Do Students Go to Class? Should They?

Lectures and other class meetings are a primary means of instruction in almost all undergraduate courses. Yet almost everyone who has taught an undergraduate course has probably noticed that attendance at these meetings is far from perfect. There is surprisingly little systematic evidence, however, about attendance and its effects. There are three natural questions: What is the extent of absenteeism? How much, if at all, does absenteeism affect learning? Should anything be done about absenteeism? This article presents quantitative evidence on the first two of these questions and speculative comments on the third.