Introduction

Assemble all the worst things in America- gambling, liquor, cigarettes, and toxic fumes, sewage, waste disposal, prostitution- put it all together. Then you dump it on black people and their schools. (Kozol, Savage Inequalities, p. 17)

The above insight is from a book that attempts to document the bleak environmental or geographical space context of some of our urban school settings and its possible impact on the community- especially children and adolescents that live in the community. Schools located in what might be termed, Negative Geographical Space or N.G.S. (Bruno,2000) are particularly troublesome with regard to promoting equity and excellence in their instructional programs. One educational research finding that seems to remain constant is that school reform efforts aimed at promoting equity and excellence in the schools are strongly dependent upon the quality of teaching personnel needed to deliver the instructional program to students in the classroom.

It is common knowledge that urban classroom teachers also tend to work under more stressful working conditions therefore use their sick days more frequently. In general, urban classroom teachers, teach more students a day, teach less academically prepared students, teach in more dangerous, high crime geographical areas of a large urban area, and generally lack teaching and instructional materials to deliver a quality instructional program. In essence, the geographical or environmental context of these school working conditions, even more that student poverty, are strongly associated with teacher attendance at the school site, their morale as professional educators, and a their sense of teaching efficacy in the classroom (Corcoran, Walker, & White, 1988).

With its [the urban school's] outdated textbooks and crumbling, dirty facilities, it operated in conditions that would not have been tolerated in other mixed or predominantly white communities.   (Diver-Stamnes, 1995, p. 17)

The issue of teacher absenteeism is rapidly becoming an important topic area of educational policy analysis largely because of its direct impact on the quality of instruction and its association with poor participation in school reform efforts. (Ehenberg, Rees, and Ehenberg, 1991).  In an effort to explain the why to teacher absenteeism, some research studies have also examined the role of gender and its association with teacher absence (Scott & McClellan, 1990).  All of these research efforts are directed towards developing a better understanding of the problem of teacher absenteeism and more importantly the propensity of teachers to use all of their available sick days as an "entitlement" of the profession.

Because of high levels of teacher absence and the extensive use and reliance on substitute teachers to deliver instructional programs there is a strong attenuation or a lessening of the impact of school resources that are devoted to instruction. There is also a corresponding amplification of student risk factors such as poverty. These two major consequences of teacher absenteeism, attenuation of school resources and the amplification of student risk factors, make the teacher absenteeism issue one of extreme importance for urban schools. Of particular importance is the impact that teacher absence might have on school reform efforts aimed at promoting equity and excellence at these schools. From a social justice perspective, another important issue to examine is if there is any systematic bias in the distribution of teacher absenteeism with higher teacher absenteeism in the low-income areas of large urban school districts. In essence, because educational researchers have suggested that the effectiveness of substitute teachers is far below that of regular teachers (Olsen, 1971). Teacher absenteeism, by extension, has implications for school reform and the quality of the instructional program at a school setting and policy issues dealing with improving equity and excellence in the schools.

In many instances in urban school settings, a substitute teacher cannot be found and a regular classroom teacher to cover the classroom time period from their free or preparation period. (Locker, 1999, Mckay,1999) . Finally from a purely financial perspective, teacher absenteeism is extremely expensive and substitute teacher salaries have to be paid in addition to regular teacher salaries thus adding to the per pupil cost of education. In essence, there is an attenuation or lessening of school resources needed to support instructional programs at these schools- a situation that would not be tolerated at predominantly white, suburban schools.

Of course there are many legitimate reasons for a teacher to be absent. Typical reasons include illness, professional development, personal reasons, family bereavement, etc. (Alberta Teachers Association, 1998). Sometimes as teachers approach retirement age and have accumulated sick days with the school district, they begin to take their takes off to pursue their own personal interests or outside "moonlighting" activities. Since in most urban school settings each teacher is permitted to "bank" 10 days of sick leave per year, the total amount of sick days for a teacher can rapidly accumulate over a career in the classroom. What is most troublesome for educational policy makers is when classroom teachers at certain school sites begin to view their absenteeism from the classroom as an entitlement that goes with the teaching position. The sense of entitlement has enormous implications for the cost of instruction. Consider the following example:

In addition to the attenuation of school resources towards instruction, when this sense of entitlement is most prevalent or biased towards schools located in negative or low-income geographical space the very students most in need of instructional quantity and quality are harmed. The challenges posed to teachers and educational leaders between the quality of geographical space or school site location, poverty, and school issues have also been explored in educational research studies. (Bruno, 2000; Lippenant, Burns, McArthur, 1996).

Purpose of Study

The purpose of this study extends these research efforts to examine the quality of geographical space and teacher absence linkage since it indirectly examines how school site location impacts on access to educational opportunity. Specifically this study examines the association between the quality of geographical space or the environmental context of the school setting and the rates of teacher absenteeism at the school site for all of the high schools located in a large urban.

The Substitute Teacher in Urban Settings

Equality of educational opportunity at a school exists when a child's educational opportunity does not depend upon either his parent's economic circumstances or his location within the state  (Wise, 1972, p. 146)

  As previously noted, issues related to quality of educational opportunity and the related issue of equity and excellence at urban schools strongly depend on the quality of classroom instructional programs. The reliance on substitute teachers to deliver instruction, because of teacher absence has great significance for these urban students because parents or the economic circumstances of these students make the school setting the only source of educational development. Instructional programs delivered mainly by substitute teachers, non-credential teachers, inexperienced teachers, etc. therefore are extremely important. Some of these issues have been previously and non-empirically addressed in various books on the problems of urban school setting. (Kozol, 1992). Since the quality of substitute teachers and not fully interchangeable with the quality of the regular classroom teacher at most school settings, the issue of teacher absence has both practical (in terms of cost) and theoretical (in terms of equity) significance for the educational policy maker.

The regular high school classroom teacher is required to obtain a bachelor's degree in a same field that is related to his or her teaching assignment.  This could range from the sciences, such as chemistry, to education such as special ed., to mathematics such as algebra II, to the fine arts such as painting.  The regular classroom teacher is also required to complete two years of a teacher training program in a post graduate department of an accredited institution. While there are some exceptions, substitute teachers are typically under qualified to teach in the field of the regular classroom teacher, but are expected to fill the shoes of any regular teacher, whatever the subject matter field of the absent teacher (chemistry, mathematics, physics).

In some school districts, the minimum education requirement level for substitute teaching is set at extremely low professional levels.  For example, in the state of Utah, all a substitute needs to teach is a high school degree and no criminal record.  Fairfax County, Va., demands only two years of college for its substitutes.  (Streisand & Toch, 1998). In recent studies, it was found that a large number of teacher-training graduates failed the recently introduced teacher-licensing exam.  Last spring, nearly sixty percent of Massachusetts' education graduates failed a basic reading, writing, and subject matter test. A recent nationwide study by the Educational Testing Service found similar high rates of failure. (Streisand & Tock, 1998). 

It is also noteworthy that most substitute teachers are usually not equipped with lesson plans for the classroom periods that they cover and typically show a film or do other "filling time" classroom activities.  In the substitute teacher chat room found on the Internet, playing word bingo with the kids was a highly recommended form of filling class time.  In essence, these substitute teachers are really not "substitutes" in an educational sense, but according to students highly paid "babysitters" to students that need quality teachers the most and require greater amounts of formal instructional time.

This study will focus on teacher absenteeism at the high school level of instruction because this level is most directly associated with equal educational opportunity via AP courses, preparing students for post high school graduation education exit exams from high school, and general preparation for post secondary education. It is also the setting where students at one of the most important stages of their psychosocial development require time connections with their classroom teachers for purposes of modeling, receiving vision for a future, advice, and counseling.

Finally, the role of geographical space on teacher absenteeism is often neglected as a variable in educational policy studies. Geographical space has its own unique qualities with regard to understanding behaviors such as teacher absenteeism. For example there is

• Location of the school setting: Where is the school located in geographical space? Where is the exact location and what is the land use surrounding the school setting i.e. the quality of the geographical space since it might impact on the quality of the instructional program, teacher turnover, and teacher absenteeism.
• Livability of the geographical space surrounding the school: What is it like to live and be schooled in the geographical space of the school setting? Since most teachers don't live in the same geographical space as the school setting there is a tendency to ignore what it is like for students to live and study in the area. The social well being of the community, crime rate, extent of graffiti, etc. all impact on the livability of the geographical space and working conditions in the classroom. It also impacts on student preparation for class and attitudes towards school.
• Likeability of school site area: How do other people in the community relate to their space and how is the pride in the community?  Community well being, quality neighborhoods, and the support for schools are linked and have a major impact on the instructional program and what is expected from teachers and directly impacts on the motivation to teach.
• Locus of Control: How does this geographical space dominate others in the area or is dominate with regard to quality?  How are ideas, people, and goods moved into and out of the geographical space. What is the investment in the community, resident turnover, etc and how do others view the geographical space. Conditions where the geographical space is considered as negative implies that the space has little attractiveness for either living or working. This characteristic relates to teacher turnover and the sense of entitlement with regard to absence from the classroom. This characteristic of geographical space might affect teacher absenteeism and teacher turnover.

This study combines recently developed data gathering mechanism on teacher absence rates at high school sites in a large urban school setting with Geographical Information Systems (G.I.S.). The purpose of this study is to map the association between the school's geographical space or physical environment (income level) and the propensity for teacher absence. The disparity between instructional resources as delivered vs. instructional resources as actually received by students in the classroom is examined in the context of a large urban school setting.

Specifically, the purpose of this study is twofold.

• First, to examine the geographical association between the quality of negative geographical space of a high school setting in a large urban school district (median family income in the area) and the rates of teacher absenteeism.
• Second, to examine how teacher absenteeism measures and the need for substitute teachers (filled and unfilled) are associated with school performance at the school site.

Methods

This study used teacher absence information collected at all high schools in a large urban school district. The average absence per teacher was especially noted along with information regarding the number of unfilled substitute teacher positions. G.I.S. methods were then used to plot these school settings by those above and below a threshold 8.0 days of teacher absence per year per teacher at the school site. The quality of the geographical space surrounding the school setting or the median level of income for the zip code of the school setting was then applied to the map of school sites that were color-coded by high and low rates of teacher absenteeism. Finally, other important variables at the school site that might be related to substitute teachers, such as academic quality as measured by the Academic Performance Indicator or API, were also collected for each school site. 

In this study the following variables were collected at each high school site in the school district.

Findings

General questions about appropriateness of topics or particular articles may be addressed to the Editor, Gene V Glass, glass@asu.edu or reach him at College of Education, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-2411. The Commentary Editor is Casey D. Cobb: casey.cobb@unh.edu .