A Closer Look at African American Males in OUSD: Attendance

This report examines data, best practices, and policies related to attendance and chronic absence and offers recommendations for reducing the levels of chronic absence for African American boys in OUSD. The report analyzes one year of attendance data (2010-2011) for African American males in OUSD, looking at chronic absence by grade level, types of absence, and reasons given for absence, as well as comparing rates of chronic absence for African American males to other male groups in OUSD. Also examined and analyzed are reasons for attendance disparities for African American boys and recommendations for addressing them from a survey of research literature. Finally, we analyzed California Education Code, OUSD School Board policy, teacher contracts and guides, and the OUSD Parent Guide to help us formulate recommendations for OUSD policy, procedure and practice to address disproportionately high levels of chronic absence among African American males.