Why do students skip class?

It's not something we want to verify scientifically--but anecdotally, college teachers say that about one-fourth of students miss class on a given day. Is it the course? The weather? The time of day? The students' gender? Out late the night before? Something you said? All or none of the above?

Two teachers and a research associate from the University of Kansas set out to discover the myths and realities of student attendance patterns. First, they asked 50 students to write down the reasons why they skip class and why they attend. Next, the researchers framed a questionnaire to administer to another 350 students. Answers from 380 students eliminated most theories about student attendance and revealed two stark truths:

• Students who have better grades have fewer absences from class.
• Students skip class because they can.

With the first characteristic, causality was hard to determine. Do better students tend to go to class more often, or does attending class lead to better performance? Hard to say, the researchers found, but their recommendation was an easy one: To be good students, go to all classes.

The second characteristic is telling. Teachers who are laid-back about class attendance send a message to students as do the teachers who link class attendance to grades. The researchers found that classes in the natural sciences were most poorly attended, unless the professor indicated that attendance was mandatory. Then attendance was better than in any other subjects.

One interesting finding concerned the effect that a teacher's status had on his or her students. The researchers speculated that, as a sign of respect, higher level faculty could expect good attendance. The opposite turned out to be the case. That is, students attended courses taught by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) more often than those taught by professors. Further follow-up questioning helped explain why: The students had gotten the message from the GTAs (who at KU are unionized and affiliated with the AFT) that absences above a minimum would affect their grade.

Some of the factors that don't seem to affect attendance are:

• age of the student;
• whether the student lives on campus;
• the amount of tuition the student pays;
• class standing; and
• the student's course load.

Factors that do matter:

• class size (the larger the class, the greater the absences);
• a sense that the teacher notices or cares whether the student is there;
• level of interaction in class;
• whether attendance is taken in class;
• whether course content is available from another source outside of class; and
• importance and significance of the class content to students.

The results of the study are presented in the Fall 2001 issue of College Teaching. The study was conducted by professors Paul Friedman and Fred Rodriguez and research associate Joe McComb. 

Business seeks more-qualified workers

The business community is up in arms about a disconnect between "today's degrees and tomorrow's jobs," according to the National Alliance of Business. "The changing fields, functions and advances in technology demand people with better preparation in mathematics and science in particular and in a wide variety of other skills in general. Our students are not making the necessary progress toward acquiring these skills," the NAB publication WorkAmerica complains.

Global trends show the United States becoming a focus for management, information services, professional services and product design, says the alliance, a nonprofit group of CEOs working to improve education. Just 30 years ago, the bulk of the work force was made up of manual laborers; 30 years from now, the bulk of the work force will comprise management and professionals. NAB is concerned that the supply of skilled workers will not keep up with demand. In fact, it projects that in 2028, there will be a shortfall of 18 million workers to fill available jobs. The alliance warns that jobs will go begging in six areas: information technology, engineering, teaching, healthcare, business, and medical and engineering technology.

The business world is worried about American children's poor math and science performance on tests like the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. These show stagnant results over the past 25 years and place the United States in the middle of the pack in international comparisons.

Exacerbating the problem, says the NAB, is that too many college students are pursuing a humanities-based education.

Ironically, from the standpoint of global competition, the United States is providing the training that will serve our competitors. In the past, many international students who pursued advanced study here ended up staying and contributing to the U.S. economy. Now, the NAB worries, these students are taking advantage of our higher education resources in the sciences and engineering but then are taking their skills back to use in their homelands.

To counter these trends, the NAB recommends a focus on math and science education in elementary and high school, more workplace programs to encourage employees to pursue and complete undergraduate degrees, more rigorous curriculum requirements in all fields, and more money to cover quality initiatives and the cost of sending more students to college.