CHAPTER 2

Review related literature

One major barrier to learning faced by students and teachers in American schools today is

a lack of consistent attendance in classrooms. In fact, the United States Department of Education

(1994) has cited absenteeism as the most important factor linked to performance differences

among students, and absenteeism has recently been identified as being at crisis proportion

(Kearney, 2003). Although many schools realize the importance of this issue, educational

researchers have not consistently given this topic the attention it deserves (Corville-Smith, 1995).

Additionally, while some attempts to increase attendance rates have been successful, the

methodologies used have had notable disadvantages including cost, drainage of faculty

resources, difficulty of implementation, or time consumption (DeKalb, 1999; Lamdin, 1996).

Researchers have attacked this problem from a number of directions. For example, interventions

have been community-based (McPartland & Nettles, 1991; Reid & Bailey-Dempsey, 1995),

familybased (Copeland, Brown, & Hall, 1974; Volkman, 1996), and school-based (Gottfredson,

Jones, & Gore, 2002; Noonan & Thibeault, 1974). The intent of this paper is to summarize

existing research on improving attendance rates in schools and offer suggestions for school

psychologists on how they can become involved in formulating interventions to help schools

deal with problems of attendance.

Future research should be directed not only toward developing effective interventions in

the schools, but also toward community-based approaches. With improved community-school

relations and improved community awareness of the benefits of education, it may be possible to

improve attendance rates from multiple vantage points. Effective programs based in schools and
in communities have the potential for improving not only attendance rates, but also known

correlates of attendance rates and long-term quality of life.

Review of Related Studies

In a study made by Malik, Ladhani and Bhamani (2003) in Karachi India,they examined

continual student tardiness within an urban middle school inKarachi. The primary aim of the

study was to improve the punctuality of identifiedmiddle school students by providing them with

rewards and incentive on the observation of each decrease in their tardiness. In addition to their

findings, they have developed a new intervention program which focuses on facilitating and

transforming the behavior of the parents and teachers towards student tardinessin the school.

Malik, Ladhani and Bhamani, Faculty, Department of Education, Institute of Business

Management devised an intervention which lasted for six weeks. The strategy they devised is a

“motivation -based” encouragement to learners who frequently miss out on their classes and commit

too many absencesfor the whole school year. After the weeks of intervention the post test was

carriedout using the similar measures. The data included observations in two phases

preintervention observation and a post-intervention observation by reviewing the attendance register.

The results revealed a significant change in the students’ tardiness in the school post

intervention.The findings of the said study highlight the importance of a relationship between

institutional practices of reward and behavior modification in students.In a study conducted by

Suhid, Asmawati, Aroff, Abdul Rahman Md. Ph. D.and Kamal, Norlaina, (2012), one of the

members of the Faculty of Educational Studies in University Putra Malaysia, who studied about “Factors
Causing Studen tAbsenteeism According to Peers, there are many factors involved in

motivatingstudents to attend school. Students who are not motivated, hence, will usuallydecide

not to be present in school. Based on several researches conducted, therate of absenteeism among

students increases annually in the University Putra Malaysia. As a result, this problem more or less

adversely affected the school’s reputation. Thus, their study was conducted to identify factors that

cause studentsto play truant. A set of questionnaire was used to collect the information

needed.The quantitative data was analyzed using Statistics Package for the SocialSciences

(SPSS) to obtain descriptive statistics indices. The research findings were duly discussed. One of

the factors that affected students’ motivation in going to school is indiscipline, according to the findings of

the study of Suhid, Asmawati, Aroff, AbdulRahman Md. Ph. D. and Kamal, Norlaina, (2012).

Indiscipline among students is aperennial problem. One common discipline problem found

globally is truancy.Davies and Lee (2006) found that school children in the United Kingdom

areinclined not to go to school or choose not to attend certain classes during theschool hours.

Truancy also occurs among Malaysian students, and according toEe Ah Meng (2003), it has

become a social moral issue. Indeed, what is of concernis that the spread of the truancy problem

has given rise to various moral and social