Running Head: Analysis Essay

Sara Davis
Analysis Essay
Baker College

Running Head: Analysis Essay

Truancy is not an issue that calls for punishment of parents and students. It is a national
issue of poverty and racism that creates truant students in the United States. In the article entitled
An Interrogation and Response to the Predominant Framing of Truancy, author Adriane
Kayoko Peralta responds to a truancy report by United States Secretary of Education Arne
Duncan and California Attorney general Kamala Harris. The truancy report by Arne and Duncan
claim that parents are to blame for excessive absenteeism in the public school system and
parents, students, and schools should be punished. Author Adriane Kayoko Peralta disagrees with
the Secretary of Education and the California Attorney General. In her rebuttal article of the
report, the author provides strong examples of why truancy is an issue, and supports her claims
made using logos and pathos. Peralta asserts that the truancy issue is not quite the crisis it is
made out to be and that the truancy is actually a symptom, not the core problem. The author
claims that truancy is due to poor economic conditions and racism. Peralta's article "An
Interrogation and Response to the predominant Framing of Truancy" is partially effective
because of her appeals to logos, pathos, and sound reasoning, but her rebuttal to the original
article lacks ethos, which negatively impacts her overall article persuasiveness.
The target audience for Adriane Kayoko Peraltas argument is aimed specifically at
lawmakers in the United States and educational professionals. This is apparent because her
article is a rebuttal to another article presented by the Secretary of Education and the California
Attorney General. Peraltas arguments are aimed towards current legislation that is in need of
change such as, In Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Municipal Code (LMAC) 45.04, also known
as the daytime Curfew Law, allows police officers to issue truancy tickets to students for being
outdoors or in public places during school hours. It implies that schools do not require further
effort or spending to improve teacher quality or curriculum because the students are not there to

Running Head: Analysis Essay

learn (Peralta, 2014). Author Adriane Peralta was a special education teacher for the Los
Angeles Unites School District and Green Dot Public Schools. The author states that From my
six years of teaching experience in South Los Angeles, every chronically absent student has a
story (Peralta, 2014). The authors personal experience with truancy combined with strong
pathos examples helps to persuade the reader.
The author supports the claim made by Duncan and Harris that truancy is indeed an issue
that needs to be addressed. However, she does not agree that calling it a crisis is the right way to
handle the truancy issue. Peralta insists that framing truancy as a crisis has exacerbated the
school to prison pipeline. To begin with, the report exaggerates the truancy problem in its
definition of a truant student. (Peralta, 2014). Peralta references the report by Harris and
Duncan In the Attorney Generals report, she defines a truant student as a student absent or
tardy by more than 20 minutes without a valid excuse on 3 occasions in a school year. The
author is using logos to support her claim of truancy being exacerbated; she includes the quote
from the report she is arguing as evidence and support. The author believes that defining a
student truant based on these specifications is extreme. She further supports this argument by
including a statement from the Los Angeles Times Editorial board that states
Officials estimate that there are close to one million elementary school students in the
state who are truant each year, but that makes the problem sound worse than it is because
any student who gets to campus late three times in an academic year is deemed to be
truant. A more meaningful measure of the problem is chronic absenteeism, these are the
students who miss ten-percent or more school days, or at least eighteen days each
academic year. But most schools in the state dont even track how many students are

Running Head: Analysis Essay

chronically absent. The number that Harris used 250,000 elementary students is
extrapolated from a small example. (Peralta, 2014)
Author Adriane Kayoko Peralta continues to support her claims using logos, she asserts that one
of the underlying causes of truancy in the United States is that truant students are often
minorities that come from poor and underprivileged urban areas and families. The author
supports this claim using statistical information stating that In the Los Angeles Unified School
District (LAUSD), the nations second largest school district and Californias largest school
district, 88 percent of the students are of color. LAUSDs graduation rate is a measly 56 percent,
which means that the dropout rate for LAUSD is 44 percent (Peralta, 2014). Peralta further
supports her argument using logos to her advantage, she quotes directly from the original article
she is rebutting that states;
First grade students with nine or more total absences ate two times more likely to drop
out of high school than their peers who attend school regularly. Each additional school
day missed over 5 equals 7% decrease in the probability of graduating high school for
low-income urban elementary students. 82% of prisoners in America are high school
dropouts. A ten percent increase in graduation rates would reduce murder and assault
rates by 20%. Increasing graduation rates in California by 10% would therefore result in:
50,000 additional graduates annually; 500 murders prevented each year, and 20,000
aggravated assaults prevented each year. (Peralta, 2014)
Peralta argues the use of logos in the original article stating the report makes broad jumps
between truancy, dropouts, incarceration, and violence (Peralta, 2014). The authors evidence is
used to support her arguments and persuade the reader.

Running Head: Analysis Essay

Peralta goes on to further support her claims using pathos and creating a descriptive
environment for the reader to understand the life of a potential truant student. Poor students
often have to rely on public transportation to get to school, public transportation, especially in
Los Angeles, can be slow and unpredictable. Moreover, poor families are more likely to greater
family responsibilities and work demands that make getting to school on time a challenge.
Considering these factors is seems almost reasonable that all students living in urban areas, and
especially poor students, will likely be late to school at least three times per school year
(Peralta, 2014). The author continues to use pathos when describing a personal recollection of a
student she once had, Esmeralda. Peralta uses imagination and emotions to persuade the reader
stating that
Esmeralda, a Latina sophomore, was the best softball player on the school team I
coached. Nearly every time she came to the plate she hit a triple or double. While other
parents routinely came to the games, Esmeraldas parents were never there. One day she
came to practice with a new tattoo of a boys name. I assumed it was the name of a new
boyfriend, but she informed me that it was her fathers name. Her father was serving a
life sentence in the state prison. The following year, she was absent from school for four
consecutive days. When she showed up on Friday, I asked her where she had been. She
told me that over the weekend federal agents broke down her front door at 4:00 in the
morning; they searched the entire house and arrested her mother and aunt. She later found
out that her mother was part of a drug smuggling operation and the police had found large
amounts of drugs and money in the home. After her mothers arrest, law enforcement
seized their home, and Esmeralda and her older sister, who was only 20 years old, needed
a place to stay. The two of them had no money, so they stayed with their mothers friends.

Running Head: Analysis Essay

From then on, Esmeralda only came to school about once a week, until she finally
dropped out. Esmeralda was a very talented student-athlete and any college would have
been lucky to have her, but her familys circumstances prevented her from ever having a
chance. (Peralta, 2014)
The authors appeals to emotions, values, and imagination create a persuasive argument. From
this excerpt the author emotionally engages you into the life of a teen in urban Los Angeles and
gives a very detailed example of just of the many circumstances behind the life of a truant
student.
Peraltas use of logos and pathos is very effective at supporting her arguments and
persuading the reader. However, her use of ethos is limited and lacks the support needed on her
fundamental ideals. While the author does have a strong background in the educational setting,
she uses this credibility to negate the article she is rebutting. The author is lacking this credibility
support for her own arguments which effects the overall persuasiveness of the article. The author
also negates all alternative views within the truancy controversy. Her article impressively negates
all possible solutions and outcomes to the truancy issue but her own, and fails to support her own
idea with likeminded research.
Overall, Peralta was persuasive using logos, pathos, and sound reasoning. The
article was well supported with evidence and statistical information on truancy and
related issues. The authors use of pathos was especially persuasive because of the
detailed story of Esmeralda. Peralta was able to emotional connect the reader with the life
of a truant, and in doing so creating the appeal of sound reasoning. The author
persuasively connects the main idea of truancy and poor economic conditions. The lack

Running Head: Analysis Essay

of alternative views negatively impacted the articles overall ability to fully persuade the
reader, as well as her credibility towards the intended audience.

Running Head: Analysis Essay

References:
Peralta, A. (2014, July 1). An Interrogation and Response to the predominant Framing of
Truancy. Retrieved June 3, 2015, from http://www.uclalawreview.org/pdf/discourse/623.pdf