Principal Investigator
Elaine M. Allensworth – Chicago Consortium for School Research
Project Description
This study uses administrative data from Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to examine trends in student absenteeism and its relationship to academic outcomes and school climate before (2016–2019) and after (2021–2024) the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis includes students in grades six through 11 and links attendance records with achievement data, school climate surveys (5Essentials), and neighborhood-level indicators such as poverty and unemployment. The researchers use descriptive analyses and cross-nested hierarchical linear models to isolate school and neighborhood effects and examine how school climate factors relate to attendance patterns.
Research Questions
- How have students’ absence rates changed in post-pandemic years, compared to pre-pandemic years?
- Do absences matter as much for student achievement as they did before the pandemic?
- To what extent are there systematic differences in students’ absence rates by school?
- How large are school differences after taking into account differences in students’ neighborhoods, demographic backgrounds, test scores, and prior attendance?
- What is the influence of school climate on absenteeism, and has its influence changed since the pandemic? Which aspects of school climate are most influential in supporting students’ attendance?
Key Findings
- Chronic absenteeism increased dramatically post-pandemic, rising by roughly 20 percentage points, with nearly half of CPS students chronically absent in 2022.
- Absences remained strongly associated with lower academic achievement (test scores and GPA) both before and after the pandemic.
- Schools serving similar students showed substantial variation in absenteeism, indicating that school-level factors play a meaningful role.
- School climate factors—especially student safety, relationships, and connectedness—were strongly linked to attendance, with stronger effects in post-pandemic years.
- Even incremental increases in absences (not just chronic absenteeism) were associated with worse outcomes, suggesting attendance matters across the full distribution.
Study Citation
Allensworth, E. M., Antony, M., Delgado, W., & de la Torre, M. (2026). Connection, trust, and learning: Student attendance in the middle and high school grades following the COVID-19 pandemic. University of Chicago Consortium on School Research.
The Key Findings above were reproduced from the published report and do not necessarily reflect interpretation of Overdeck Family Foundation staff.
