Nonprofit organizations need to focus on the right issues. This education advocacy organization had been effectively drawing attention to weak test scores, but wanted a new issue to pair with that work, something more actionable that families and officials could move on directly. Chronic absenteeism turned out to be exactly that, but it wasn’t on the table until the analysis made the case for it.
Working with a city-level advocacy nonprofit in Texas, I helped show that chronic absenteeism could be that complement. I documented that attendance still hadn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels even years after schools reopened, which made the problem current rather than a closed chapter of the pandemic. Then I reproduced relationships well established in national research using local data, showing that absenteeism tracked with lower test scores and weaker graduation outcomes in their own schools, not just in the literature. That connected the new issue directly to the outcomes they already cared about. Seeing their own city ranked against others in the state cemented the urgency.
From there we built a published report for city councilmembers that broke performance down by legislative district, so every official could see their own constituents in the numbers. It anchored a broader campaign engaging families, schools, and local officials.
The hardest part of advocacy is often choosing the right fight. Good analysis is how you find it.