A Study of Attendance at Four Corners School in Sugarland, Texas 1946-47

Over a period of five years the average enrollment at Four Corners School, Sugar Land, Texas, has been 85, but the average graduating class has been two and a larger number of children has had irregular attendance than the number that has attended regularly. At the 1940 session of the Texas State Teachers Association, State Superintendent of Education, L. A. Woods pointed out that the small number of Negro high school graduates was due to the low percentage of attendance in both the elementary and secondary schools. In the light of these considerations, the writer is faced with the question: If the causes for low attendance can be found, might it not be possible to encourage and otherwise help boys and girls to remain in school long enough to graduate? Might it not be possible to revise the curriculum to meet the needs of these children who drop out of school? It is the problem of this study to find some of the underlying causes of irregular attendance in the Four Corners School of Sugar Land and to interpret them; to find if the causes can be reduced or remove entirely; to make suggestions for curricular changes that might foster better attendance. The problem involved in this study finds expression in these questions: 1. What is the status of school attendance of Negro school children in four Corners School, Sugar Land, Texas? 2. What are the causes for irregular attendance