Truancy research paper
Truancy can be seen as a specific type of juvenile delinquency that, according to office of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention at the u. Beyond its connection to poor academic performance, many researchers have concluded that truancy is an important predictor of juvenile delinquency. Public education system has developed a reputation for underperforming students and rising levels of crime and violence, politicians, law enforcement officials, teachers, parents and school administrators have made renewed efforts to curb truancy in the belief that regular school attendance is vital to improving student achievement in an increasingly global ic topic safety > juvenile delinquency/y is defined as an unexcused absence from school.
Truancy can be as mild as "ditching" school on a friday in the spring, but it can also turn into the habit of avoiding school attendance whenever possible. Perhaps not surprisingly, the problem of truancy in the united states has existed since the passage of compulsory education laws beginning in the nineteenth century, which required public school students to attend classes for a given number of hours each week, for a number of days each year, and until a certain age (typically sixteen or eighteen). Legally, truancy is what is termed a status offense, meaning that it only applies to children below a state-mandated idea of hapless truant officers, in movies or television, chasing after petulant--and surprisingly resourceful--children in the hopes of dragging them kicking and screaming back to the school, has created an image of truancy in the united states that is in need of updating.
Law enforcement officers, school officials, and parents agree that today's truancy has much wider implications for schools and the wider society than the bruised produce resulting from an overturned apple sory education 1867, two years after the civil war, the u. For instance, after michigan passed a compulsory education law in 1883, 37 percent of anti-truancy arrests in the 1890s were made "between 8:00 pm and 2:00 am, well outside of school hours" (wolcott, 2001, p. The twentieth century and on into the twenty-first century, truancy has been addressed with a combination of methods, depending on the nature and frequency of the offense.
Many public school districts offer counseling services to attempt to get to the root causes of a student's truancy, social workers assist with family therapy sessions as needed, and the juvenile justice system provides a last resort of court-ordered drug and alcohol treatment programs or even imprisonment in a juvenile facility for truants who commit y by the what is at stake in truant behavior, the numbers for truancy in the united states at the beginning of the twenty-first century have been maddeningly imprecise. As one scholar notes,"[w]hile anecdotal evidence suggests that truancy has reached epidemic proportions, we do not have accurate estimates of the prevalence of truancy in the united states due to inconsistent tracking and reporting practices of schools. As a result, our best current estimates of the national state of truancy are from self-reported data" (henry, 2007).
There is evidence from philadelphia, pittsburgh, milwaukee, and many other metropolitan schools, for example, of thousands of instances of truancy each day. In minneapolis, researchers noted that only 47% of students were in school at least 95% of the time during the 1999-2000 school year, though the number rose to nearly 57% in 2001-2002 (hinx, kapp & snapp, 2003, p. Finally, and perhaps contrary to some assumptions, only 54 percent of truancy cases that went to court involved boys (cited in ncse, n.
Picture of truancy facing school officials, civic leaders, and parents is much more complicated and challenging than it has been in the past. It is incumbent upon state and federal governments to develop a common methodology for assessing truancy in america so that researchers can develop a more precise understanding of truancy and how it can be prevented--something that will be a benefit both to students and to society as a compulsory attendance state has a law on the books that stipulates the age at which a student must begin attending school and the age until which he or she must remain in school (the "legal dropout age"). There are many theories regarding the causes of truancy, henry (2007) points out that one thing is consistent: there is very little information on the subject.
In addition to a paucity of research pertaining to the prevalence of truancy in the united states, we also know surprisingly little about the correlates of truancy. That is, while several studies have assessed the consequences of truancy, no studies that could be identified have assessed the predictors, causes, or correlates of truancy using a nationally representative sample of youth. Log in -practicum & ism, fordism & ational supply chain e capital & the finance of n the world and text available on revieweddirect linkeric number: ej753587record type: journalpublication date: 2006-decpages: 18abstractor: authorreference count: 13isbn: n/aissn: issn-0267-1522truancy in secondary school pupils: prevalence, trajectories and pupil perspectivesattwood, gaynor; croll, paulresearch papers in education, v21 n4 p467-484 dec 2006school absenteeism and particularly unauthorized absenteeism or truancy has been the focus of a number of, so far largely unsuccessful, recent policy initiatives.
The paper draws upon two sources of data, the british household panel survey and detailed interviews with a group of persistent truants, to consider the extent, consequences and explanations for truancy from secondary schools. Truancy increases steadily across the years of secondary school and, especially in the later years of compulsory schooling there is evidence that patterns of truancy established in one year carry on into the next. Truancy is strongly associated with negative outcomes in terms of not staying in education post-16, gcse results and becoming unemployed.
Coming from families of low socio-economic status, parents not monitoring homework, negative attitudes towards teachers and the value of education are all associated with higher levels of truancy. It is suggested that we can distinguish between socio-economic and attitudinal factors which make young people vulnerable to truancy and precipitating events or processes which result in truanting behaviour. Descriptors: negative attitudes, young adults, truancy, student attitudes, secondary school students, foreign countries, interviews, socioeconomic influences, low income groups, parent child relationship, teacher student relationship, educational environmentroutledge.
Tel: 800-354-1420; fax: 215-625-2940; web site: http:///journals/blication type: journal articles; reports - evaluativeeducation level: secondary educationaudience: n/alanguage: englishsponsor: n/aauthoring institution: n/aidentifiers - location: united kingdomidentifiers - assessments and surveys: british household panel y | copyright | contact us | selection policyjournals | non-journals | download | submit | text available on revieweddirect linkeric number: ej753587record type: journalpublication date: 2006-decpages: 18abstractor: authorreference count: 13isbn: n/aissn: issn-0267-1522truancy in secondary school pupils: prevalence, trajectories and pupil perspectivesattwood, gaynor; croll, paulresearch papers in education, v21 n4 p467-484 dec 2006school absenteeism and particularly unauthorized absenteeism or truancy has been the focus of a number of, so far largely unsuccessful, recent policy initiatives.