| The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a monetary incentive approach to improving attendance. The procedure that was utilized tested the success of these incentives to determine whether or not there was a significant decrease in the absentee rates among those selected to be in the treatment group.; A review of literature had demonstrated different findings regarding the effect of different types of incentives on students.; The problem of this study centered around high absenteeism at East Tech High School and many of the other Cleveland Public Schools. According to school officials, (a) lack of interest, (b) a need of clothing, (c) irrelevant curricula, (d) working parents, (e) a need for shoes, (f) poor communication between home and school, (g) a need for family support money, and (h) understaffed attendance personnel, are just a few of the contributing factors to this problem.; The research design used in this study was a modified pretest-posttest control group design, in which 67 students of the treatment group and 85 students of the control group were observed for three five-week periods. During the first five-week period, all tenth grade students' attendance was monitored. From this monitoring, a control and treatment group were randomly selected by the odd-even selection process.; During the second five-week period, fifty cent monetary incentives were awarded the treatment group for the days they attended school. Their attendance was again monitored and showed no significant difference in the absentee rates.; During the third five-week period, no monetary incentives were awarded, but the students' attendance was monitored and the data obtained were used to analyze specific research hypotheses indicating no significant difference in students' absentee rates. Multiple linear regression was used to test these research hypotheses.; The study also indicates that of certain selected psycho-social variables, the largest amount of variance was caused by students' grade point averages, while such variables as sex, race, bussing, parents at home, and social economic status accounted for very little of the variance in the criterion variable... |
