From the brief: "This brief draws on longitudinal student level data provided by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI). These data include all students enrolled in traditional public schools and charter schools in North Carolina from the 2017-18 to 2021-22 school years. Using these data, we examine seven outcome measures— two measures of attendance, three measures of course grades, a measure of grade retention, and a measure of student suspensions. For attendance, we examine 1) the total number of days absent for each student during a given school year and 2) an indicator for chronic absenteeism, which is defined as being absent for 10 percent or more of the total days in membership in NC public schools. For course grades, we measure 1) letter grades at the course level, 2) average grades in quality points for a given school year at the student level, and 3) a student level indicator for failing at least one course in a given school year. We measure grade retention as an indicator for whether a student is recorded as enrolled in NC public schools in the same grade level in the subsequent school year. For suspensions, we create an indicator for whether a student received at least one day of out-of-school suspension in a given year as a result of a disciplinary incident."