Citizenship is described as an academic culture where all teaching, learning and research is undertaken with honesty, trust, respect and much more according to the University of Alberta. Thus, citizenship grades often reflect students behaviors, attendance and overall attitude during their class sessions. 

Good citizenship and attendance is encouraged and held to a high standard as part of a student’s grades. Although, there is often the worry of whether or not students’ lives after college will be affected by low citizenship. Students may wonder “why does it matter?”

In the article “Why Are We Learning This? Teaching Citizenship and its Value” Planbook, a website informing parents of important values to teach students states, “Citizenship education involves developing the knowledge, skills and confidence to enable people to make their own decisions and to take responsibility for their own lives and communities.” 

Ultimately, citizenship serves to build awareness and empathy for different cultures while having students take responsibilities as defined by Planbook. Although citizenship is of great importance in having students build their characters, the reports and grades do not negatively affect students. While student reports feature classroom behavior, they are commonly impacted by students’ attendance.

College Reality Check, a website about high school students’ options after high school, states that high school students’ attendance is heavily emphasized with strict rules. The rules cover the specific numbers of classes students are allowed to miss and a set amount of tardies they can have before grades are affected.

After interviewing a former admissions employee at Brigham Young University, College Reality Check concurs that one’s high school attendance will not make or break their chance at getting into their dream school. Instead, colleges view how students push themselves to excel and bring the best possible effort, that does not solely depend on attendance.

As featured in College Reality Check, “In the admissions process, colleges do not care about high school attendance and whether it’s perfect or not. Instead, they place a higher priority on things like the difficulty of classes and one’s GPA (Grade Point Average).”  

While one’s citizenship grade does not solely represent them as a student, it is emphasized by the University of Alberta that students should still make an effort to attend class regularly and arrive on time. When a citizenship grade is not necessarily high, students are not negatively impacted for university but it is still helpful to students to make an effort and build their characters.

The University of Alberta states that every member of the university community enjoys certain rights and advantages related to academic freedom and as a result, has a shared responsibility for academic integrity. Thus, while following principles of academic integrity, equity, diversity and inclusivity, academic citizenship safeguards research and scholarship integrity.

Citizenship grades do not determine a students’ ability to achieve academic success and are not considered by colleges. Attendance and citizenship do not harm a student’s success after high school unless a student is constantly absent and does not make an effort causing them to fall behind in academics. It all comes down to how much effort a student makes.

According to Great Schools, a website empowering parents for their students’ success with information, attendance rates are important because students are more likely to succeed in their academics when they attend school consistently. Furthermore, there is difficulty for teachers and the class to build their skills and progress if a large number of students are frequently absent.