The Impact of Attendance on GPA: Exploring the Connection and Contributing Factors
Introduction
The relationship between attendance and academic performance has long been a subject of interest in educational research. While it seems intuitive that attending class would positively impact a student's grades, the complexities of modern student life and evolving pedagogical approaches necessitate a deeper examination of this connection. This article explores the existing research on the impact of attendance on GPA, considering various factors such as student demographics, course structure, and the evolving landscape of higher education.
The Established Link Between Attendance and Academic Outcomes
Prior research consistently demonstrates a strong correlation between class attendance and student success. Attendance is one of the best predictors of class grades and student outcomes, creating a strong argument for faculty to incentivize or require attendance. A meta-analysis revealed that attendance positively affects both course grades and GPA and is the single strongest predictor of college grades. Indeed, the connection between attendance and student performance is well documented, highlighting the importance of presence in the classroom.
Keenan Hartert, a biology professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato, found that attendance was one of the strongest predictors of their success. His finding wasn’t an aha moment, but reaffirmed his position that attendance is an early indicator of GPA and class community building.
A study using census data and records of 969 undergraduate students at Qatar University found that increased attendance decreases the likelihood of getting DFW (grades D, F, or withdrawal), highlighting the importance of class attendance in a four-year institution.
The Declining Attendance Rates and Contributing Factors
Despite the well-established benefits of attending class, recent trends indicate a decline in student attendance rates. An analysis of 1.1 million students across 22 major research institutions found that the number of hours students have spent attending class, discussion sections, and labs declined dramatically from the 2018-19 academic year to 2022-23, according to the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium. More than 30 percent of students who attended community college in person skipped class sometimes in the past year, a 2023 study found; 4 percent said they skipped class often or very often.
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Students say they opt out of class for a variety of reasons, including lack of motivation, competing priorities and external challenges. A professor at Colorado State University surveyed 175 of his students in 2023 and found that 37 percent said they regularly did not attend class because of physical illness, mental health concerns, a lack of interest or engagement, or simply because it wasn’t a requirement. A 2024 survey from Trellis Strategies found that 15 percent of students missed class sometimes due to a lack of reliable transportation. Among working students, one in four said they regularly missed class due to conflicts with their work schedule.
Several factors contribute to this decline, including:
- Competing Priorities: Many students juggle work, caregiving responsibilities, and other commitments that make it difficult to attend class regularly.
- Mental Health Concerns: High rates of anxiety and depression among college students may also impact their attendance. More than half of 817 students surveyed by Harmony Healthcare IT in 2024 said they’d skipped class due to mental health struggles; one-third of respondents indicated they’d failed a test because of negative mental health.
- Lack of Engagement: Some students find classes unengaging or irrelevant, leading to decreased motivation to attend.
- Accessibility of Online Resources: The increased availability of recorded lectures and online materials may lead some students to believe that attending class is unnecessary.
The Student Perspective: Flexibility vs. Understanding
While research supports the positive impact of attendance, some students argue that they should be assessed on their understanding of the material, not simply on their physical presence in the classroom. Attaching grades to attendance, however, can create its own challenges, because many students generally want more flexibility in their schedules and think they should be assessed on what they learn-not how often they show up. A student columnist at the University of Washington expressed frustration at receiving a 20 percent weighted participation grade, which the professor graded based on exit tickets students submitted at the end of class. “Our grades should be based on our understanding of the material, not whether or not we were in the room,” Sophie Sanjani wrote in The Daily, UW’s student paper.
The Impact of Attendance on Different Student Populations
The relationship between attendance and academic performance is strongest for nontraditional and/or underperforming students. Often, these students may not have access to information technology, mentorship, and cultural capital. Hartert also asked students if they had any financial resources to support them in case of emergency; 28 percent said they had no fallback. Of those students, 90 percent were working more than 20 hours per week. The findings illustrated to him the challenges many students face in managing their job shifts while trying to meet attendance requirements.
The Importance of the Classroom Environment
A less measured factor in the attendance debate is not a student’s own learning, but the classroom environment they contribute to. Hartert framed it as students motivating their peers unknowingly. One professor at the University of Oregon found that peer engagement positively correlated with academic outcomes. Raghuveer Parthasarathy restructured his general education physics course to promote engagement by creating an “active zone,” or a designated seating area in the classroom where students sat if they wanted to participate in class discussions and other active learning conversations. Compared to other sections of the course, the class was more engaged across the board, even among those who didn’t opt to sit in the participation zone. Additionally, students who sat in the active zone were more likely to earn higher grades on exams and in the course over all.
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Attending class sessions helps students to stay on track, understand expectations, foster important peer social interactions and generally promote a sense of connectedness. Attending class can also create connections between students and professors, something students say they want and expect. A May 2024 student survey by Inside Higher Ed and Generation Lab found that 35 percent of respondents think their academic success would be most improved by professors getting to know them better. In a separate question, 55 percent of respondents said they think professors are at least partly responsible for becoming a mentor. The SERU Consortium found student respondents in 2023 were less likely to say a professor knew or had learned their name compared to their peers in 2013. Students were also less confident that they knew a professor well enough to ask for a letter of recommendation for a job or graduate school. “You have to show up to class then, so I know who you are,” Hartert said.
Strategies for Encouraging Attendance and Engagement
Given the importance of attendance and the challenges students face, educators are exploring various strategies to encourage attendance and engagement.
- Active Learning: Employ active learning methods such as creative writing or case studies, which help demonstrate the value of class participation. For those who can’t make it, all of Hartert’s lectures are recorded and available online to watch later. Recording lectures, he said, “was a really hard bridge to cross, post-COVID. I was like, ‘Nobody’s going to show up.’ But every time I looked at the data [for] who was looking at the recording, it’s all my top students.” That was reason enough for him to leave the recordings available as additional practice and resources. Students who can’t make an in-person class session can receive attendance credit by sending Hartert their notes and answers to any questions asked live during the class, proving they watched the recording.
- Flexible Attendance Policies: Consider offering alternative ways for students to earn attendance credit, such as online participation or completing assignments related to the class material.
- Creating a Supportive Classroom Environment: Foster a sense of community and belonging in the classroom to encourage students to attend and participate.
- Addressing Student Needs: Be aware of the challenges students face and offer support and resources to help them overcome obstacles to attendance.
- Utilizing Technology: Macmillan Learning's Learning Science and Insights (LSI) team develops frameworks and models based in educational research, works closely with students, instructors, and administrators, to co-design solutions that work for them and address pain points and conducts educational data mining and a progressive series of impact research tests that help us to understand how students are performing and how we can optimize their performance both through pedagogy and through design. Cirque by Macmillan Learning is an analytics dashboard for administrators that blends data from what their research team has found are the most high-value data for improving student attendance, retention, and performance-classroom attendance, classroom engagement data, and survey data.
The Role of Attendance Policies
Attendance policies play a significant role in shaping student behavior and academic outcomes. Policies provide guidance. Without having some kind of guidelines in place, students don't often know how to initiate help or to initiate communication around their attendance. Policies set expectations. Policies support self-regulated learning strategies.
When students know what is expected of them they are more likely to set those time management goals and strategize and prioritize appropriately. Develop attendance policies and practices appropriate for each course. Attendance data can help inform an appropriate attendance policy for an institution, department or course. For example, research shows that tracking attendance can have a different impact depending on class size.12 In large classes, taking attendance can encourage students to come to class and feel more supported by their instructor. In small classes (of 20 or fewer), students expect their instructor to notice if they are absent, so taking roll or passing around a sign-in sheet can seem unnecessary.
However, building a comprehensive view of a student across multiple classes for an institution, enables student advocates (like academic advisors, success coaches, or even residential hall directors) to efficiently identify those needing additional outreach or interventions. When offered early enough, this type of student support could make the difference in a student staying or departing.
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It's important to reconsider punitive measures for student absences. If a student is missing multiple class sessions, taking points away from their participation grade may make it more difficult for them to succeed in the course. This can actually demotivate the student and negatively impact engagement. and can actually demotivate the student, which could negatively impact engagement. Instead of punitive measures, consider responses that focus more on attendance remediation methods of promoting self-regulated learning behaviors. Are there additional tutoring options that could be promoted to these students?
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