Identifying the Root Cause of Class Cuts

Shawn Raeke • Cahn Fellow 2022

The purpose of our project was to investigate the root causes of class cutting in order to develop strategies and approaches to address them. Following the pandemic the incidence of class cutting increased and resulted in a larger proportion of students missing instructional time. The majority of students who cut specific classes had a positive daily attendance record. The study focused on separating out the factors that compelled students to report to school on a daily basis while making decisions for specific classes to not attend.  In order to equip teachers, and staff responsible for addressing intervention measures with targeted approaches, we realized it was necessary to reach the factors that could inform these approaches and schoolwide measures.