Should Class Attendance be Mandatory?

Atlantic Economic Journal, Sept, 2000 by Pikki Lai, Kam C. Chan

Abbott Laboratories and University of Dayton--U.S.A.

Class meeting is a primary means of delivering educational service. However, virtually every college professor finds that undergraduate students cut classes. Romer [Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1993] presented empirical evidence that poor attendance accounts for poor performance. In light of these results, Romer proposed that class attendance be mandatory to boost student performance.

In a comment to Romer's article, Stephenson [Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1994] argued that professors should not mandate class attendance for the following reasons:

1) the students are missing the least productive classes;

2) a captive audience is not an ideal learning environment;

3) if we truly believe adults maximize utility, then let them;

4) there is no concrete relationship between attendance and performance; and

5) attendance policies are difficult to implement.

Although the empirical evidence seems to suggest a positive correlation between class attendance and student performance, there is still controversy on mandatory class attendance policy. This study examines the relationship between mandatory class attendance and student performance in the class of principles of microeconomics.

The students in two classes of principles of microeconomics at a Midwest regional state university were the subjects of this empirical study. Both classes are medium sized with 40 students each. The treatment group had a mandatory class attendance policy which accounted for 15 percent of each student's grade. The other class had no mandatory attendance policy and served as the control group. The professor also used the same syllabi, examinations, class material, and instructional strategy in both classes. Control factors such as students' grade-point average, number of weekly part-time work hours, number of credits enrolled, sex, major, quantitative skill, and preparation in calculus were taken from the university's registrar's office and through a survey conducted twice during the semester. In the data analysis, the 15 percent attendance score is removed and the weights of the tests and assignment were rescaled back to the same grading scheme with the control class. Hence, the students who missed class in t he treatment group may pay a price in terms of the lost material only but not the smaller attendance rewards.

As expected, the attendance variable is positive and statistically significant at the 1 percent level. For every 1 percent attendance, an average student receives almost 1 percent of course average (on a 100 percent scale). The mandatory attendance policy dummy coefficient is positive and statistically significant at the 10 percent level. The positive sign of the mandatory attendance dummy variable suggests that a mandatory attendance policy would boost student performance. In this case, an average student would receive 6.7 percent more. In response to the criticism against mandatory attendance, Romer [Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1994] defends his position by citing evidence that people do make time-inconsistent choices. A mandatory class attendance policy would help students make rational intertemporal trade-off choices. The results in this study provide empirical support for the claim. (JEL A22, A29)