Attendance and Grades

1 Running head: Attendance AND GRADESThe Relationship Between Attendance and Gradesin the College Classroom.*H. Paul LeBlanc III, PhDAssistant ProfessorThe University of Texas at San AntonioDept. of CommunicationSan Antonio TX 78249-0643(210) 458-7724 / (210) 458-5991 presented at the 17th Annual Meeting of theInternational Academy of Business Disciplines, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, April 8, 2005.*2005 IABD Best Quantitative Paper Award. Attendance and Grades 1 The Relationship Between Attendance and Gradesin the College study compared the Attendance records of students against their test score averages forstudents at four institutions across multiple sections of several different courses over a fourteenyear period (N = 1617).

2 Results indicated that Attendance significantly influences test scoreaverages for students across sections and institutions (R2 = .181). Other results indicated that thesame relationship holds when controlling for institutional, course subject, and whether anattendance policy was enforced. Implications for these findings in terms of approaches toattendance policy making are have often stated in my classes my belief that Attendance is related to Grades , thatstudents who attend classes do better. Still challenges from students regarding my attendancepolicies have continued.

3 Students can and often do provide reasons for not attending class,including other responsibilities and priorities such as work or family obligations. They maychoose not to attend class due to incompatible goals, motivations, or expectations which arebecoming more a part of the culture of education (see Rochford, 2001).Yet, like other teachers I continued to require Attendance based on the belief that arelationship exists between Attendance and Grades . When I was undergoing teacher-training as agraduate student, my mentors often repeated this rule as commonsense advice regarding classattendance.

4 However, empirical evidence does not always support commonsense beliefs. Givenstudent expectations, such evidence may be required to provide motivation for class and Grades 2 The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship betweenattendance and Grades in the college communication classroom. Secondarily, this study wasdesigned to investigate whether the existence of an enforced Attendance policy influenced therelationship between Attendance and test scores. To accomplish the goals of the study, I willanalyze Attendance records and assignment Grades of students collected since of LiteratureSeveral studies have investigated the relationship between Attendance and Grades .

5 Forexample, Silvestri (2003) found a significant but weak negative correlation between the numberof absences and course Grades for students who missed three or fewer classes. However, forstudents who missed four or more classes, the author found a significant and strong negativecorrelation between the number of absences and course Grades . Silvestri's study was conductedon pre-service teaching students in a teaching methods class. Craig (1990) found similar resultsin a first-year composition course at a community college (see also Davenport, 1990).

6 Findings of these studies are fairly consistent, regardless of the course subject or level ofstudent. For example, Callahan (1993) found a relationship between Attendance and Grades inbasic mathematics courses (see also Thomas & Higbee, 2000). Van Blerkom (1992) found amoderate correlation between Attendance and Grades in undergraduate psychology and Kelland (1994) found similar results in introductory human physiology. Brown,Graham, Money and Rakoczy (1999) also found similar results among nursing students. Inaddition, the level of the student does not seem to influence the relationship between attendanceand Grades .

7 Fjortoft, Bentley, Crawford and Russell (1993) examined first-year doctoralpharmacy students and found a significant positive correlation between regular Attendance andcourse Grades . The results from Fjortoft and colleagues held true only for minority students, Attendance and Grades 3suggesting that other issues may influence student performance at higher levels. Indeed, asThomas and Higbee (2000) point out, academic autonomy was consistently related to studentperformance. Academic autonomy may influence student motivation, which may differ fromlower to upper level students or by academic perseverance (Van Blerkom, 1996).

8 In an earlier study, Van Blerkom (1992) found that class Attendance decreased from thebeginning of the semester to the end. Van Blerkom (1996) suggested such findings may indicatethat students may be motivated to persevere if they believe they can accomplish the tasksrequired in the , motivation to attend classes regularly may be influenced by social example, Jing and Mayer (1995) discovered that single-parents enrolled in introductorychemistry courses at a culturally diverse community college did not receive the highest lettergrade, unlike students without the added responsibility of single-parenthood.

9 The authors did finda relationship between class Attendance and final grade. Schuetze and Slowey (2002) suggest thatparticipation in class is more difficult for non-traditional students without institutional and students may also require social support to deal with the transition into highereducation. Haggis and Pouget (2002) found that first-year 17 to 18 year-old students neededsocial support to overcome separation and adjust to academic life. Indeed, Packham and Miller(2000) suggest that peer-based social support greatly influences academic motivation andperformance.

10 The existence of these social support networks and systems may greatly influencestudents regular Attendance in have also observed that immediacy and perceived teacher attentiveness alsoserve as external motivators for class Attendance . Fung and Carr (2000) observed that studentsAttendance and Grades 4attended face-to-face tutorials in a distance learning environment as a matter of preference. Moredirectly, Brooks and Rebeta (1991) found that Grades and Attendance decreased the further fromthe front of the class male and female students , tactics performed by the teacher to increase Attendance also serve asexternal motivators.