The latest report in the TIMSS 2023 Insights series is now available from the TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center

Student Absenteeism and Academic Achievement: Evidence from the TIMSS 2023 Longitudinal Study uses students’ self-reports of school absences across two school years to explore the relationship between attendance and growth in mathematics and science.

Nine countries participated in TIMSS 2023 Longitudinal, assessing the same students in the fourth and fifth grade and gathering contextual data on their education experiences in both grades. This report looks at the prevalence of student absenteeism in those countries, investigates whether absence reports shift between school years, and relates the frequency and recency of absences to academic achievement. Highlights of the findings include:

Most students in the study attended school regularly
In seven of the nine countries in the study, more than 50% of students reported rarely being absent from school. Reporting frequent absences in both years was much less common—20% of students or less in all nine countries.

Reports of absenteeism did not consistently persist between school years
Students who reported frequent absences in fourth grade did not necessarily do so in fifth grade, suggesting that frequent absenteeism within a school year might be due to extenuating circumstances (e.g., illness, family issues) rather than indicating a long-term trajectory.

Frequent absences, especially if recent, predicted lower academic progression
For students with higher absenteeism in either year, academic gains in both mathematics and science tended to be lower, with absences in fifth grade showing greater negative effects.

Read the full report at timss2023.org/insights.