With one in three Newark students considered chronically absent last year, a team of researchers has set out to discover why so many students are missing so much school.
To solve that riddle, the team has held focus groups and surveyed high school students at summer school programs, churches, and supermarkets. Many researchers have conducted similar studies, but this team is different — it includes students interviewing their peers about their shared struggles with attendance.
“We’re speaking in a language they understand,” said Manuel Mejia, a sophomore at Rutgers University-Newark who attended Newark’s Arts High School. “We’re not here to research them as a separate group — we’re doing it to help all of us.”
[For more on this story by PATRICK WALL, go to https://www.chalkbeat.org/post...hy-they-miss-school/]
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