Attendance affects grades

Attendance+affects+grades

Willow Yingling

Students should not be skipping a large amount of school, or it could possibly be affecting his/her graders harshly. Students in each grade in the Altoona Area Junior High roughly miss five days yearly according to the grade level secretaries.

“The majority of students miss around two or three days, but some kids miss way more. It is always the same kids, too,” eighth grade secretary said.

Skipping school causes students to miss the work for the day.  That adds additional stress onto the student. Sometimes students do not even bother to gather the work they have missed causing them to take a zero for that grade.   Skipping class makes it difficult for students to keep their grades up.   Attendance matters a great deal when it comes to grades.  Some students do not even attempt to try to get their work and get caught up.

“It boils down to responsibility of the students,” eighth grade teacher John Garlick said.

With the huge possibility of failure, some  students will drop out according to National Center for Education Statistics.  Without an education, young adults will then have poor career opportunities.

Students need to attend school and do their work.  If students do not do their work it could possibly greatly impact their grades.   Some students just do not care about their work, and that could be their possible downfall when it comes to grades. It is possible to keep grades up, but skipping days upon days of school is not the best idea when a student’s future is at risk.

Students also face discipline.  If students miss five days of school the parents will be alerted with a letter home. Once 10 days roll around parental excuses are no longer accepted and only doctor notes are accepted.  If students try to bring in a written accuse it will then become an illegal if they miss the three day window, and they will get a zero for everything missed for that day.  The absenteeism could also cause a detention or even a suspension.   In most people’s opinion it is not worth missing school just to skip and to start failing classes.  As a whole school, students should be told of the effect of skipping school.  Students in the Altoona Area district should want to attend as much should as they possibly can to broaden their education.

https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/attendancedata/chapter1a.asp