In late January, the U.S. Department of Education published scores from the 2024 administration of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly referred to as the “Nation’s Report Card.” As my colleague Aaron Churchill noted, Ohio’s results are a huge disappointment. Reading proficiency rates declined in both fourth and eighth grade, with just 32 percent of fourth graders achieving that benchmark in 2024. The picture is a little rosier in math, where fourth and eighth grade proficiency rates each rose 3 percentage points. And overall, Ohio performed slightly better than the national average. But when more than half of the state’s students are failing to reach NAEP’s ambitious-but-attainable proficiency standard, there’s clearly work to be done.
Coverage of these results has understandably homed in on the pandemic as the primary culprit for low scores (though there are certainly several other factors at play, too). Suggestions for improvement abound. But in many places, the strategies proposed by wonks and advocates are already being implemented. Ohio’s science of reading initiative is a great example. In June 2023, lawmakers established a statewide literacy effort centered on high-quality curricula and materials, teacher professional development, and reading coaches. These evidence-backed policies weren’t in place long enough to impact 2024 NAEP results. But as Mississippi continues to prove, rigorous implementation could have a big impact on Ohio’s scores down the line.
Another widely-cited strategy for improvement is boosting attendance. Here, Ohio has less to be proud of. Over the last few years, state leaders have tried to tackle sky-high absenteeism rates by establishing a taskforce, making pledges, and publishing guidance. But Ohio hasn’t yet seen an intensive, state-backed effort to boost attendance akin to that for early literacy. Maybe that’s why a whopping 25 percent of Ohio students missed at least 10 percent of instructional time during the 2023–24 school year, nearly as bad as the dreadful numbers from the year prior.
With disappointing NAEP scores fresh on their minds, Ohio policymakers might want to consider doing more in the chronic absenteeism arena. A state-led initiative to boost attendance could have a significant impact—not just on national tests, but also state results and overall school performance.
What to do? One option is to invest in improved data collection and transparency. In Rhode Island, policymakers have created several interactive tools that empower school and local leaders, as well as parents and family members, to keep a close eye on student attendance. The Ocean State’s real-time attendance dashboards show daily, weekly, and monthly attendance trends in individual schools, along with data on tardies and students who leave early (both of which can have a sneakily big impact on chronic absenteeism). The daily chronic absenteeism update allows users to track the percentage of students, by district and grade span, who are already chronically absent, as well as how many of those students reached that threshold during the previous school year. And the chronic absenteeism and achievement dashboard underscores the importance of attendance by tracking its impact on state assessments. If Ohio leaders are ready to tackle chronic absenteeism, creating our own version of these dashboards would be a great place to start.
Another option is to invest in an innovative effort like the home-visit program that Connecticut leaders established using federal Covid-relief funding. The Learner Engagement and Attendance Program (LEAP) launched in April 2021 to address student absenteeism and disengagement. As part of the program, fifteen high-need districts were provided with funding to pay for school staff and community organizers to visit nearly 8,700 chronically absent students. Advocates believed that connecting directly with families in this way could help increase the likelihood of regular attendance. And data indicate they were right. Evaluations of the program conducted by the Center for Connecticut Education Research Collaboration found that nine months after the first visit, PK–5 students had an attendance boost of roughly 8 percentage points, while students in grades 6–12 experienced an increase of approximately 16 percentage points.
It’s much too late for Ohio to use Covid-relief funding to establish a similar program. But the potential price tag shouldn’t give lawmakers too much pause. Connecticut designated just $10.68 million in recovery funds to support the fifteen districts selected to participate in LEAP. Given how high chronic absenteeism rates are in certain Ohio districts—some above 50 percent!—setting aside $10 million to target their students with a proven program would be a wise investment.
Rhode Island and Connecticut aren’t the only states grappling with chronic absenteeism in innovative ways. But they offer two simple, relatively inexpensive options for Ohio leaders interested in doing more. There is no silver bullet for boosting student achievement on measures like NAEP. But focusing on the basics—like ensuring that kids are in school when they should be—is a pretty solid place to start.
