The effects of computerized attendance systems on teacher attendance withitness and student attendance

The opinions of high school students were examined in a quasi-experimental design to determine if teachers communicate their awareness of class cutting to students. This communicated awareness (attendance withitness) is presumed to be related to teacher withitness as described by Kounin (1970).Students in an experimental school (N = 389) and control school (N = 360) were surveyed with an instrument developed to measure attendance withitness. The survey was administered before and after a computerized attendance system used in both schools was modified in the experimental school. The modified system produced individual attendance bulletins for each teacher instead of a school wide bulletin that was previously produced. Results indicated that significant changes in teacher attendance withitness occurred in the experimental school: t(388) = 2.33, p $\u3c$.02. No significant changes occurred in the control school.The assumption that the system producing individual attendance bulletins for each teacher increased the awareness of teachers in the experimental school was examined using a survey developed for this purpose. Of the teachers surveyed in four high schools (N = 394), 97% reported that the system producing individual bulletins was more effective in preventing the types of errors that are associated with a lack of withitness (Kounin, 1970) than the system producing school wide bulletins.Attendance in schools that used the individualized bulletin system (N = 5) was also compared to attendance in other schools within the same district that used a school wide bulletin (N = 9). A significant correlation coefficient of.577, p $\u3c$.04 indicated that the use of the individualized bulletin system was related to improved class attendance