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute. Malkus explains that chronic absenteeism, defined as missing 10% of school days or roughly one day every two weeks, has nearly doubled since before the pandemic, rising to over 28% of students nationwide.
The increase in chronic absenteeism is widespread and not strongly correlated with factors like remote schooling during the pandemic, poverty levels, or achievement levels of the school district. Malkus suggests that the phenomenon may be driven by a cultural shift in the norms and attitudes around attending school, with a more permissive attitude towards absences developing during the pandemic.
Malkus argues that chronic absenteeism is a significant problem as it can impact student learning and make it harder for schools to recover from pandemic-related learning loss. He suggests that addressing the issue will require a concerted effort from governors, state leaders, and parents to emphasize the importance of regular school attendance and re-establish norms around consistent attendance.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Chronic absenteeism, defined as missing 10% of school days, has nearly doubled since before the pandemic, rising to over 28% of students nationwide.
- The increase in chronic absenteeism is widespread across different types of school districts, regardless of factors like remote learning, poverty levels, or achievement.
- A potential key driver of increased absenteeism is a cultural shift and normalization of missing school that took root during the pandemic.
- Chronic absenteeism poses a significant challenge to recovering from pandemic-related learning loss, as students are missing crucial instructional time.
- Addressing chronic absenteeism will require efforts from state leaders using their platforms to emphasize the importance of school attendance, as well as parents reinforcing attendance norms.
- While some progress was made in recovering learning loss last year, chronic absenteeism makes fully closing those gaps more difficult due to inconsistent attendance.
- There is no single cause for increased absenteeism, but rather a combination of factors like illness, transportation issues, and the lingering impact of pandemic policies around school attendance.
- Chronic absenteeism disproportionately impacts disadvantaged students, further exacerbating achievement gaps.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “I don't think it's monocausal. I don't think there's just, like, one thing that's doing this right. We did have. Now, I don't think illness was as big a factor in 2023, when the rates were still very high, still more than one in four kids compared to when COVID was at its highest. But illness has been up. It's probably part of this equation. And there's other classic problems like transportation difficulties and student connectedness. All those things could be contributing to this. But I think the underlying challenge that makes all those factors translate into inflated chronic absenteeism is the idea that, well, we did these pandemic, exceptional policies where missing school was not as. It just wasn't as big a deal because of the pandemic. And then when we reopened schools, we didn't take a hard pivot off that and say, we need to get back to the same culture, habits and routines of attending school as before. And lo and behold, we haven't.“ by Nat Malkus
- “And as far as the power of words, look, if parents are not convinced because they don't hear about it enough, that this is the number one problem that schools are facing, they're less likely to act on it.“ by Nat Malkus
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Episode Information
Plain English with Derek Thompson
The Ringer
4/5/24
The other day, I read a statistic about my hometown of Washington D.C. that knocked my socks off. In D.C. high schools, 60 percent of students were chronically absent in the last school year. That means they missed one day of school every two weeks. Among ninth graders, it’s even worse: One-third of D.C. freshmen were absent for the equivalent of six weeks of school.
The New York Times reported that, nationwide, one quarter of public school students are now chronically absent. That figure has practically doubled since before the pandemic. And it’s doubled across all sorts of districts—rich and poor, liberal and conservative. Today’s guest is Nat Malkus, a former teacher who is the deputy director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute. We talk about why school absences have exploded across the country; why some people think this just doesn’t matter; why we think it might matter quite a bit; and what teachers, parents, and lawmakers should do about it.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Nat Malkus
Producer: Devon Renaldo
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