The effect of track position on absenteeism

Absenteeism is one of the major problems facing America's schools. Absenteeism disrupts the learning environment, is related to lower levels of achievement, and is associated with problems of crime and delinquency. While previous research has identified many of the determinants of absenteeism, the role of a student's position in the tracking structure within a school has not been explored. The purpose of this paper is to explore this relationship. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression results reveal that students who are in the lower tracks within the tracking structure in a school are more likely to be absent than other students and that Black and female students in low tracks are more adversely affected by the low-track environment that non-Black and male students. These results suggest that track position must be taken into consideration when dealing with the problem of absenteeism. The author would like to thank Maureen Hallinan for the use of her data set and for her comments and suggestions on previous drafts. The author would also like to thank Richard Williams and Kathryn Schiller for their comments and suggestions.