EFFECTS OF TEACHER’S ABSENTEEISM ON STUDNTS LEARNING

INTRODUCTION

Absenteeism is a habitual pattern of absence from a duty or obligation.

Traditionally, absenteeism has been viewed as an indicator of poor individual

performance, as well as a breach of an implicit contract between employee and employer;

it was seen as a management problem, and framed in economic or quasi-economic terms.

More recent research seeks to understand absenteeism as an indicator of psychological,

medical, or social adjustment to work.

A report by the World Bank, “Teacher absenteeism as a major problem in the educational

sector. ’’

The report, titled Education in Ghana: Improving Equity, Efficiency and Accountability

of Education Service Delivery, said absenteeism is more common in rural schools, with a

seeming link to higher occurrences of a poor remuneration, low qualification of teachers

and teachers furthering studies. It was released on February 23, 2011.

According to the report, teachers in Tunisia and Morocco miss 11.6 days and 13.4 days a

year respectively, while teachers in Ghana miss 43 days. Among the main underlying

reasons for the high absentee rate, are lacks of supervision, poor remuneration, poor

teacher morale, Sickness/medical care, collection of salary at a bank located at a distance,

and frequent funeral attendance.

According to the Reading Today private school teachers tend to be more satisfied than

public school teachers, and elementary school teachers tend to be more satisfied than

1
secondary school teachers, because the private school teachers receive a great deal of

parental support as opposed to the public school teachers; the fiduciary responsibility the

parents for their child or children education.

They mentioned, "The relationship between the teacher's motivation to attend and their

actual presence on the job could be perceived by the teachers as having control of their

work environment" As a result, "this perception may have influenced the attendance

barriers".

Attendance barriers were defined as untimely circumstances for teacher illness, family

illness, unexpected personal responsibilities, and transportation problems that prevented

employees from going to work. In these parameters, employees may have been motivated

to attend work, but, due to involuntary circumstances, were unable to actually do so.

Teacher absenteeism had a negative impact on the financial resources of a school system,

but more importantly, it had a detrimental and disruptive effect on student achievement.

The study of teacher absenteeism must also include the problem that develops with

increased numbers of substitute teachers. The use of substitute teachers is an unfortunate

dilemma and process but a necessary practice in today's educational environment.

Absenteeism affects performance of students, and it is in view of this that, this research

was conducted to reveal how poor remuneration, low qualification of teachers and

teachers furthering education on distance learning contribute to it.

Definitions of Absenteeism

2
 There are many variations to the definition of absenteeism. Defining absenteeism

has not changed much in recent years. The definitions of excused absence include

categories such as personal sickness, jury duty, religious holidays, and funeral leave and

transportation problems. Meanwhile, the unexcused absence meaning absenteeism

without an official or recognized (excused) reason, that occurs when an employee fails to

provide a satisfactory explanation for the absenteeism, or gives no reason at all.

Below are the working definitions of absenteeism

Absence constitutes a single day of missed work. Absence occurs whenever a

person chooses to allocate time to activities that compete with scheduled work, either to

satisfy the waxing and waning of underlying motivational rhythms or to maximize

personal utility. Lack of physical presence at a given location and time when there is a

social expectation for him or her to be there. Absenteeism from the work place is

considered as a symptom of a deep seated problem, and not as a problem on its own.

It might be an indication that the worker is demoralized or dissatisfied with the work.

Majority of the employers, when factoring in the effects of absenteeism to the

performance of the company, do not differentiate between those absences that were out of

necessity and those that were unnecessary.This considers the total number of absences

and the frequency of the same. This is regardless of the fact that there are different forms

of absenteeism.

The problem of teacher absenteeism is an increasing concern among the nation's

educators. The study reported substitute teaching as the third highest-ranked "serious"

problem facing school personnel directors and named teacher absenteeism as the number

3
one ranked "general problem" encountered in their work. Not only are the monetary costs

of teacher absenteeism escalating, but the difficulty of finding qualified substitute

personnel is also a growing problem for many school districts.

The number of absences claimed by female teachers increased with age. Male teachers,

on the other hand, claimed more days in their thirties than at any other age. There are also

mediating social factors involved in the linkage between stress and illness behavior

among urban public school teachers. The rate of teacher absenteeism has been found to

be highest in elementary and most middle schools, schools with lower student

achievement, schools composed of economically disadvantaged and minority students,

and schools that do not require teachers to speak to their immediate supervisor about

pending absence, urban schools districts and districts with enrollments in excess of

257,000.

The importance of this study is very significant relative to student achievement, it states:

In schools where students are poorest and failing the most academically, teachers tend to

be absent more often. In one study, the percentage of students reading below grade level

was found to be the greatest predictor of school employee absenteeism, followed by the

percentage of students eligible to receive free lunch.

In general, studies relating the direct effects of teacher absenteeism on student

achievement are limited and tend to differ in their findings. For example, in a study that

focused on fourth-grade reading results, it was determined that teacher absenteeism

adversely affected student achievement. In view of Pitkoff's finding that school

employees rated as unsatisfactory tend to be absent significantly more days than those

4
rated satisfactory, a reasonable conclusion might be that the absence of a "poor" teacher

does not effect as negatively on student learning.

"Teacher absenteeism" is regarded as a vital problem in the education system today.The

definition of absenteeism is as complicated and descriptive as human nature. The private

sector has always been sensitive to the relationship between employee absenteeism and

fiscal loss. The same research prompted educators to examine the conditions of teacher's

absentee rates to determine if this behavior adversely affected student's academic

performance.

Thus, the definition given to absenteeism needs to encompass an overall view of all the

aspects involved in the practice of work absenteeism. What can be stated with certainty is

that the definition of absenteeism by many authors rather taken for granted and most

studies focus their attention on the causes and effects of the phenomenon and its

explanations.

Under above discussion absenteeism could be defined as under :-

‘‘Absenteeism as a symptom refers to the reasons that a person may be absent from

school (truancy) or work (absenteeism).’’

Sometimes people are too sick to come in, and in some cases, they are making excuses.

Both physical and psychological disorders can stop a person from attending school or

work.

5
Factors Influencing Absenteeism

Many teachers do absent themselves from school based on illness. Sometimes

some sick teachers are forced to go to school even if sick as a result transmit

communicable diseases to their co-teachers.

Many teachers stay far from their schools; however a source of transportation to their

schools is usually a problem. This sometimes prevents teachers from coming to school.

They may also stay at places where they have to travel for a long distance before they go

for their salaries all these do make them absent themselves. Also non-professional

teachers turn to miss school most, since they lack interest in the job. They turn to use the

teaching profession as a stepping stone in life.

Teachers in rural areas most at times do not go to school because they are aware that no

circuit supervisor will be able to easily get to the school since the place is far and the road

is also not good. Based on this, the teachers choose not to go to school. Teachers equally

give other excuses such as funeral, rain and not having money to fare

him/herself.Workforces often excuse absenteeism caused by medical reasons if the

worker supplies a doctor's note or other form of documentation.

Researchers have identified different types of job satisfaction. There is what

Burgoonrefers to as extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction. The latter is when the

employee takes into consideration the conditions of their work as a determinant off their

satisfaction. This can be viewed as been composed of Herzberg's hygiene factors.On the

other hand, intrinsic job satisfaction is when the employee considers only the inherent

6
attributes of the job, (like category, difficulty among others) as the determinants of his

job satisfaction.

According to Nelson and Quick people who are dissatisfied with their jobs are absent

more frequently. They went on to say that the type of dissatisfaction that most often leads

employees to miss work is: dissatisfaction with the work itself. In other cases, they are

not satisfied with their salaries or poor motivation. The psychological model that

discusses this is the "withdrawal model", which assumes that absenteeism represents

individual withdrawal from dissatisfying working conditions. This finds empirical

support in a negative association between absence and job satisfaction, especially

satisfaction with the work itself.

There are several determinants of job satisfaction. They include, among others, the

relationship between an employee and the other employees, or the relationship between

the employee and the supervisor or administration. When this relationship is enhanced

and satisfying, job satisfaction follows. Compensation is also another determinant of job

satisfaction. When the employee believes that he is sufficiently compensated, he will be

happy at the job and hence be satisfied. The opposite is also true; if an employee feels

that he is not been sufficiently compensated, then he will not be satisfied at the job.

The conditions under which the person is working will also determine the level of his job

satisfaction. If the conditions are conducive, the employee will be satisfied. However, if

the conditions are not conducive, for example in the case of hazardous working

conditions, the employee will not be satisfied.

7
According to a report by Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM, 2009), there

is a widespread job dissatisfaction among workers of all cadre. The study did not find any

difference between satisfaction levels of people from different income brackets or ages.

According to this study, the past ten years have seen an unprecedented decline in the

level of job satisfaction across all income brackets. For the past four decades, researches

have consistently proved that a considerable number of teachers would quit the job and

look for another one given the chance. This number ranges from 40-50% of all teachers

interviewed (SHRM, 2009)

Effects of Absenteeism

The verbatim comments by the teachers also indicate that the students are forced

0to adjust to someone new and that their behavior and performance suffers and substitute

teachers are notable to teach the students as effectively as the regular classroom teacher.

A further research that found substitute teachers were significantly less effective than

regular classroom teachers suggests that there is a breakdown in organizational structure

and that the absence of clear expectations; such as, performance feedback, leadership

style, classroom management and disciplinary skills further weaken the effectiveness of

the substitute teachers .

Teachers are too often the one expected to be flexible. They are asked to manage over-

crowded classes, they are expected to perform without strong support from

administration, and they are expected to excel despite the lack of incentives to motivate

them to take on the additional responsibilities. The teacher respondents overwhelmingly

indicated that stress is the primary cause of teacher absenteeism, lack of leadership and

8
poor classroom management. It is the combination of the day to day emotional, physical

and intellectual energy expended that creates the level of stress.

Add to these conditions the need to take on another group of students because a colleague

is absent. Despite these conditions, a greater understanding of the issues raised by

teachers around the nation related to teacher absenteeism. The solution to this problem

should not be a decline in quality of education.

There are obvious reasons why teacher absenteeism can be costly to the school district.

The first involves the fact that many schools receive funding from the state with regard

to the number of students present and the number of certified teachers that are present.

The second, of course, is that classrooms cannot be left unattended. Thus, when a

teacher is absent, regardless of the reason, the school district must request a substitute in

order to oversee the classroom and attempt to teach the lessons that were planned by the

individual teacher. Unfortunately, substitute teachers are not generally certified by the

state to teach school.Considering the increased use of substitute teachers and the

decreased effectiveness of instruction, student achievement scores in the urban school

settings have continued to decline.

The school administration acknowledges that they are aware of the problem with teacher

absenteeism, classroom management and leadership; and they are taking steps to correct

them. However, little evidence exists that steps are being taken to address teacher

absenteeism or improve the substitution process, whether it is an actual replacement

teacher or a combined class. Teachers are being forced to take leaves of absence in order

to express their dissatisfaction with the administration. Sometimes, they find the

9
situations in the school system so subjective that they take leave of absence, knowing

their student's would be placed in another teacher's classroom. Such actions by teachers

are deliberate in order for them to have or maintain a sense of sanity and return to work at

a later date.

Teacher absence rates were significantly higher in public schools than the absence rates

of persons working in private industry. The author was concerned with the dilemma

facing schoolteacher's absenteeism, which has become a national crisis when compared

to private industry absences.

However, teachers cannot maximize instruction if they are not in the classroom. The

Pennsylvania School Boards Association (1992) found that the effectiveness of the

teacher depended on his/her stability as the regular classroom instructor.

The board discovered that the more the teacher was present to deliver instructional

information and to also monitor skills, the greater the result of academic growth.

Elementary students were even more influenced by the behavior because of their

developmental need to be surrounded by familiar people and structured learning activities

as compared to middle and high school students (Pennsylvania School Boards

Association,1992)

In a Nation at Risk (1983), the achievement scores of American students were compared

with the scores of students from other industrialized nations. The authors found that the

achievement scores of American students were related to the quality and quantity of

instructional time. Time lost by students because of the absence of the regular classroom

10
teacher was a significant problem that slowed or halted academic and emotional growth

(A Nation at Risk, 1983).

Ironically, national data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics(1996)

demonstrated that urban teachers did not regard teacher absenteeism as a major problem.

The data from this study revealed that only 1.6 percent of all teachers believed that their

absences from the classroom presented a serious barrier to student achievement.

As a result of this key finding, substitutes are hard to find to replace absent teachers in

urban schools. Student academic achievement falls and students do not feel connected to

the classroom. This is also found that student performance is lowered by one or two

percent for each ten days that a teacher is absent.

In studies conducted at Duke University, Charles Clotfelter and colleagues found that

schools having more low socioeconomic and minority students also had higher teacher

absence rates, and that then leads to lower student test scores.Clotfelter found that the

teachers in the poorest schools in North Carolina took an average of one extra sick day

per year compared to teachers in wealthier schools. Clotfelter et al. also found that

absences affect low-income students more and that teachers at schools with higher free

and reduced lunch recipients, also typically low-income schools, had more absences

(p.15).

A report for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction in May 2007 concluded

that having teachers report in person instead of only calling in to an automated telephone

system reduces absenteeism.

11
 In an investigative article done for the Chicago Tribune, Darnell little and Tracy

Dellangela found through a six-year analysis of teacher absenteeism that the highest

absenteeism problems were found in a certain cluster of failing schools. That district

began publishing teacher absence rates in directories given out to parents. The absence

arranged from 2 to 35 days per teacher among the 500 elementary schools. Miller and

colleagues found in their research big differences in teacher absence rates among schools

in the same district. In an interview in the Associated Press in 2009, Raegen Miller was

quoted as saying the "professional culture of a school and the relationship between

teachers and administrators affect absenteeism”.

In a report to the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, Craig Hubbell states that

attendance improves when teachers are required to report their absences to their direct

supervisor (2008).

Adding to the problem is the trend in recent years to allow sick days to be used for family

illness, as well as the teacher’s own illness. That all stated, control of excess sick leave

utilization remains by and large something which can be controlled by good management

practices including:

 Encourage regular attendance and point out the impact on learning to staff

 Regularly reviewing reports of teacher absenteeism

 Considering publishing such reports to put public pressure on teachers to curb any abuse

12
 Counseling teachers who, in a given year are trending high and do not have a clear injury

or illness to explain the anomaly, or who show a pattern of excessive absenteeism over

multiple years

 Apply progressive discipline to teachers who do not respond to counseling efforts

Dealing with Teacher Absence

As employers, school districts must accommodate some level of teacher absence

with a combination of policies and management tools. Prominent policies include some

number of days of paid leave for illness or personal reasons, and incentives discouraging

frivolous use of paid leave. An electronic absence management system that records

absences, assigns substitutes, and produces reports is a commonplace management tool.

State policies often set parameters for local policy. State must offer teachers at least 15

days of paid sick leave per year. States also set the bar in terms of qualifications for

substitute teachers, with some requiring little more than a high school diploma.

Schools, on the other hand, are typically free to operate outside the state parameters, but

traditional districts also enjoy latitude around many issues bearing on teachers’ absence

behavior. Collective bargaining contracts or board policies may specify, for example, the

point at which a stretch of absence due to illness requires medical verification, or

proscribe the use of personal leave on days adjacent to school holidays.

The drivers of teacher absence

13
 A good deal is known about relationships among teacher absence, relevant

policies, and management practices. One would expect, for example, to see higher rates

of absence where more paid leave is available and where there’s less incentive to take

leave frugally. Teachers also tend to be absent less often if they’re required to notify their

principal of impending absences by telephone. Employers and teachers can both benefit

from policies that balance paid short-term leave priveleges with income insurance for

unpaid leave associated with absences covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act.

But policy and management alone don’t determine employee behavior. Individual and

school-level factors also matter. Female teachers tend to be absent more often than their

male counterparts, a finding consistent across employment sectors and with links to

highly gendered family responsibilities. Teachers who commute long distances—and are

therefore more susceptible to bad weather and other obstacles—also tend to be absent

more often than teachers with shorter commutes

The costs of teacher absence

Schools spend more on the salary and benefits of teachers than any category of

expenditure, so it’s not surprising that the financial costs of teacher absence are high.

Financial costs tied to teacher absence include payouts of accumulated, unused leave and

annual awards designed to discourage unnecessary absences. A comprehensive cost

figure is extremely difficult to calculate, but this does not preclude knowing that the

figure is too high.

14
Likewise, teacher absence has important nonfinancial costs. It negatively affects student

achievement, a fact borne out by research that finds that every 10 absences lowers

average mathematics achievement equivalent to the difference between having a novice

teacher and one with a bit more experience. Estimating such effects is challenging, in

part, because achievement tends to be measured far less frequently than absence, which is

a day-by-day phenomenon. The learning-loss costs of teacher absence, however, have

high face validity.

Students in public schools serving predominantly low-income families tend to endure

teacher absence at a higher rate than students in more affluent communities. Thus, it’s

plausible that achievement gaps can be attributed, in part, to a teacher attendance gap.

The absence culture

The professional culture of a school the norms, formal and informal, that guide

teachers’ behavior has a facet related to absence. Researchers have studied this facet, the

so-called absence culture, along two dimensions. The first has to do with how similarly

teachers behave to one another. The second dimension of absence culture focuses on trust

among staff. Trust can be framed as the degree of professional autonomy enjoyed by

teachers. Absences in low-trust settings can represent a “deviant” or “calculative”

mindset, depending how much tug the culture has on teachers’ behavior. Such behavior

in the realm of absence hardly sounds conducive to school improvement, and it

underscores broader concern with trust in the research literature on school improvement

and in practical matters such as states’ applications for competitive federal grants under

the Race to the Top program.

15
Illness and occupational hazards

The nature of teachers work may explain some of their absences. Multiple studies

have linked teacher absence with job-related stress and there’s some evidence that

absences due to symptoms and complications of vocal strain may be prevented with

classroom amplification systems. Anecdotal reports suggest that new teachers are

particularly susceptible to student-borne illnesses, making the notion that teachers

immune systems require a period of adjustment appealing. Research following this line is

difficult to do because new teachers tend to be absent less often than their more

experienced colleagues, in part because they lack the privileges and job security, and

perhaps in part because they’re better able to power through, engaging in “presenteeism.”

At any rate, school-wide use of hand sanitizer reduces rates of teacher absence.

Timing

Researchers consistently find two patterns in the timing ofteachers absences. First,

teachers are absent most frequently on Mondays and Fridays. Second, a high proportion

of absences due to illness occur in blocks of time short enough that no medical

certification is required. These findings are hardly surprising given that they are

consistent with findings from studies of employees in other fields. Information about

such patterns is lost in the blunt, school-level measure of absence embraced by the Civil

Rights Data Collection survey, but that does not preclude these data from bringing light

to a dark corner of education policy and practice.

16
Academic Achievement

When students succeed in school, they learn that they are capable of success, are

willing, in turn, to take on additional challenges. We believe that all work has value and

dignity. The school’s obligation is to help each student find self-fulfillment and

actualization, and to ensure that the culture of the school respects all lines of endeavor.

Learning and behavioral challenges facing educators in the 21st century require a greater

awareness and acceptance of all children. As it stands, there are countless students who

enter the classroom at-risk for academic failure requiring differentiation, re-teaching,

enrichment, and/or a greater challenge to achieve higher levels of success; factors

impacting student achievement.

This national problem appears to be more significant in large urban school districts,

which places our precious cargo at a disproportionate disadvantage.

Conclusion

It is a concluded that poor teacher attendance rates can affect student performance in the

classroom and some other factors that influences absenteeism such ailment, poor

remuneration, job dissatisfaction teachers taking salaries from different towns,

transportation problem, teachers furthering education on distance learning and the

qualification of the teachers to be the main causes of absenteeism.The regular teachers

may hesitate to assign serious work to the substitutes because of a lack of interaction or

information exchange between the regular teacher and the substitute teacher, and the

teacher not knowing the substitute’s credentials.

17
It is also concluded that permanent teachers are important and their absence has a

negative effect on student learning. Teacher absences have a significant, direct budgetary

effect as school have to engage substitute teachers to temporarily take the place of regular

teachers.

Recommendations

The inabilities of the managers of education to curtail absenteeism are mostly as a

result of activities of the teachers themselves. Such activities can be addressed or reduced

to appreciable level that is acceptable to all stakeholders in the educational sector and the

society as a whole. It is in line with this that the following recommendations are put

forward which if adhered to could help curtail absenteeism for sustainable economic

growth and social development.

• To manage absenteeism a wide range of information for proper planning and

policy formulation is needed. Therefore, there is the need to establish a

comprehensive national database on teacher attendance. The data can be used to

determine the salaries of teachers based on a formulated model.

• The formulated model determines the contribution of each predictor variables. It

is clear from the model that remuneration contributed more information to the

model than the rest of the other predictor variables.

• Most teachers absent themselves from school because there is ineffectiveness

monitoring and evaluation by supervisor. It is therefore recommended that

managers of schools should enforce monitoring and evaluation

18
• All faculty and staff should be made aware of the content and results of this study

and how serious the effect teacher absenteeism has, particularly on students who

are already deprived in other ways and need the full attention and focus of their

teacher.

• Though we recognize that this will place an added burden on the school principal,

the effectiveness of the method will eventually reduce the work placed on the

principals when their teacher attendance improves. This will eventually lead to a

reduction in the financial expenditure on substitute teachers, allowing more

money for the principal to use on other important programs or supplies as an

incentive for high attendance. If a principal does not require a teacher to make

contact with them when they are out, it is unlikely that they will be aware when a

teacher is absent on a consistent basis.

• Principals need to explain attendance expectations to faculty and staff at the

beginning of each school year and then follow up to monitor attendance. School

districts should also regularly gather attendance data and monitor the leave usage

of their employees.

• We also recommend that the District look at implementing incentive programs to

encourage and reward good attendance, such as monetary bonus for teachers who

have perfect attendance or those who do not use more than their three allotted

personal days each year. Individual schools should recognize employees with

good attendance each year and offer some type of gift certificate or other reward.

19
• This idea would not be politically popular with the teacher’s organizations and

resistance would undoubtedly be strong, however this is an option to consider if

other efforts to improve attendance are unsuccessful.

• Substitute teachers should receive training in standards, instruction, content areas

as well classroom management.

• Beyond the traditional methods of training - classes and workshops -

administrators should consider other methods of training substitute teachers:

classroom observations, mentoring, networking, and attending professional

development that regular teachers attend.

• There should be a better information exchange between the regular and substitute

teachers. The regular teacher should know the credentials of the substitute and

provide clearer instructions for the substitute enabling him/her to become

effective in the classroom.

• Establishing a personal relationship between regular and substitute teachers will

help improve perceptions about the substitutes’ efficacy and lead to more

effective use of substitutes in the classroom

As noted, more research needs to be done to determine why teacher absences tend

to affect student learning.

20
References

Bradley, S., Green, C., and Leeves, G. “Worker Absence and Shirking: Evidence from

Matched Teacher-School Data.” Labour Economics, 14 (2007): 319–34.

Brayfied P. and Muchnisky K. (2006) Absence of the regular teacher from class;

Assessment of psychomotor skills.

Bruno, J. (2002). The geographical distribution of teacher absenteeism in large urban

school district settings

Clotfelter, C.T., Ladd, H.F., and Vigdor, J.L. “Are Teacher Absences worth Worrying

about in the U.S.?” Cambridge: National Bureau of Economic Research. (2007).

Darling-Hammond, L., and St. Michel (1995, May). Inequality and access to

knowledge: Handbook of research on multicultural education. Simon and

Schuster Publication.

David Romer (1993): "Do Students Go To Class? Should They?" The Journal

Of Economic Perspectives, Summer,Pp. 167-174.

District Management Council (2004). Management advisory brief: Reducing teacher

absenteeism.

Dowerkin, J. (1990). Substitute teacher availability, pay, and influence on teacher

professional development: A national survey. Spectrum, 18, (3), 40-46

21
Ehrenberg, R.G., Ehrenberg, R.A., Rees, D.I., and Ehrenberg, E.L. “School District

Leave Policies, Teacher Absenteeism, and Student Achievement.” Journal of

Human Resources 26 (1991): 72–105.

Freeman, R., and Grant, F. “How We Increased Staff Attendance by 16 Percent and

Saved $156,000.” American School Board Journal 174 (1987): 1-31.

Gendler, P. H. (1977). How one school system cut its teacher absenteeism in half.

American School Board Journal, 164, (10), 32.

Glatfelter, A. G. “Substitute Teachers as Effective Classroom Instructors.” PhD diss.,

University of California (2006).

Jacobson, S. (1989). The effects of pay incentives on teacher absenteeism. The

Journal of Human Resources, 24 (2), 280- 287.

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and

development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Lewis, J. (1981). Do you encourage teacher absenteeism? American school board

journal, 168(11), 29-30. 182

Miller, R.T., Murnane, R.J., and Willett, J.B. “Do Teacher Absences Impact Student

Achievement? Longitudinal Evidence from One Urban School District.”

Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 30 (2008):

National Commission on Excellence in Education. “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative

for Educational Reform.” The Elementary School Journal 84 (1983):112-131.

New York City Public Schools. “Impact of Student Attendance, Teacher Certification

and Teacher Absence on Reading and Mathematics Performance in Elementary

and Middle Schools in New York City.” New York, (2000).

22
Norton, M. S. (1998). Teacher absenteeism: A growing dilemma in education.

Contemporary Education, 69, (2), 95. PA, (1978).

Pennsylvania School Boards Association. “Teacher Absenteeism: Professional Staff

Absence Study.” Harrisburg, PA, (1978).

Pitkoff, E. (1993). Teacher absenteeism: What administrators can do. NASSP Bulletin,

77, (551), 39-45.

Porwoll, P. (1980). Employee absenteeism: A summary of research. Arlington, VA:

Educational Research Service.

Scott, K. and McClellen, E. (1990). Gender differences in absenteeism. Public

Personnel Management, 19(2), 229-253.

Scott, Norton M. “Teacher Absenteeism: A growing dilemma in education.”

Contemporary Education 69 (1998): 95-100. London

Smith, G. G. (April, 1999). Dealing with the substitute teacher shortage. The School

Administrator, 31.

Unicomb, R., Alley, J., and Barak, L. 1992. Teacher absenteeism: A study of short

term teacher absenteeism in nine Nova Scotia schools which shows that teachers

are absent significantly less than workers in other professions. Education Canada,

32 (2), 33-37.

Woods, R. C., and Montagno, R. V. Winter, 1997. Determining the negative effect of

teacher attendance. Education, 118, (2), 307-317.

Zuckerbrod, Nancy. “Teacher Absences are Hurting Learning”, Associated Press,

January 17, 2008.

23