I require attendance in all of the undergraduate courses I teach. Each unexcused absence results in a 5 percent drop in their final grade. (If they let me know why they will be gone or why they missed, it is considered an excused absence and they will avoid the draconian penalty.) Every semester, I've been trying to emphasize why I think this is important, but I have finally compiled some data to show why it might matter to them. Figure 0.1 shows the correlation between attendance and their final grade. Those who miss no more than one class session tend to do much better than the rest. The smoothing curve demonstrates how just a few more absences might have a negative impact. Correlation doesn't equal causation, and we talk about how attendance is related to other student qualities that might be influencing the results that I've intuited in the past.
These data only include students who made it to the end of the semester; I'm pretty good at convincing those who are getting Ds or failing that they should either change their ways or drop the course. The average attendance rate in my lower-level courses is around 95 percent. I was surprised to see how of them many end up having perfect attendance -- as seen in figure 0.2, about two-thirds have no more than one absence during the semester, and more than 40 percent never miss a class. That doesn't guarantee them an "A", but it sure helps their odds. Showing up is important, whether it is for work, for school, at the dinner table, at the voting booth . . . It's one of the lessons I'm trying to teach them.
– cbu
– cbu
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Update (2020-02-25, 1:30 p.m.)
I remembered after writing this up that last December I had received the following note from Will, a Data Science major who took one course from me in the spring of 2018:
“I recently graduated, and I am currently writing thank you letters to professors that I believe had a great impact on my life. I just wanted to say thank you for helping me better understand the world around me, and helping me evaluate both myself and others in daily life. I also learned the importance of showing up from your class, which was a small moment of humility for a large life lesson.
“Early in the semester, we had a small snowstorm and I emailed you saying that I wouldn’t be able to make it to class. You replied to me, asking me how far I lived from campus, and urged me to go to class because if you were able to make it, then I should be able to make it. I did go to that lecture, and every lecture after that because I realized you were sacrificing time to teach students, so students should sacrifice time to learn (especially when they’re paying). I wish you all the best!”
I remembered after writing this up that last December I had received the following note from Will, a Data Science major who took one course from me in the spring of 2018:
“I recently graduated, and I am currently writing thank you letters to professors that I believe had a great impact on my life. I just wanted to say thank you for helping me better understand the world around me, and helping me evaluate both myself and others in daily life. I also learned the importance of showing up from your class, which was a small moment of humility for a large life lesson.
“Early in the semester, we had a small snowstorm and I emailed you saying that I wouldn’t be able to make it to class. You replied to me, asking me how far I lived from campus, and urged me to go to class because if you were able to make it, then I should be able to make it. I did go to that lecture, and every lecture after that because I realized you were sacrificing time to teach students, so students should sacrifice time to learn (especially when they’re paying). I wish you all the best!”