TRUANCY IN AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

A multitude of reasons which have been cited as causes of the decline in academic performance in American public schools. One of the reasons cited in the 1983 report (National Commission on Excellence in Education) was poor attendance. Poor attendance continued to be cited as a cause of substandard academic performance (Eastwold, 1989; Hill, 1989b; Janko, 1988; Kunisawa, 1988). The truancy problem has not gone away.

The typical public perception of truancy is of a student skipping schoolùfor a period, several periods in a day, a day, or several days in a semester or quarter. Truancy of that type is a problem in American public schools; however, it is not the only type of truancy that constitutes a major problem for American schools. Skipping periods and days from school often leads to the dropping-out of school by students, and dropping

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990). Another disciplinary approach involves placing truant students in alternative learning centers (Griggs, 1989). While alternative learning centers may teach discipline, there exists serious questions as to their ability to academically qualify students (Schultz, 1987). Success has been attained through therapeutic discipline in dealing with some truant adolescents (Miller, 1986). Incentives to Promote School Attendance Using incentives to increase school attendance, as an educational policy, is directed toward improving choice in education for students (Clinchy, 1989). Choice in such programs most often means providing students with meaningful alternatives to college preparatory programs (Calabrese, 1988). Providing meaningful and worthwhile vocational education alternatives for some students would not only combat truancy, it would provide other benefits to American society. Technical labor in the United States is by and large both unskilled and unprepared (Business-Higher Education Forum, 1988). Most experts agree that the American economy requires ômore highly educated entry workers in order for our country to remain competitiveö (United States Department of Labor, 1988, p. 9). Unfortunately, all too many of these e
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Approximate Word count = 2246
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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