What Works to Keep Students in School? A Meta-Analysis of Interventions to Reduce School Absenteeism
Dan Li, Subhash Singh, Navya Jeldi, Sophie Chang, Mingze Zhu, Kylar Dailey, Aizhan Karabukayeva, Changjie Cai · 2026
Read What Works to Keep Students in School? A Meta-Analysis of Interventions to Reduce School Absenteeism by Dan Li, Subhash Singh, Navya Jeldi, Sophie Chang, Mingze Zhu, Kylar Dailey, Aizhan Karabukayeva, Changjie Cai (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13203937.txt.
Description
Dan Li and co-authors pool trials of programs meant to cut school absenteeism in this 2026 meta-analysis. Missing school undermines learning and later careers, and absence stayed high after the pandemic years. The team combined 13 controlled studies from 2020 to 2025 that measured absence as an outcome.
Across studies, programs produced a small but reliable drop in absence. Results varied widely, and only one factor clearly explained the spread: programs run in a single school worked better than wider rollouts. Other factors, from student traits to program type, showed hints but no firm effects. The authors advise close attention to how and where a program is put into practice.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Dan Li, Subhash Singh, Navya Jeldi, Sophie Chang, Mingze Zhu, Kylar Dailey, Aizhan Karabukayeva, Changjie Cai |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 61 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |