Identifying specific variables that affect teacher absenteeism in seven north-central middle Tennessee school districts

The major purpose of this study was to identify specific absentee variables that affect teacher absenteeism in seven north-central middle Tennessee school districts. The sample group for this descriptive study was 585 full-time teachers who were employed in the school systems during the 1995-96 school year. Eight demographic variables were investigated to determine their relationship to teacher absenteeism. The variables studied were: gender, method of contact for an impending absence, marital status, tenure status, salary, years of experience, educational degree, and instructional level taught. A secondary purpose of this study was to characterize the individual(s) who would be considered to be absentee-prone teacher(s) using the selected demographic variables. The final purpose was to investigate the identified absentee-prone teacher to determine if there were specific recurring absentee variables related to their absences. The four variables, tenure, marital status, method of contact, and gender were investigated using t tests for independent samples with a.05 significance level. No variables were found to have a significant difference in means. The remaining four variables were analyzed with a one-way analysis of variance with a significance level of.05. The instructional level was discovered to have a significant difference among the means. When analyzed with a Scheffe test, the significance was noted between the elementary and high school teacher absence rate. Elementary teachers were absent a significantly higher number of days than the high school teachers. A multiple regression statistical test was used to identify the variables which would characterize the absentee-prone teacher. Upon investigation, no subset of variables was significantly related to the absentee-prone teacher. The absentee-prone teachers were further investigated through telephone interviews to determine if there were recurring factors that affected their absenteeism from school. Based upon the interviews, significantly recurring variables included: personal illness, illness of child, illness of family member (other than child), and death