Student attendance at school is a necessary condition for learning and for other schooling benefits, yet absenteeism is a significant issue for students in many countries. Policies, programs, and research seeking to reduce absenteeism need to measure it accurately. This article describes seven different methods to measure student absenteeism, all used in at least one of 27 recently published studies in low- and middle-income countries. It also synthesizes evidence on the advantages and disadvantages of different methods, drawing on 17 studies that compare methods. We find that official school attendance records—a relatively cheap, nonintrusive method—often result in similar statistics as unannounced spot checks, but there are enough exceptions that policymakers and researchers may initially need to complement school records with spot checks. Student reports often understate absenteeism, and caregiver reports even more so. We discuss implications for researchers and for policymakers to improve measurement in education systems.

学生出勤是学习和其他学校教育福利的必要条件，但缺勤对于许多国家的学生来说是一个重大问题。旨在减少缺勤的政策、计划和研究需要准确衡量缺勤情况。本文介绍了衡量学生缺勤的七种不同方法，最近发表的 27 项低收入和中等收入国家研究中至少有一项使用了所有这些方法。它还借鉴了 17 项比较方法的研究，综合了不同方法优缺点的证据。我们发现，官方学校出勤记录（一种相对便宜、非侵入性的方法）通常会产生与突击抽查类似的统计数据，但有足够多的例外情况，政策制定者和研究人员最初可能需要通过抽查来补充学校记录。学生报告经常低估缺勤情况，看护者的报告更是如此。我们讨论了对研究人员和政策制定者改善教育系统衡量的影响。