Ninth-Grade Attendance Rates Predict High School Graduation

This little study was very interesting and showed a correlation between the attendance rates in 9th grade and then whether a student would graduate from High School. It didn't include much more information that would be crucial in being able to tell if the data was correct. It just said it was students in the public schools in Chicago. What we would need to know was how many schools & students were involved in the study and did it span more than just one year of students? The study explained how important the 9th grade year is for students and how crucial that transition is. So it would make sense that if students were in class during this crucial period they would be more likely to graduate. From what i read though it seemed like they were trying to apply a conclusion and show a cause and effect, which they can't do because this is only a correlational study, it was interesting though to see the relationship that school attendance had on the graduation. This relationship obviously isn't true for all students, i'm pretty sure that i missed about 15 days (or more) of school each semester in 9th grade and i still graduated. It would be interesting for me to be able to see the spread on students who were absent, but still graduated from high school.

http://www.mdrc.org/area_fact_35.html