Argumentative Essay Example: Attendance Should Not Be Mandatory

Attendance for college students can impact how well they do in class and significantly impact their college career. Currently, some people believe mandatory classroom attendance for a college student is a great idea and forces the student to engage with the material and other students. On the other hand, some people believe mandatory classroom attendance can harm students if they cannot make it to class because of illness and personal emergencies. On both sides of the argument, those for mandatory classroom attendance and those against it, the situation has many opinions. Attending class does not mean success and does not guarantee that the student will have a high GPA, high grades, or even pass the class. 

Classroom attendance should not be mandatory because no prior evidence links GPA and higher grades with attendance. Linking attendance with higher grades had a few issues. The rudimentary issue was linking students with higher grades with fewer attendances or higher grades with better study skills to overcome any setbacks of missing class, which weakened the link between attendance and grades (Groce, Cliff, et al. 129). Researchers Friedman, Rodriguez, and McComb established a correlation between GPAs and class absences. However, they could not establish the "causality of the relationship" (Groce, Cliff, et al. 129). Research by Durden and Ellis found that motivation and attendance tend to be two entirely different concepts. Many researchers believe personal traits explain classroom performance rather than attendance (Groce, Cliff, et al. 129). For example, Launius found that good attendance was associated with higher grades in only ¼ of her classes (Groce, Cliff, et al. 129). No evidence can link good grades and attendance with each other; therefore, it is doubtful that attendance affects students' grades.

Another reason classroom attendance should not be mandatory because overall, there has been no academic improvement when making in-class presence mandatory. Some may argue that attending class can improve academic progress because of additional in-class activities. However, research has found that in-class activities did not improve academic performance. Instead, they only improved the student's attendance. Also, the overall final grades in the class were the same regardless of the in-class activities given to the students (Groce, Cliff, et al. 130). Norwood, Carson, and Berenson evaluated the benefits of an enforced attendance policy and found that attendance improved after the enforced attendance policy but established that “attendance was not a significant predator of academic achievement” (Clair and Karen L.St.).

Many people may argue that classroom attendance helps academic performance and engagement, however, there was a study done on engineering students that suggest otherwise. There was a study done on engineering students to find a correlation between academic performance and engagement. The study found a “weak correlation between academic performance and classroom engagement” among the students. The pilot study also found that students with more classroom engagement did not have any improvement academically even though they were the most engaged students. (Mazumder, Quamrul H., et al).