Five-Year Comprehensive Evaluation Ranks Communities In Schools as the Most Effective Dropout Prevention Organization in America
Largest and Most Comprehensive Evaluation of Dropout Prevention Programs Ever Completed
WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Communities In Schools, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to empowering students to stay in school and achieve in life, today released the results of a five-year comprehensive longitudinal evaluation, conducted by one of the nation’s foremost social science evaluation firms.
After five years of detailed evaluation underwritten by The Atlantic Philanthropies, the evaluation concluded that Communities In Schools’ model resulted in the strongest reduction in dropout rates of any existing fully scaled dropout prevention program that has been evaluated; that Communities In Schools is unique in having an effect on both reducing dropout rates and increasing graduation rates; and that the Communities In Schools model is effective across states, school settings, grade levels and student ethnicities. Importantly, analyses indicate that the more fully and carefully the model is implemented, the stronger the effects.
The study, the largest and most comprehensive evaluation of dropout prevention programs ever completed, was designed with eight distinct interlocking phases, including:
- An implementation study that examined results from 1,766 Communities In Schools sites nationwide;
- A quasi-experimental study that compared results from 602 Communities In Schools sites against 602 matched sites without a Communities In Schools presence;
- A “deep dive” study of 368 Communities In Schools sites to identify best practices; and
- Three randomized controlled trials, the gold standard in social science evaluation, studying 573 students at nine sites.
“This comprehensive, multi-level multi-method study has provided important information about the effectiveness of the Communities In Schools approach, and I am pleased that Communities In Schools is using the findings to make their model consistent and strong across hundreds of sites,” commented Kristin Moore, Ph.D., senior scholar, Child Trends, and member, Communities In Schools National Evaluation Advisory Committee.
In comparing the results to over 1,600 studies screened by the Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse, the evaluation concluded that the Communities In Schools model is associated with the strongest reduction in dropout rates among all existing fully scaled dropout prevention programs in the United States. Specific findings included:
- Communities In Schools’ positive effect on both dropout rates and graduation rates is unique among dropout prevention programs;
- The higher the level of fidelity to the Communities In Schools model, the greater the effects, which validates the power of the model;
- Positive effects accrued to schools across states, settings (urban, suburban, rural), grade levels and ethnicities; and
- The Austin randomized controlled trial,
Article source: PRNewswire
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