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

Sponsor

Northwestern University (Other)

Overall Status

Completed

CT.gov ID

NCT01487434

Collaborator

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (NIH), U.S. Department of Education (U.S. Fed), William T. Grant Foundation (Other)

5,300

Enrollment

Location

Arm

107

Duration (Months)

49.5

Patients Per Site Per Month

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

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.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Attendance and Truancy Student Engagement Dropout	Behavioral: Check & Connect	N/A

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 Design

Study Type:

Interventional

Actual Enrollment :

5300 participants

Allocation:

N/A

Intervention Model:

Single Group Assignment

Masking:

None (Open Label)

Primary Purpose:

Prevention

Official Title:

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

Study Start Date :

Sep 1, 2011

Actual Primary Completion Date :

Sep 1, 2015

Actual Study Completion Date :

Aug 1, 2020

Arms and Interventions

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

Arm

Intervention/Treatment

Experimental: Check & Connect

Check and Connect Structured Mentoring and Case Management

Behavioral: Check & Connect

Structured mentoring and case management

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

Change in attendance and truancy [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]
Attendance and truancy measured through school records on absences

Secondary Outcome Measures

Criminal activity and involvement [1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years]
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
Employment history and workforce involvement [1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years]
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
Health and medical system participation [1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years]
Health outcomes using health records will include Medicaid records on eligibility and service use from the Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX)
Academic achievement [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]
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)
School engagement [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 measured through school records will include disciplinary actions/referrals

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study:

5 Years to 16 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study:

All

Accepts 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:

None

Contacts and Locations

Locations

	Site	City	State	Country	Postal Code
1	Chicago Public Schools	Chicago	Illinois	United States	60603

Sponsors and Collaborators

Northwestern University
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
U.S. Department of Education
William T. Grant Foundation