The Diverse Risk Profiles of Persistently Absent Primary Students: Implications for Attendance Policies in Australia

ABSTRACT

The risk factors associated with absenteeism are well known. However, children's exposure to combinations of risks and how these relate to absence patterns remains unclear. Understanding variations in risk profiles among persistently non-attending children will inform the development of absence interventions. Using a longitudinal sample of Australian children (6–11 years), a latent class analysis of 19 risks identified four classes of risk exposure. Most children (56%) were exposed to minimal risk, 20% were exposed to parenting, child development, and mental health risks only, 15% were exposed to a greater extent to financial risks only, and 9% had a higher probability of exposure to all risks. Persistently non-attending children were eight times more likely to be in the high-risk group than regular attenders. However, one-third of persistent non-attenders were classified as low-risk. The heterogeneity of risk profiles is discussed in relation to policies using financial penalties to motivate improved attendance.     

A comparison of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities with preschool children

The purpose of the present study was to determine the degree to which performance on the McCarthy Scaies of Children's Abilities correlated with performance on the Stanford-Binet for a group of preschoolers. The sample consisted of 44 children ranging in age from 3–11 to 5–4. It was found that the General Cognitive Index scores of the McCarthy Scales correlated well with the Stanford-Binet IQ scores, r^xy = .90. However, 40 of the 44 subjects scored higher on the Stanford-Binet than on the McCarthy Scales.     

‘They’re True Stories? Yeah,No They’re Not’ Questions of Authenticity and Authority Raised by the Use of Comic Books to Represent Biblical Narratives in Religious Education

ABSTRACT

The affordances of the comic book medium facilitate individual, interpretive readings of narrative and as such challenge the notion of a single message or meaning. This article explores how secondary school students encounter and re-orientate themselves to personal concepts of religious and educational authority and authenticity as a consequence of reading a comic book biblical narrative in a Religious Education lesson. Through this encounter and dialogue with one another, they negotiate these concepts, the meanings of which are necessarily embedded in the social and are thus enabled to take a stance on competing truth claims. This article also considers the implications of rendering sacred texts as comic books.     

Is undergraduate debt an impediment to postgraduate enrolment in England?

Changes to undergraduate student funding arrangements in England have prompted concerns that increased indebtedness will deter graduates from postgraduate study. While it is clear that student debt has increased substantially in recent years, international evidence is equivocal on whether such debt is a deterrent to further study and there is hardly any prior research on this topic in the UK context. Using a large‐scale survey of 2009 and 2012 graduates from six selective English universities, we investigate the association between undergraduate debt, other graduate characteristics and progression to postgraduate study. We find some association of higher debt levels with lower rates of progression to postgraduate study, although this reduces when controlling for other factors, such as degree‐level attainment and subject discipline. Within a multivariate logistic regression model predicting progression to postgraduate study we find that debt is not a statistically significant predictor, although other characteristics are important. This indicates, we suggest, that underlying financial resources, rather than debt per se, are critical in enabling access to postgraduate study. We consider the implications of recently announced loans for postgraduate study in England given these findings.     

Educational Video

Ignacy Waniewicz's Broadcasting for Adult Education (Paris: Unesco [available in this country from New York: Unipub, Inc.], 1972–$4.50, paper)

Alan Hancock's Planning for ETV: A Handbook of Educational Television (New York: Humanities Press, 1972—$12.50)

John Quick and Herbert Wolff's Small-Studio Video Tape Production (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1972—$11.95)

Fred Powledge's Public Television: A question of Survival (Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1972—$1.00, paper)     

Racism and Stereotypes in Electronic Media

This article discusses how racial, ethnic, and sexual stereotypes find their way into electronic media, both television and games. This article is presented here to help librarians understand the ethnic, racial, and sexual biases that are built into electronic communication and the importance of thoughtful media literacy analysis in watching over the electronic media that come into their collections and programs.     

'I Would Have Worried About Her Being A Nuisance': Workshops for children under three and their parents at Tate Britain

This article reports on a series of eight workshops for children under three and their parents. The workshops took place at Tate Britain, London, and they were collectively known as 'Big and small; short and tall'. The article outlines the approach used to evaluate the workshops, particularly the way in which parents' experiences, and their views on children's experiences, were given prominence. Despite the potential difficulties of taking very young children into an art gallery, most parents said they were pleased with their children's engagement. Parent feedback suggests that the structure and content of the workshops did much to enable them and their children to learn about art and artists together. Moreover, some confirmed that their joint involvement had stimulated further learning at home and life-wide learning more generally.     

Associations between school absence and academic achievement: Do socioeconomics matter?

This study examined the extent to which the association between increased student absence and lower achievement outcomes varied by student and school‐level socioeconomic characteristics. Analyses were based on the enrolment, absence and achievement records of 89,365 Year 5, 7 and 9 students attending government schools in Western Australian between 2008 and 2012. Multivariate multi‐level modelling methods were used to estimate numeracy, writing and reading outcomes based on school absence, and interactions between levels of absence and school socioeconomic index (SEI), prior achievement, gender, ethnicity, language background, parent education and occupation status. While the effects of absence on achievement were greater for previously high‐achieving students, there were few significant interactions between absence and any of the socioeconomic measures on achievement outcomes. The results of first‐difference regression models indicated that the negative effect of an increase in absence was marginally larger for students attending more advantaged schools, though most effects were very small. While students from disadvantaged schools have, on average, more absences than their advantaged peers, there is very little evidence to suggest that the effects of absence are greater for those attending lower‐SEI schools. School attendance should therefore be a priority for all schools, and not just those with high rates of absence or low average achievement.