A report on chronic teacher absenteeism showing public school teachers are more likely to be chronically absent than charter school teachers was released Sept. 20.
According to the report released by conservative think tank the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, 28.3 percent of public school teachers and 10.3 percent of charter school teachers nationwide are chronically absent.
The organization supports school vouchers and charter schools, according to Fordham's website.The study received funding from the Walton Family Foundation, a group that funds charter school startups.
Fordham also released a report in 2010 establishing support for the Common Core State Standards Initiative, a series of educational standards in mathematics and English. The organization is funded by groups such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which also funded Common Core.
The teacher absenteeism report defines "chronically absent" as missing 10 or more school days a year for personal or sick days. The 10-day marker excludes holidays and teacher work days.
The statistics from the study compared rates of absenteeism between public schools and charter schools and between unionized schools and non-unionized schools.
According to the report, North Carolina public school teachers are more than twice as likely to be chronically absent than charter school teachers. Public school teachers have a rate of absenteeism of 34.6 percent and charter school teachers have a rate of 12.8 percent.
The report said although student absenteeism is often used as an indicator of school quality, teacher absenteeism is not.
Eric Houck, an educational leadership and policy professor at UNC, said he is not sure teacher absenteeism is an issue for teacher quality.
