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

Preventing Truancy in Urban Schools Through Provision of Social Services by Truancy Officers

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Dropout; Attendance and Truancy; Student Engagement
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Check & Connect

Detailed 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.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 5300
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Illinois
    • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60603
      • Chicago Public Schools

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 5 years to 16 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

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:

• None

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Check & Connect; Check and Connect Structured Mentoring and Case Management	Behavioral: Check & Connect; Structured mentoring and case management

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in attendance and truancy	Attendance and truancy measured through school records on absences	2 times a year (on average every 6 months) during the intervention and 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Criminal activity and involvement	Criminal activity and involvement using criminal records will include individual-level administrative data on juvenile arrests from the Chicago Police Department and Cook County juvenile court records	1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
Employment history and workforce involvement	Employment outcomes using employment records will include formal labor market involvement as measured by quarterly unemployment insurance (UI) records from the Illinois Department of Employment Security	1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
Health and medical system participation	Health outcomes using health records will include Medicaid records on eligibility and service use from the Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX)	1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
Academic achievement	Academic achievement measured through school records will include grades received in school and scores on standardized achievement tests (Iowa Test of Basic Skills in reading and math)	1 time a year each year during the intervention and 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
School engagement	School engagement measured through school records will include disciplinary actions/referrals	1 time a year each year during the intervention and 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Northwestern University
• Collaborators: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD); U.S. Department of Education; William T. Grant Foundation
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jonathan Guryan, Ph.D., Northwestern University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Allensworth, E. M. & John Q. Easton (2007). "What Matters for Staying On-Track and Graduating in Chicago Public High Schools." Chicago, Consortium on Chicago School Research.
• Christenson, S.L, Sinclair M.F., Evelo D.L., and C.M. Hurley (1998) "Promoting school engagement with school using the Check & Connect model." Australian Journal of Guidance & Counseling, 9(1): 169-184.
• Jacob, Brian and Jens Ludwig. (2009). "Improving Educational Outcomes for Poor Children." In Changing Poverty, Changing Policies, edited by Maria Cancian and Sheldon Danziger. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
• Sinclair, M.F., Christenson, S.L., Evelo D. L., and C.M. Hurley (1998). "Dropout prevention for youth with disabilities: Efficacy of a sustained school engagement procedure." Exceptional Children, 65(1): 7-21.
• Sinclair, M. F., Christenson, S. L. and M. L. Thurlow. (2005). "Promoting school completion of urban secondary youth with emotional and behavioral disabilities." Exceptional Children, 71(4): 465-482.

Helpful Links

• Check & Connect

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: September 1, 2011
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2015
• Study Completion (Actual): August 1, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 18, 2011
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 5, 2011
• First Posted (Estimate): December 7, 2011

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 9, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 4, 2020
• Last Verified: September 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Monitoring; Mentoring; Truancy; Case management; Attendance; Student engagement
• Other Study ID Numbers: STU00035771; 180140 (William T. Grant Foundation); R01HD067500 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract); R305A100706 (Other Grant/Funding Number: Institute of Education Sciences)