Science Meets Real Life: Studying Student Absence

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Table of Contents

Unusual Spike in Absences
Common Reason for the Absences
Testable Hypotheses
Testable Research Questions
Suitability of Hypothesis
Reference List

Unusual Spike in Absences

From the data availed via the Health Departments intranet sites, it is evident that the pattern of student absence in the four local middle schools is more pronounced when the band class from one particular school engages in either a band parade with other band classes from other local middle schools or when one particular band class engages in the battle of the bands competition with other band classes from other local middle schools. For instance, while the average absence rate for Truman middle school 7th-grade class is 5.8 percent (CHD, n.d.b), the band class from the 7th graders records a massive 33.3 percent absence rate the day after engaging in the battle of the bands competition with Jackson middle school on 19th May. This implies that one in every three students from the 7th graders band class didnt attend school on 20th May after engaging in the band competition with the Jackson middle school the previous day (CHD, n.d.c).

Moving on to the Jackson Middle school, it is clear that the unusual spike in absences also occurred on 20th may, immediately after the schools 7th graders band class engaged in the battle of the bands with the Truman middle school on 19th May. While the average absence rate for Jacksons middle school 7th-grade absences is 6.2 percent over 25 days from 27th April to 5th May (CHS, n.d.b), the absence rate suddenly rises to almost 8.9 percent on 20th May, immediately after the 7th-grade band class takes part in a band competition with the Truman middle school. In particular, the band class records a massive 25 percent absence rate on 20th May, immediately after engaging in the battle of the bands with Truman on 19th May (CHD, n.d.b; CHD, n.d.c)

The absence trends can further be reaffirmed by looking at the absence rates for the 7th-grade band classes of Truman, Jackson, and Roosevelt middle schools, who took part in the May Day band parade on 5th May. While it is clear that the absence rate of Kennedy middle schools 7th-grade band class shot up to at least 6.3 percent on 6th May, reaffirming the fact that students from Kennedy middle school may have indeed attended the May Day parade, Jackson and Roosevelt middle schools also registered high absence rates in their 7th-grade band classes immediately after the classes took part in celebrations to mark the May Day parade (CHD, n.d.b; CHD, n.d.c).

Common Reason for the Absences

Most 7th-grade band class students interviewed (from Truman and Jackson middle schools) said they missed attending school due to sickness, ranging from stomachache, diarrhea, and fever to headache and vomiting. From the available data, however, it is clear that most band class students from the two schools failed to attend school due to stomachache and diarrhea (CHD, n.d.a).

But this sickness cannot be seen as the common reason for the absences. Available literature demonstrates that researchers can employ the deductive method in such a scenario to examine the matter and to establish the relationship between the 7th-grade band classes, their activities as recorded in the calendar of school events, the sickness, as well as the rate of absences (Babbie, 2010). From the above analysis and available data, it is clear that the rate of absences is highest immediately after the band classes from the various schools come together to participate in some form of activity either taking part in the May Day parade or competing in the battle of the bands. It should be remembered that most students interviewed said they failed to attend school due to sickness (CHD, n.d.a).

Consequently, it can be argued that the capacity to fall sick and therefore to miss attending classes is increased by exposure to the interactions between band class students from different middle-level schools as they either engage in the May Day parade or in the battle of the bands. In this respect, it is in order to arrive at a hypothesis suggesting a positive correlation between the rate of absences and the interactions among 7th-grade band class students from the middle schools as they take part in various band activities. Deductively, therefore, the common reason for the absences is the interaction between 7th-grade band students from different schools as they participate in various school calendar events, such as the May Day parade and the battle of the bands.

Testable Hypotheses

According to Polit & Beck (2008), &testable research hypotheses state expected relationships between the independent variable (the presumed cause or antecedent) and the dependent variable (the presumed effect or outcome) within a population (p, 94). In light of the fact that a hypothesis makes a prediction about the correlation between two variables or phenomena of interest, it must be testable to enable the investigator to establish whether the prediction is right or wrong based on the results obtained in the study (Babbie, 2010). Consequently, a hypothesis must be stated in a clear and unambiguous manner if the investigator expects to test the relationships between the variables. In this particular case scenario, therefore, the first hypothesis would be:

H1: School calendar events such as the May Day parade and the battle of the bands are related to the high rate of absences among the 7th graders in local middle schools.

The above hypothesis effectively locates the who, what, why, when, and how, implying that it is a testable hypothesis. Indeed, the who of the hypothesis is captured by introducing the 7th graders, while the what is effectively brought into play by suggesting the dependent variable, which is the high rate of absences. Moving on, the why of the hypothesis is captured by delineating the May Day parade and the battle of the bands, while the when is captured by capturing the dates of specific school calendar events. Lastly, the how is captured by establishing the effects of interactions between band class students of the three schools in major band activities such as the May Day parade and the battle of the bands. It is assumed that these interactions lead to sickness, which leads to school absenteeism. In this context, we would arrive at a hypothesis suggestive of a positive correlation if indeed school calendar events lead to subsequent high rates of absences in the sampled middle-level schools. If school calendar events lead to high attendance rates among the 7th graders of the sampled schools, that would be labeled a negative or inverse relationship (Babbie, 2010).

H2: Sickness is related to school calendar activities such as the May Day parade and the battle of the bands, with 7th-grade band class students who attended the activities reporting high incidences of absence due to sickness immediately after attending the activities than their art and P.E. class counterparts, who did not attend the activities.

In the letter by the Truman middle schools principal, the director of the student band observes that one in every three 7th grade band students were absent on 20th May, immediately after attending a battle of the bands concert with Jackson Middle School on 19th May (CHD, n.d.c). The interview with parents data is suggestive of the fact that most students missed attending school due to sickness, ranging from stomachache, diarrhea, and fever, to headache and vomiting (CHD, n.d.a). One point of convergence revolves around the fact that symptoms of sickness affecting 7th-grade band class students are similar in both Truman and Jackson, suggesting that students from the two schools are struck by a common strand of illness immediately after they interact as they perform the concerts. This synthesis not only unearths a potential health problem existing in the community but underlines the fact that the health problem gets worse when students from different schools within the community interact, leading to high levels of absences from school. The hypothesis will be positive if this synthesis is proved to be true and negative if a relationship between sickness and school calendar activities is not found (Babbie, 2010).

Testable Research Questions

Lipowski (2008) is of the view that &inquisitiveness and creativity are based in both emotion and reason, so good questions arise from both intellectual and visceral responses to the practice environment (p. 1667). Based on this observation, the present paper utilizes the following research questions:

Why did the 7th-grade band students from Truman and Jackson schools suffer from related sickness symptoms immediately after attending the battle of bands concert?
Why didnt the 7th-grade art and P.E. students from local middle schools who did not attend the band concerts report increased absence rates?
Is there a difference between the rate of absences for students immediately after attending school calendar events and the rate of absences on other normal days?
Why do students report poor health outcomes immediately after interacting with other students from local middle schools in school calendar activities?
Is sickness related to high rates of absences from school?
What can be done in our institutions of learning to reduce the health outcomes associated with student interactions in major school calendar activities?

Suitability of Hypothesis

The statement the Brentwood Indians basketball team lost the state championship because there is bad stuff in the stars happening with Mars in Aquarius is not a suitable hypothesis as the relationship between the loss of the state championship and the bad stuff in the stars is not testable. The phenomena of interest in the hypothesis take abstract connotations which cannot be tested in real-life situations. Although the hypothesis seems to suggest a relationship between the loss of the championship and bad stars happening with Mars in Aquarius, it is often difficult to test the latter variable due to its abstract nature. A suitable hypothesis must not only be testable and repeatable but must also demonstrate clear-cut outcomes, which can then be used to prove or disprove the hypothesis based on the study findings (Babbie, 2010; Polit & Beck, 2008).

Reference List

Babbie, E. (2010). The practice of social research (12th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Community Health Department. (n.d.a). Memo. Web.

Community Health Department. (n.d.b). Graphs. Web.

Community Health Department. (n.d.c). Messages. Web.

Lipowski, E.E. (2008). Developing great research questions. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 65(1), 1667-1670.

Polit, D.F., & Beck, C.T. (2008). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

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