Chile: Universal Collection, Open Access, and Innovation in the Use of Attendance and Absenteeism Data

Abstract

In Chile, attendance is recognized as an important component of school quality and educational equity. The Chilean education system has clear, standardized definitions that apply country-wide, and a good registration system for school attendance that compiles national databases containing student-level, daily attendance, absences, and withdrawals for all children attending public schools. Moreover, these data are publicly available via open access, which allows the entire education community and the Ministry of Education access to all schools’ data in an organized, centralized manner. These data contribute to ongoing scholarship about the impacts of attendance and absenteeism on education outcomes. In practice, schools use attendance data to monitor progress toward goals. The Ministry of Education uses data to calculate and pay school subsidies that are linked directly to average monthly attendance in accordance with Chilean law, and to classify schools into categories of education quality. Chilean Fundación Educacional Oportunidad uses attendance data and continuous quality improvement methods to promote attendance and prevent chronic absenteeism with more than 150 schools via a regional Learning Network. Meanwhile, the Learning Network fills an important gap by repurposing the nationally reported data to calculate and focus on individual-level attendance and by creating opportunities for practitioners to learn together how to promote attendance and prevent chronic absenteeism. This paper describes the context of Chile and its educational system; the definition, recording, reporting and use of attendance data; and the methods, outcomes and lessons learned by the regional Learning Network.

From Attendance Data to Student Support: International Practices for Recording, Reporting, and Using Data on School Attendance and Absence

“…At the same time, certain papers in the collection offer more specific conceptualisations regarding when to respond. For instance, in Chile, four categories are employed: outstanding attendance (97% or more), normal attendance (between 90% and 97%), repeated absenteeism (attendance between 85% and 90%), and serious absenteeism (less than 85% attendance) (Soto Uribe et al, 2022). Moreover, late arrivals are defined by students arriving 15 minutes after the start of the school day module, with specific rules for arrivals beyond 30 minutes late.…”

“…Schools report DSAA to educational authorities at the regional/district level to identify broader attendance patterns, and data are also reported to education departments at the state/territory level. In Chile, schools report data through the General Student Information System digital platform, used by the Ministry of Education to integrate student data (Soto Uribe et al, 2022). In Denmark, schools are mandated to report data to the municipality and there is systematic reporting to a national databank (Sandhaug et al, 2022).…”

“…Disaggregating data involves breaking down information into specific elements, like individual students, grade levels, gender, or race/ethnicity, while aggregated data provide information in a combined form, often at higher levels like school or district-wide averages. In Chile, data are reported at the individual and grade levels, as well as at the school level (Soto Uribe et al, 2022). In Australia, reported data are split across six cohort groups for each year level: male students, female students, gender X students, Indigenous male students, Indigenous female students, and Indigenous X gender students (White, 2022).…”

“…Third, the frequency of reporting varies considerably across countries and subnational levels. For instance, Chilean schools submit monthly reports (Soto Uribe et al, 2022), while in England, the Department for Education extracts data from all schools for the Spring, Summer, and Autumn terms (Griffiths et al, 2022). In Australia, data are reported twice a year, covering Semester 1 (Term 1 and 2) and Term 3 (White, 2022).…”

“…Soto Uribe et al (2022) illuminate the various applications of DSAA in Chile. Data play a crucial role in shaping decisions on grade promotion, evaluating school performance, and influencing funding allocation.…”