Detroit PEER strives to be a go-to resource for research, data, and information for the Detroit education community.
Look here for data files that you can use in your work, issue briefs, voices from our community partners, presentations on our research, and media citations based on our work. If you have questions or a specific data request, please use our Contact page to send us a note.
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How Can We Improve Student Attendance? A Framework to Guide Schools
Schools in Michigan and around the country are developing new strategies to reduce chronic absenteeism and improve student attendance. This means implementing new practices, developing new organizational systems, and assigning new staff responsibilities or even creating new staff roles. As schools develop and refine their attendance strategies, what should they prioritize? How can they most effectively spend their time and resources? In this brief, we offer a framework to guide schools’ efforts to improve student attendance. The framework is based on two dimensions: the impact of different types of strategies, and the cost and effort required to implement those types of strategies. Though we have not conducted a formal cost-benefit analysis, our framework is guided by a close review of existing research on attendance interventions, considering costs, effectiveness, and implementation realities.
Survey Instrument – Attendance Practices
We (Dr. Jeremy Singer and Dr. Sarah Winchell Lenhoff) developed this survey to collect data on school attendance strategies, including specific practices, organizational systems, staffing, and leadership. We administered this survey to Michigan school leaders during the 2024-25 school year, in partnership with the Michigan Department of Education (MDE). To develop this instrument, we started by drawing upon survey items and survey design choices from prior studies of attendance practices. We drew inspiration from guidance and technical documentation of attendance strategies from advocacy organizations. We also drew upon other survey research for non-attendance items on the survey, such as those related to school climate and instructional practices. After our initial draft, we piloted the survey with four principals and revised the survey based on their feedback. We then shared the survey with MDE leadership and members of an internal working group on chronic absenteeism for feedback, making additional edits based on their comments. We administered the survey on the Qualtrics platform, and the document provided here is a "print-out" of the online survey. Please contact us if you have questions about survey design or the embedded skip-logic when administered. This survey is also included in the Annenberg EdInstruments library of educational measurement tools: https://edinstruments.org/instruments/survey-attendance-practices
Detroit K-12 Education System Overview
In 2025, Detroit will elect a new mayor. Mayoral candidates have already weighed in on educational issues facing the city and its residents. Detroit PEER has released a series of briefs to address important issues impacting K-12 students and their families that are under the mayor’s purview, such as housing, transportation, and neighborhood conditions. The purpose of this brief is to provide background information about Detroit’s K-12 students and school system, as well as the mayor’s role in Detroit education. The data reported in this brief are from the 2023-24 school year.
Housing and Education in Detroit
Homelessness, housing instability, and evictions negatively impact students by increasing school mobility, disrupting education, and increasing financial strain on families as they work to ensure that their children have a safe place to live and learn. The next mayor of the City of Detroit has an important role to play in creating more affordable housing for families with school-aged children and coordinating with schools to ensure that families who are affected by housing instability receive the support they need for their children.
Neighborhoods and Education in Detroit
Decades of disinvestment and expanded school choice have led to neighborhood school closures and weakened school-neighborhood relationships. Where students live significantly shapes where they enroll in school and their experiences in school once they get there. Adverse neighborhood conditions negatively impact students’ educational and lifetime outcomes. The next Mayor of Detroit has a role to play in strengthening neighborhood conditions for families with school-aged children.
Transportation and Education in Detroit
Unreliable transportation leads to inconsistent school attendance and creates inequality in families’ access to school choices. While schools can provide school buses to some families, the City of Detroit has an important role to play in strengthening the infrastructure for school transportation and improving the conditions for students on the way to school.
Issue Brief on Attendance Incentives
Detroit PEER has worked closely with Detroit schools and community-based organizations since 2017 to identify barriers to K-12 student attendance and use research to inform improvements in attendance policy and practice. This issue brief highlights what research has shown about the effectiveness of incentive interventions and provides a framework for thinking through their use among our partners.
Before the Bell: Obstacles Preventing Children from Attending School
This collaborative issue brief synthesizes the research on barriers to regular school attendance and identifies how schools, communities, and other government agencies can work together to improve the conditions for student attendance across students’ ecosystems. The following scholars contributed to this brief: Arya Ansari (Ohio State University); Joshua Childs (University of Texas at Austin); Kevin Gee (University of California Davis); Michael Gottfried (University of Pennsylvania); Ethan Hutt (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill); and Sarah Winchell Lenhoff (Wayne State University).
Parent Sensemaking and School Choices Amidst Educational Controversies
From our 2023 collaborative study with the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice (REACH), this presentation explores the relationship between national political discourse, parent sensemaking, and School Choice. This longitudinal study aims to better understand the impact of national political discourse around race and gender on parents' School of Choice.
The Role of School-Based Transportation in School Choice: Evidence from Detroit
From our 2023 Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM) conference presentation on the relationship between School Choice and student transportation options offered in and around Detroit.
Exploring the Relationship between Parental Work Schedules and their Children’s School Attendance
From our 2023 Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM) conference presentation on the relationship between nonstandard work schedules, child behavior, child health, parent stress, and school outcomes.
Why Students Miss School and What You Can Do About It – DPSCD Principal Academy, 2023
Our presentation for the 2023 DPSCD Principal Academy on the complex and intersecting causes of chronic absenteeism within Detroit schools. Included are policy recommendations for how to best support families and students in efforts to improve attendance.
The State of Detroit Schools, Students, and Families
This presentation was given in a series of State of the Schools events organized by our partner 482Forward.
Neighborhoods, Community Development, and Attendance
This presentation for the Strategic Neighborhood Fund's Workgroup focused on the connection between neighborhood conditions and access to education through enrollment and attendance.
Enrollment, Mobility, and Attendance in Detroit
This presentation for the State of Michigan's CEPI Longitudinal Data System Advisory Board showcased research on Detroit student attendance and mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic.
