http://www.educationpartnerships.org/ Research Brief Strategies for dealing with tardiness Question: What works to reduce tardiness? Summary of Findings: Principals and teachers have long thought that student tardiness was a serious problem. In one study from the 1990’s, 8-12% of students were absent each day, and more than 40% of teachers found tardiness to be a significant problem. In fact, it is considered so serious that a school’s response can go to extremes: a student in Mount Pleasant, MI, was suspended for writing and reading a parody of the school’s tardiness policy, and students in one California high school are fined $165 if they are tardy more than twice. A Google search on “tardiness” will yield a lot of high school online handbooks and policies about tardiness. The question, of course, is not “what are high schools doing?”, but “what are high schools doing that’s working?” Many approaches seem to work, but they tend to break into two categories: the behavior modification approach and the needs-based approach. Behavior modification approaches include the following: being locked out of class; detentions; parent conferences; additional assignments; reductions in grades; work details during lunch, after school, or free periods; Saturday classes; token systems for being on time; time cards; time management workshops; contingency contracts; and tardy rooms. Many of these strategies proved effective, but detentions, reduced grades, tardy rooms, and additional assignments proved ineffective at changing behavior. Other schools, however, look at the reasons that students are tardy and try to address the underlying problems. This approach is based on the idea that before a school can change the behavior of at-risk students, they must understand what is going on in those students’ lives. When asked through interviews or surveys, students indicated that they were tardy for the following reasons: transportation problems; overcrowded conditions; lack of positive history about people of color; lack of a culturally sensitive curriculum; dirty and limited access to bathrooms;; health-related causes; sleeping habits; and family-related excuses. Such studies often found that tardy students felt a disconnect with the school, the teachers, or the curriculum. From one study: “Students complained about the inconsistency of school rules, especially those related to tardiness and eating in school, and they noted the double standard that allowed teachers to do many things students were not allowed to do. They voiced concerns that they were never given a say about anything in the school, expressing the belief that all the rules originated with teachers and staff, and that student input was not solicited. When they did express opinions about school, they thought that their comments were not taken seriously.”