Michael Gottfried is the guest co-editor, along with Stacy Ehrlich of the University of Chicago, for the first-ever special issue of an education journal to focus on absenteeism. The issue of the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR) is due out by the end of 2018.
California—and many states in the U.S.— is beginning to hold schools accountable for student absences. This change is based on the assumption that schools can do something about reducing absences. As education policy moves forward in this way, it’s time for research to step in and show what we know about (a) the negative impacts of absences on student outcomes; and (b) what might be causing students to be more or less absent. This special issue will be entitled Addressing Absenteeism in Schools: Bridging Research and Policy.
The Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, published by Taylor & Francis, provides quantitative and qualitative research focused exclusively on improving the education of students placed at risk. JESPAR publishes literature and report reviews, research articles on promising reform programs, and case studies on “schools that work”; in doing so, JESPAR facilitates communication among all the stakeholders—researchers, policymakers, and educators—who are actively involved in thwarting the academic failure of students placed at risk.
Michael Gottfried is Associate Professor in the Department of Education in the 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. Gottfried is on the Editorial Board of American Educational Research Journal and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.