Education Endowment Foundation:Summary of evidence

Summary of evidence

What does the evidence tell us about the best ways to improve attendance?

In 2022, we conducted a rapid evidence review of the existing international research on interventions that aim to improve attendance, as well as the characteristics of these interventions.

The report summarised the findings from 72 studies.

In summary, it found that:

  • Schools use a wide variety of strategies to improve pupil attendance.
  • There is some evidence of promise for parental communication and engagement approaches and responsive interventions that meet the individual needs of the pupils.
  • The interventions that show promise take a holistic approach in understanding pupils and their specific need, and address the specific barriers to attendance that have been identified. For example, one programme found to have a positive impact on attendance used several different approaches depending on the needs of pupils, including a team to monitor and track attendance, parental communication, and motivation systems.

When considering research evidence to inform our practice, it is important to recognise potential limitations of the evidence base, so that we have a sense of how confident we can be about any conclusions. Limitations do not necessarily mean research evidence is invalid – most research studies and sources of evidence are limited in some way – but being critically aware helps to inform an appropriate level of tentativeness and caution about conclusions drawn.

Overall, in this review evidence on the effectiveness of different approaches is quite weak overall and several limitations are identified. For example:

  • Very few high-quality studies took place in English schools, with the majority of the 72 studies taking place in the USA. While these have the potential to be applicable to English context, we should be cautious.
  • Over 2/3 of the studies included were considered to have potential bias, which may have affected their conclusions.
  • All the research studies took place outside of the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. While findings have the potential to be relevant in the current context, we should be aware of changing social, emotional and physical barriers faced by pupils and their families.
  • To find out more about reading and evaluating research evidence, take a look at Using Research Evidence: A Concise Guide.