Michael Gottfried will be a featured speaker at the 5th Annual Reducing Chronic Absenteeism Regional Conference on September 29 at the Riverside Convention Center. The conference is a Riverside County initiative bringing together schools, community, and statewide leaders to strengthen the connection between school attendance and academic achievement through research-based practices and strategies. When school districts focus resources and use research-based strategies, attendance rates increase and chronic absenteeism decreases due to targeting and addressing the need rather than strictly using punitive measures. The conference’s general and workshop sessions will focus on trauma-informed practices, engaging and effective parenting strategies, and strategic planning to increase attendance via School Attendance Review Board and other practices that align to the state priorities in the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) requirements with specific emphasis on School Climate, Student Engagement and Parent Involvement.
Michael Gottfried is Associate Professor in the Department of Education at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz Graduate School of Education. His research focuses on absenteeism, schooling context, and STEM with an interest in disabilities running through all of these areas. He has served as PI on grants focusing on schooling context and outcomes specifically for elementary school students (NSF, AERA/NSF, NIH/NICHD R03, Foundation for Child Development, Stuart Foundation, Spencer Foundation). He has published work in the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Teachers College Record, Education Finance and Policy, American Journal of Education, Elementary School Journal, among others. In 2016, he released a co-edited book on educational policy with Harvard Education Press. Michael is on the Editorial Board of American Educational Research Journal and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. He holds a PhD and MA in Applied Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Economics from Stanford University.