As featured in NASBE's The State Education Standard - Fostering school connectedness is an effective, universal prevention measure that affects many important student outcomes. Students who are connected to school get better grades, attend more often, have fewer behavioral challenges, graduate from high school, and go to college at higher rates than their disconnected peers.
The final (June 2023) report to the nation on a 20-year effort to boost high school graduation rates shows graduation rates rising from 71 percent in 2001 to 86.5 percent by the Class of 2020, translating into 5 million more students graduating, rather than dropping out, during that period. Despite the great progress made over the course of the 20-year effort culminating in the GradNation Campaign, equity gaps persist, and the COVID-19 pandemic had significant impacts on student learning and health. The report calls for, among other policy recommendations, expanding the use of Student Success Systems. Read more on…
California Safe and Supportive Schools brief summarizes evidence on the importance of school connectedness, with practical tips for what teachers and adults can do right now, as well as universal and targeted support approaches
State-wide survey of caregiving and its impacts for students finds that only through school-level analysis and gathering data from multiple sources can schools figure out how to most effectively understand and respond to student caregiving prevalence and impacts.
New report from the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research shines light on what effective schools do well, demonstrating the value of taking a holistic approach to student development in high school and in transition from 8th to 9th grades. Effective schools cultivate an environment in which students and teachers have positive and productive interactions, students develop peer connections and have a sense of belonging, and students’ orientation toward hard work, effort, and engagement is nurtured. Compared to schools with a singular focus on test scores, schools promoting grown on all dimensions had a greater impact on short- and long-term…
Megan Austin, Benjamin Backes, Dan Goldhaber, Dory Li, Francie Streich (2022). Leveling Up: A Behavioral Nudge to Increase Enrollment in Advanced Coursework. CALDER Working Paper No. 271-1022
This study provides new evidence of the pandemic’s negative impact on student outcomes, highlighting its variable and disproportionate effects for historically marginalized groups, including Black and Hispanic students, EDS students, and ELL students. Results underscore the need for implementing tiered, targeted interventions to provide appropriate supports for students with different needs, as well as the imperative that administrators, policymakers, and researchers pay attention to the full distribution of student outcomes to ensure recovery reaches all students.