[cbsmith]

In fairness though, thinking by enforcing attendance you improve outcomes is a misreading of the data. Sure, when students attend classes, they tend to do better... when the choice to attend is without consequences. Once you make it mandatory, there's a good chance it will cease to be an effective predictor of outcomes, and it may even negatively harm outcomes (classrooms behave differently when attendance is mandated).

[asdff]

I think this is something that is understood by a lot of people at universities, but the overlap between these people and the people writing checks is slim.

[cbsmith]

Presumably it's the people writing checks at universities that are making the decisions though.