If You Build It, They

To assess whether a 5-month program involving attendance monitoring, sports participation, and a moral character class would reduce absenteeism, 40 students in a small transitional high school were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups and assessed pre- and postintervention on educational expectations, attitude toward education, and emotional, cogni-tive, behavioral engagement, and attendance. Findings indicated significant differences between intervention and control groups on all predictor vari-ables. Absenteeism was significantly and negatively related to all predictor variables. The program successfully reduced absenteeism, increased educa-tional expectations, attitude toward education and engagement