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Georgia Policy Labs Reports Georgia Policy Labs
7-27-2020
School Messaging Platforms and Student Attendance School Messaging Platforms and Student Attendance
Tareena Musaddiq
The University Of Michigan
Alexa Prettyman
University of California, Los Angeles
Jonathan Smith
Georgia State University
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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation
Musaddiq, T., Prettyman, A., & Smith, J. (2020). School Messaging Platforms and Student Attendance.
Georgia Policy Labs. https://doi.org/10.57709/30728975
This Report is brought to you for free and open access by the Georgia Policy Labs at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State
University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Georgia Policy Labs Reports by an authorized administrator of
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School Messaging Platforms and
Student Attendance
July 2020
Tareena Musaddiq
Georgia State University
Georgia State University
Georgia State University
DISCLAIMER: All opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the
opinions of any school district partner.
Metro Atlanta Policy Lab for Education
Georgia Policy Labs
School Messaging Platforms and Student Attendance 2
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HIGHLIGHTS
• Four school districts in Georgia used their
sages to over 7,800 parents of
students on-track to be chronically absent.
•
percent after receiving the low-cost
. This corresponds to,
on average, one less day absent.
• arder to reach than
absences have valid parental contact
nearly half the rate of students with
absences.
MOTIVATION
one of the strongest predictors of dropping out
of high school (e.g., Allensworth & Easton, 2007;
Balfanz &
-79 percent,
-
-
United States, -illion
—that is
one in every seven students (Balfanz & Byrnes,
of school each year (Chang , which,
according t
reasons,
&
2
not having all
& Feller,
percent
days. All analyses are insensitive to the definition used.
their child is absent. Even if they know the
ir
n. Finally, even if parents
how it relates to longer-
partnered -Atlanta,
Georgia, school districts to conduct an
sent
to their
2
We use the shorthand of “parents” for parents, guardians,
School Messaging Platforms and Student Attendance 3
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RESEARCH QUESTIONS
ch the parents of
students who are on-track to be chronically
absent?
Do students who are on-track to be
attendance after their parents receive
of days absent?
MESSAGING DETAILS
ed
text and
to the parents
of K-were on-track to be
chronically absent by the end of the school
yea r.
s
,
procedures, but they also have the ability to be
personalized by syncing with the districts’
typically at the beginning of the school year.
group of students are assigned to receive these
Depending on the
quality —
we directly assess—parents receive text
Three school districts use SchoolMessenger and one
district uses BlackBoard.
days of school.
slightly for grades K-8 and 9-
read as follows:
6
K-8 Message: “John school days so far
this year – 90 percent of his
John gets to school.”
9- Message: “John school days so far
this year – 90 percent of his
likely to graduate.”
rades
K-8 or 9-
of parents.
7
DATA AND METHODOLOGY
assign students into two groups: one group’s
, and the
ong to
each group, the two groups of students have, on
rates to one another.
ges
-out of future
. percent do so.
6
7
School Messaging Platforms and Student Attendance 4
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—we
in each group to one another.
8
In total, the
group of students whose parents are set to
7,880 students, and those who are not (control
students.
RESULTS
RESEARCH QUESTION #1
,
students in grades K-8 and 9-
receives texts on record to contact at least one
sage, so a lot of the contact is driven
Figure 1. Percent of Parents Who Received
and parents are unreachable through the
8
We use ordinary least squares in an intent-to-treat
analysis and two--on-
ssaging
-8 and high school
contact.
RESEARCH QUESTION #2
The 0.9-day s represents an
Figure 2. Students’ Numbers of Absences at
End of Year
The 0.7-day
the-treated analysis because
School Messaging Platforms and Student Attendance 5
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9
probability of being categorized as chronically
absent at the end of the school year for these
students who were all on-track to be chronically
who are chronically absent in the group that
categorized as chronically absent at the end of
the year for these students who were at-risk of
being chronically absent.
Figure 3. Percent of Students Who Are
Chronically Absent at End of Year
CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
9
in
in general. Previous research (Rogers & Feller,
, but that is not
necessarily true in this context. Further research
school districts have a powerful, yet
There is a lot of opportunity to use these
say,
-of-pocket costs to
the districts.
-cost
in gathering those data, especially
More details about the methodology of this
study and addional findings are contained in an
academic working paper at gpl.gsu.edu.
Jonathan Smith is the corresponding author for
this brief (jsmith500@gsu.edu
). This updated
policy brief (from July 2019) is based on a small
amount of data that was not previously
available, which generated minor changes to
results in research queson #1 and Figure 1.
. -on-the-treated
analyses.
School Messaging Platforms and Student Attendance 6
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REFERENCES
Allensworth, E.M. and Easton, J.Q., 2007. What
-
Chicago Public High Schools: A Close Look at
Year. Research Report. Consorum on
Chicago School Research.
available data. Balmore: Johns Hopkins
University Center for Social Organizaon of
Schools, pp-
Aendance Works.
addressing chronic absence in early grades.
Columbia University: Naonal Center for Children
in Poverty.
worth, E.,
Chicago: University of Chicago Consorum on
Chicago School Research.
Ginsburg, A., Jordan, P. and Chang, H., 2
Aendance Works.
absences at scale via parents. Working Paper,
John F. Kennedy School of Gov., Harvard Univ.,
Cambridge, MA.
School Messaging Platforms and Student Attendance 7
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Tareena Musaddiq was a graduate research
assistant with the Georgia Policy Labs and is now
a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Gerald R.
Ford School of Public Policy at the University of
Michigan. Her research interests are in
education, health,
Her current work focuses on the policy
interventions in K-
education -run and
intergenerational effects of girls’ education in
developing countries. She holds a Ph.D. in
e
aster’s in ef the
University of Warwick in the United
and a e
in Pakistan.
student at Georgia State University studying
a graduate research assistant with the Georgia
Policy Labs. Her research evaluates and develops
interventions and evidence-based policies that
chronically absent students and children in
foster care. She is also interested in the short
and long-run effects of non-instructional
services offered by schools and the
University of Kentucky.
is an assistant professor of
e
s. His
research focuses on the behavioral and
and the consequences of those decisions. His
ncluding the
Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Human
Resources, and the Journal of Policy Analysis and
Management and has been featured in
The New York
Times. Prior to Georgia State University,
he worked as a
College Board. He received his Ph.D. in
ABOUT THE GEORGIA POLICY LABS
-
Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, GPL works to create
goal is t
-
-school-based
evidence-
gpl.gsu.edu.
