Absenteeism is negatively associated with student outcomes. It is now a problem faced by many schools in the District of Columbia. Many schools have tried various strategies of engaging families to reduce or prevent absenteeism, including two-way communications about students’ attendance. Recently, a group of researchers from the Office of the City Administrator, Executive Office of the Mayor, District of Columbia Government conducted an experiment to evaluate an application, TeacherText, which is specifically designed for teachers to engage families in two-way communications.
The experiment involved 57 administrators and teachers and 2,229 students randomly divided into treatment and control groups across six public schools in DC. For the ethical consideration that all students and their families should have the opportunity to receive some messages, administrators in both groups could use TeacherText to send messages to students and families. Treatment teachers were also given permission to do so, while control teachers were not. The experiment lasted for one semester (2019-2020). After the fall semester, the treatment group had a lower rate of chronic absenteeism (5% lower, not-significant), while there were no differences between the treatment and control group on in-seat attendance.
