A Randomized Study to Abate Truancy and Violence in Grades 3-9 in Chicago Public Schools

Northwestern University

Status

Completed

Conditions

Attendance and Truancy

Dropout

Student Engagement

Treatments

Behavioral: Check & Connect

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Other U.S. Federal agency

NIH

Identifiers

NCT01487434

R01HD067500 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

180140 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

STU00035771

R305A100706 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

Details and patient eligibility

About

In partnership with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the goal of this project is to test the effectiveness of a manualized mentoring and case management program for students in grades 1-8. Most of the current policy and research attention on dropout has focused on the dropout decision itself, even though dropout is more likely to be simply the end point of a longer-term developmental process. This project seeks to learn more about the relative effectiveness of preventing dropout through mentoring and case management programs, and to learn more about the relative effectiveness of intervening early vs. later.

Full description

High school graduation is tremendously protective against involvement with crime and violence, as well as against the risk of adult poverty, unemployment, and poor health. Most of the policy and research attention on dropout has focused on the dropout decision itself. Yet dropout is almost always the end point of a longer-term developmental process. For this project the investigators have raised nearly $7 million in external support from the U.S. Department of Education, the National Institutes of Health, and the William T. Grant Foundation to learn more about the relative effectiveness of preventing dropout by trying to re-engage children in school much earlier during their academic careers.

Specifically, this project is motivated by findings from the late University of Chicago sociologist James Coleman indicating that one of the strongest protective factors against school failure for children is having a strong relationship with a pro-social adult - something that far too many children do not currently have, particularly those growing up in distressed family and community environments. The investigators are partnering with other researchers at Northwestern, Duke, and the University of Minnesota to test at large scale the effects of a structured mentoring and monitoring programs called Check & Connect. To date, the project has completed its pilot year, and starting this academic year will work with nearly 500 elementary and middle school students distributed across 23 CPS schools on the West and South sides of the city. Students will receive Check & Connect assistance for two academic years total.

Enrollment

5,300 patients

Sex

All

Ages

5 to 16 years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Student with 10-27 total absences in prior school year
Students in Grades 1-7 at start of 2011-2012 or 2013-14 school years
In attendance at one of the Chicago Public Schools elementary/middle schools randomly selected to be offered the intervention

Exclusion criteria