CHAPTER I

Background of the Study

Absenteeism, according to Merriam- Webster dictionary means

chronic absence. In the context of the school it is the habitual
or intentional failure from going to school. It cannot be denied that every
now and then, students may miss some school activities and lessons. But it
becomes a problem if the student will be away from school for many days.

Chronic absentee students are placed at a disadvantage both

socially and academically. They miss out on critical stages of social
interaction and development with their peers and at the same time impacts
negatively on their academic progress. This can result to low self-esteem,
social isolation, and dissatisfaction that could well have precipitated nonattendance in the first place.
According to (Schmidt in 1983) absenteeism affects the students
ability to get high scores in examinitions which can cause the decreasing of
grades or the student may fail and will cause him or her repeat the same year
level. Students who have spent time attending lectures or classes have a
significant, positive eefect on students performace. Students that participated
exhibits higher grades and scores in examinations that the student.
School absenteeism is an alarming problem for administrators,
teachers, parents, and the society in general, as well as for the pupils in
particular. Unaccepted absence has a negative effect on peer relationship
which could cause absence. Also, prolonged absence can have deleterious
effects for the child in later life. Students who are absent from the school
are at the risk of dropping out of school early.
In this study, the researchers aim to find out to provide data and
information regarding to the absenteeism among the Grade eleven
Carpentry students of Tampalon Senior High School as its effect to their
academic performance, as well as, it will help the teachers, parents and
also to the students to know what will be the possible ways to overcome
and prevent absenteeism. The researchers intend to conduct this study.

Theoretical Framework

Previous research studies by De Leonibus (1978) suggest

that student absenteeism and lack of motivation are
intertwined. Educators have begun to investigate the
theories of motivation in order to apply them to create
policies in an attempt to reduce the problem of student
absenteeism (De Leonibus, 1978).
According to Woog (1992), three theoretical categories
identify the causes or predictors of student attendance
specifically are: those which identify the cause of the
absenteeism with the student or his/her family
characteristics, those which identify the student's social
or economic environment as the causal factor, and those
which examine the effect of various school characteristics
as influential in the absentee rate of students.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study would like to find out the effect of absenteeism on academic
performanceamong Grade-11 carpentry students of Tampalon Senior High School for the
school year 2016-2017.
Specifically, it answers the following questions:
1. What is the socio-demographic profile of the respondents when classified
according to
a. Sex
b. Age
2. What are the factors of absenteeism among grade-11 carpentry students of
Tampalon Senior High School?
HYPOTHESIS

1. The schematic diagram shows the relationship among variables of the study.
INDEPENDENT VARIABLE

DEPENDENT VARIABLE

Classified according to:

a. Age
b. Sex

Absenteeism among Grade

Eleven carpentry students
of Tampalon Senior High
School

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The focal point of this research is to survey the perception of the selected senior
high school students towards absenteeism as its effect to academic performance. Its
primary concentration is bounded only to the selected Grade-11 Carpentry Students of
Tampalon Senior High School S.Y. 2016-2017. The survey respondents consisted of
thirty (30) (Grade-11 carpentry senior high school) students who experienced being
absent at school.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The results of the study will be of great help to the following:
Teachers and Principals.They could help each other in implementing plans in helping
the students to go to school.

Students. This study will help the students to attend their class regularly since this will
provide them factual information about the benefits that they can acquire in attending
school.
Parents.Parents could encourage their children to go to school. They would be more
responsible.
The Future Researchers.The proposed study will benefits and help the future researcher
as their guide. The study can also open in development of this study. They would be able

to use these data for them to get the ideas and references if they are planning to conduct
the same study.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
The following terms are defined conceptually and operationally to facilitate better
understanding of the study.
Absenteeism. Conceptually it refers to the practice or habit of being absent from
school (meriam-webster dictionary)
In this study, this refers to the grade-11 carpentry students of Tampalon Senior
High School.
Academic perfromance.

CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Foreign Literature
This chapter presents foriegn literature and studies as well as local literature for
better understanding about the study.
California schools receive funding based on students average daily
attendance (ADA). In 1997, Senate Bill 727 passed, which limited attendance to
actual attendance only. Before the passage of this bill, schools received revenue
even
if students had excused absences such as illness, medical appointments, or funerals.
This bill was introduced out of a concern that poor school attendance (excused or
unexcused) increased a students risk of dropping out of school. The School
Attenda
nce Improvement Handbook, published by the California Department of
Education, states that, Regular school attendance is a necessary part of the learning
process and the means to graduation with a good education
(CDE, 2000, p. 7)
In a report on absentee

ism in the nations public schools, Balfanz and Burns

(2012) stated that students need to be in school daily to succeed. They defined
chronic absenteeism as students who have missed 10% or more of the school year or
8

in the previous year missed a month or

more of school. However, most schools
measure only average daily attendance
that
is based on the entire student body, not
specific students. Therefore a school could have 90% average daily attendance but
still have 40% of its students chronically absent.
There are only six states that
measure chronic absenteeism by
individual
student. The researchers used these six
states to produce an estimate of the nations attendance challenge. Their results
showed a conservative estimate of the natio
nal rate of chro
nic absenteeism to be 10
%
to 15%.
That means that 5 to 7.5 million students are chronically absent. The
researchers found that absenteeism begins to rise in middle school and continues to
climb through high school, with seniors frequently having the highe
st rate of all. The
report communicated that even without improvements in the American
e
ducation
s
ystem getting students to school every day will drive up achievement, high school
graduation, and college attainment rates.
There are many reasons why studen
ts are absent from school. Dube and
Orpinas (2009) studied positive and negative behavior reinforcements of students
who refused to go to school. The model looked at two reasons students do not go to
school. One was because of negative reinforcement, ind
icating that students refused
to go to school to avoid fear or anxiety
producing situations. The second was
because of positive reinforcement, indicating that students refused to go to school to
pursue positive tangible rewards such as gaining parental at
tention, watching
television or playing video games. The study looked at secondary data collected from
school social workers. The sample was taken from a suburban Atlanta district
and
9

was comprised of
99 students (58 boys and 41 girls) in grades 3
8 who
had no
documented chronic illness or health problems and were referred to a school social
worker for health problems from October 2005 through October 2006. The
researchers gathered data through the use of an informational survey, the School
Refusal Assess
ment Scale for Children (SRAS
C), the Strengths and Difficulties
Questionnaire, and the Reduced Aggression and Reduced Victimization Scale.
The
data
were
evaluated
using separate one
-

way analyses of variance. A Cronbachs

Alpha
was run to establish the internal validity of the surveys and scales used.
10

The researchers used the School Refusal Assessment Scale for Children
(SRAS
C) to measure positive and negative behavior reinforcement related to school
refusal behavior. In this scale
,
re
sponses ranged from
never = 0
to
always = 6
. The
primary reason for missing school was based on the highest mean score.
From the
results, three groups were identified: 1) multiple, which were students who missed
school for both positive and negative reason
s
(defined by a 0.5 or lower point spread
between the two highest scores for negative and positive reinforcement),
2) positive,
which were students who missed school for positive reasons such as being able to
spend more time with their parents, and 3) no
profile, which were students who had
scores lower than one across both profiles.
Of the 99 students, 17.2
%
had a multiple;
60.6
%
had a primary profile of positive reinforcement; and 22.2
%
had no profile.
These
descriptive
results show that most students m
issed school for positive tangible
reinforcement.
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was used to assess emotional and
behavioral difficulties. In this scale
,
response categories were
not true = 0
,
somewhat
tru
e=1
, and
certainly true = 2
.
Highe
r scores indicated a higher level of problem
behaviors. The results showed that students in the multiple reinforcement group had
significantly higher mean scores for total difficulties than the positive reinforcement
group and no profile group (
p
< .05).
The final scale used was the Reduced Aggression and Reduced Victimization
Scale, which was developed for use with upper elementary and middle school
students to measure relational aggression or victimization and overt behaviors. This
11

scale measures how fre

quently each behavior

occurred during
the seven days prior to
the survey (0 to 6 or more times). The scores were added and higher scores indicated
increased
relational aggression and victimization.
An analysis of variance was
conducted
and the
results sho
wed that students in the multiple reinforcement group
had a significantly higher mean of being victimized (
p
< .05) and a higher mean count
of traumatic or stressful events (
p
< 0.5). The no profile group had a significantly
lower frequency of perpetuating
aggression than the other groups (
p
< 0.5). The
study supports the idea that the majority of students attendance problems are
positively reinforced. Dube and Orpinas (2009) stated, This finding is not
surprising, given that previous studies have found
that students often think that school
is boring, classes are unengaging, and staff members are unapproachable, making
absences more likely to occur (pp. 91
92). The results showed that school
absenteeism is a complex problem and that interventions shou
ld be focused on the
problems and not just absenteeism itself.
The notion
that student
s
being bored in school is what leads them to cut
class or miss school, was also confirmed in another study by Fallis and Optow (2003).
The study took place at two l
arge urban schools in two cities in the Northeastern
United States (S
chool
1
N
= 3000 students; S
chool
2
N
= 1000 students). In both
schools, over half of the student population was eligible for free and reduced lunch,
which indicated low family income. Both schools had high dropout rates between
22

42%. Although the schools had diverse populations, the lar

gest student groups
were Black and Latino (94

98%). Qualitative data were collected by two student

12

researchers. In the first year, they analyzed data collected from 10 interviews
completed at S
chool
1. In the years that followed, they collected qualitat
ive data
from 160 students who were divided into eight focus groups. Freshmen through
seniors, representative of the school diversity, were recruited by teachers at their
schools and participation in the focus groups was voluntary.
In the focus groups,

students discussed their views on cutting class. After the

focus group sessions, the researchers worked jointly with university
based researche
r
s
to
identify
themes
that arose from the meetings. They found that students cut classes
as a reaction to their
perceptions
that schools are bureaucratic, sterile, and do not
respect
their
academic preferences or goals. The study also indicated that student,
staff and teacher burn
out was a factor in cutting class. In addition, the labeling of
students as losers al
so led to not wanting to attend class. The study established that
students used the word boring to label many aspects of school. In their research,
students
used the word boring to mean
a one
way
, top down relationship with a
teacher who
failed to engage or include them in the lesson.
Students felt this type of
teaching method
was disrespectful. In the study, students also
c
ited that their peers
who needed more help or were disrespectful in the classroom distracted them from
being engaged
or challenged. A final finding was that students were also aware that
resources differed between schools, and that at some schools their peers had access to
more elective choices, clubs, and extracurricular activities. The lack of these
resources contrib
uted to
the
students
perception
that school
is
boring. The
researchers recommended that instead of schools investing time and money in
13

punitive interventions for students who cut class, they should foster student voice and
engagement. Eliciting student
feedback and criticism on cutting class can give
schools an opportunity to better understand students perspectives and experiences
and give them guidance in designing intervention programs.
Gump (2005) also studied cutting class and its connection to stu
dent
achievement at the university level. He studied
300
undergraduate students in twelve
discussion sections of Introduction to Japanese Culture, which was a course that
fulfilled a general education requirement. The study took place through four
semeste
rs, beginning in fall 2001 and ending in spring 2003. Gump
gathered
data on

attendance at weekly discussion sessions. Absences were counted for students who
did not provide a
doctors
note or
make
prior
arrangements for being absent. Twenty
percent of th
e students grade was directly related to attendance, which included
points for attendance, participation and weekly quizzes.
A
correlation analysis was
run
to
determine
if
there was a relationship between attendance and grades. The
researcher
found that
as absences increased, grades (generally) decreased (
p
< .001).
He suggested that future studies should differentiate data between gender, class, and
school.
Another study that looked at the relationship between attendance and
academic achievement was
conducted
by Gottfried (2011)
.
In this study
,
he sought to
eliminate the variable of family influence on attendance and school performance by
employing a model of family fixed effects on a longitudinal sample of siblings within
the same household in a larg
e urban school district. The study took place over six
14

years from 1994

1995 through 1999

2000 (total sample

N
=33,400, sibling sample
N
=6,872). The study analyzed absences and outcome
s
of standardized test scores in
math
ematics
and reading based on a compr
ehensive data set of student,
neighborhood, teacher, classroom, grade, school, and
annual
observations.
Data w
ere
analyzed using
a standard linear education production function developed by
education economists and sociologists.
Gottfried found that absen
ces remained
significantly and negatively related to reading academic performance in all models (
p
< .07). He also found that the negative relationship between missing school and
standardized testing achieveme

nt was slightly greater for mathematics

than r
eading (
p
< .08). Gottfried concluded that, Missing school is directly linked to deterioration in
achievement
(p. 172).
Barry, Chaney, and Chaney (2011) researched how truancy and recent alcohol
use affected
students educational aspirations. The partic
ipants were selected yearly,
beginning in 1975, from a large, nationally representative
sample of adolescent
students in 130 public and private secondary schools throughout the United States.
Students were surveyed on their beliefs concerning personal lifestyle, school
performance and satisfaction, and beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes related to drug and
alcohol use.
The survey was originally intended for high
school seniors but was
expanded
to include
students in
eighth through tenth grade in
1991. The survey was
conducted
during
regularly scheduled
class time
s
. Surveys from
the students
were
anonymous, while senior respondents were asked to give their
names a
nd mailing
address
es
on a separa
te form for follow
up surveys.
The survey addressed
15

demographic variables, beliefs concerning personal lifestyle, school performance and

satisfaction, intergroup and interpersonal attitudes, and beliefs related to alcohol and
other drug use. Because this
was a secondary analysis, they looked at specific data
from the survey that related to this particular study which included adolescent alcohol
behavior, truancy, and personal academic aspirations.
The data w
ere
analyzed
using
a logistic regression analy
sis to assess the
predictor variables impact on ones educational aspirations. Initially they looked at
the independent variables of reported binge drinking and truancy. They also looked
at demographic variables such as age, sex, race, and father and moth
ers educational
level. The study found that as truant behavior increased
,
the likelihood of plans to
attend a 4
year college/university decreased

(
p
= 0.0
0
).
The researchers
also found
that students who reported less frequent binge drinking behavior and t
ruancy had
higher odds of
having
educational aspirations of attending a 4 year college/university
(
p
= 0.0
0
)
. The researchers recommended that schools consider developing programs
that promote connectedness to school.
Knesting
and Waldron (2006) conducted a qualitative case study on how at
risk students persist in school. They studied 17 high
s
chool students who were
identified as at
risk for dropping out at a comprehensive high school with enrollment
of 1,333 students. The h
igh school performed above average in several areas
compared to other
s
in the state, but was chosen because the graduation rate had
dropped
over
5 years from 88% to 71.5%.
The students were selected by
teachers
who worked with at
risk students. Of the se
venteen students chosen, 10 were males
16

and 7 females; 13 were white and 4 were African American. Students ages ranged
from 15 to 19
, and there was one student in grade 9, six
in grade 10,
three
in grade 11,
and
seven
in grade 12. Over a 5 month period,
Knesting and Waldron conducted
interviews with students seeking background information,
such as
what the students
thought of their school, what
they
liked and
did not
like about their school, what
advice the
y
would give to
others
who considered

dropping ou
t of their school, and if
there was anybody
at their school
they would suggest
to seek advice if
dropping out
of school
was a consideration
. They also conducted interviews with school
administrat
ors
, counselors, social workers and teachers to understand h
ow the school
supported at
risk students. There were also informal
observations
conducted
in
classrooms, during passing periods and before and after school.
To record data, field notes were taken as soon as possible following
interviews and observations. Knesting and Waldron broke the data collected into
units of instances found in interviews and observations. These units were then
reread and grouped into ca
tegories containing several units until themes began to
arise. The themes were
triangulated using data
gathered in classroom observations
and faculty interviews. Out of the data analysis process, Knesting and Waldron
developed theories to describe student
s persistence to earn a diploma. They found
that there were three factors that were important to students

persistence.
The first was that students had goal orientation
.
This meant that they
believed that something beneficial would result from gradua
ting such as
improving
their life, helping them achieve financial independence, the ability to continue their
17

education, or avoiding the consequences of being a drop

out. The second factor was a
willingness to play the game
.
They had learned that they ne
eded to change their
behavior and meet school demands in order to stay in school. This included figuring
out and following the rules, accepting that they needed to respect the school discipline
policies, and minding their own business and staying focused
on their goals. The third
factor was meaningful connections
.
Students identified friends, family, school
counselors, deans, teachers and administrators as people who helped them stay in
school. Teachers were cited the most as building meaningful connect
ions with
students. They identified several things that teachers do that foster these connections:
teachers communicate caring
;
they look for the good in students
;
they

do not
give up
on students who have made mistakes in the past
;
they know that the stud
ents lives
outside the classroom affect their behavior in the classroom
;
they hold high
expectations for students but make accommodations
;
and they provide a safe haven
for student
s. Knesting and Waldron found
, Once this group of at
risk students had a
goal focus, an understanding of what they needed to do to graduate and a relationship
with a supportive adult, they were able to move from talking about staying in school
to actually doing someth
ing to help them stay in school

(p
.
609).
They concluded
th
at to help students graduate
,
high school educators should emphasize people not
programs, focus on the positive, have high expectations, talk with students, and pay
attention to the small things.

According to (Teasly,2004) absenteeism is a period of time when a student does

not attend school will generally fall behind their classmates (Ford & Sutphen, 1996) they
have fewer opportunity to learn the materials that will help them to succeed. (Epstein &
Sheldon, 2002) the focus of students absenteeism ranges from early schooling until
adolescent years (Ford & Sutphen, 1996).
Absenteeism in students affects their school performances especially when they
are in a group or teamwork for their assignments and projects. Since grouping will help
develops the students cooperatives and ability to share and gain knowlege from their
group mates. Likewise, the group mates will also miss the opportunity of gaining
knowledge from the absent students (Koppenhaver, 2003).
Based on research of (Marburger, 2001) states that the absences create a dead
tiresome, unpleasant classroom, environment that makes students who come to class
uncomfortable and the lecturer irritable. Absenteeism disturbs the dynamic teachinglearning environment and adversely affects the overall well-being of classes (Segal,
2008). In quality terms, absenteeism is a waste of educatonal resources time and human
potential. Student absenteeism also causes rework and wasted time for lecturers (Lalek
&Rumburger 1997).
According to (Park and Kerr 1990, Romer 1993, and Fotz 1996, Marburger 2001)
it is widely recognized that absenteeism can negatively impact gardes in economics

courses and that high attendance rates can improve student performance in variety of
classroom settings (Sheets et al. 1995. Johnston and James, 2000).
Absenteeism can be defined as persistent, habitual, and unexplained absence from
school. Bond noted that chronic absenteeism occurs when a student is absent without
reason 20% or more of school time: - this nominal figure is consistently identified
regardless of the specific circumstances of the absenteeism. (Brooks, 1997 as cited in
Bond, 2004)
To prevent and correct serious attendance problems, school need to change the
way they structured improves the quality of the courses and intensity interpersonal
relationship between teachers and students (Epstein and Sheldon, 2002).
Daniel Rmarburger indicates that student performance is inversely correlated with
absenteeism. The author investigates the impact of enforcing an attendance policy on
absenteeism and student performance. The evidence suggests that an enforced mandatory
attendance policy signiifcantly reduces absenteeism and improves exam performance.

CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter describes the research design, respondents of the study, research
instrument, validity and reliability of the instrument, data gathering procedure and data
anlysis procedure.
Research Design
This study used quantitative research design. Quantitative research design is the
standard experimental method of most scientific disciplines. This experiments are
sometimes referred to as true science, and use traditional mathematical and statistical
means to measure results conclusively.
Respondents and/or Subjects of the Study
The respondents of this study are the 30 Grade Eleven Carpentry students of Tampalon
Senior High School for school year 2016-2017.
Research Instrument
This study use secondary data from the class record of carpentry adviser of
Tampalon Senior High School.
Validity and Reliability of the Instrument
This research make use of class record of the adviser of carpentry
students of Senior High School.

This means that the instruments that will be use in this study are valid and
reliable.
Data Gathering Procedures
A letter of a request will be send to the Principal as well as to the adviser of the
said carpentry students of SHS for the approval to gather data. As the researcher will
explain the purpose of the study to the Principal and adviser. After retrieval of all data,
these will encodefor tabulation.The data obtain and tally willanalyze and interprete using
the available statistical packages.
The research focus on the absenteeism for the basis on remedial calsses program.
The researchers employ the quantitative research design and provide appropriate
measures as it involves, recording, and interpreting the problem presented.
Data Analysis Procedure
The data will be gather from the carpentry adviser will be collated and tabulated with the
appropriate stastistical treatment.
In the analysis of data, quantitative research design tools are employ to satisfy according
to the nature of the specific problem that is set forth in this study.
To answer the statement problem number (1) which states, what is the socio demographic
profile when classified according to sex and age, frequency count will be use.
To answer the statement problem number (2) the mean and T-test correlation are utilize.