City Connects: Supporting the Development of the Whole Child in Schools

• In Event: 43.016 - Forming Lives of Meaning and Purpose: A 21st Century Mission for Schools of Education?

Abstract

Objectives
This paper presents the theoretical model and outcomes for a school-based student support intervention. Currently implemented in urban public schools across five states, City Connects addresses student and family out-of-school needs that can affect students’ ability to thrive in school.

Theoretical Framework
In high-poverty school districts across America, children face challenges outside of school that can impede their academic success. While economically disadvantaged families tend to have high expectations for their children’s education (Compton-Lilly, 2000), poverty creates obstacles, such as limited access to health insurance, food insecurity, and parental under-employment (Coley & Baker, 2013). The income-achievement gap relates to a growing investment gap in the quality and quantity of supports provided by families (Reardon, 2011).
Classic developmental systems theories (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998) posit that development results from interactions between various contexts in which the child lives, including school, home, and neighborhood. Developmental-contextual theory (Lerner, 1995) emphasizes that outcomes are a result of interactions between risks, strengths, and protective factors. Because factors interact, risks do not necessarily lead to negative outcomes; when children receive supports they need, they are more able to achieve and thrive.
Built on developmental theory, City Connects partners with community agencies to promote strengths and meet the needs of students in schools by connecting every student with the tailored set of services and enrichments that s/he needs to succeed. At the core is a Coordinator in each school who:
• works with every classroom teacher to identify strengths and needs of each student across academic, social/emotional/behavioral, health, and family domains and develops a customized support plan;
• further reviews any student identified with intensive needs;
• develops and maintains partnerships with community agencies;
• serves as a point of contact for families;
• uses a secure database to track reviews, plans, and services; and
• provides school-based services, such as social skills groups and crisis intervention.

Methods and Data
The City Connects evaluation employs a longitudinal quasi-experimental design. Using student data provided by two urban public school districts (the first to implement City Connects starting in 2001 and a second district that began implementation in 2011-12 in five schools designated as chronically underperfoming), multi-level regressions with propensity score weights estimated intervention effects on standardized test scores, report card grades, and absenteeism.

Results
In the first district, City Connects had significant, positive effects for most elementary ELA and mathematics report cards but not test scores. For grades 6-8, City Connects had positive impacts on ELA and Math test scores and GPA (see Table 1), as well as chronic absenteeism (Figure 1). In the expansion district, City Connects schools demonstrated improvements in ELA and Math performance in all grades and for both subject tests, closing the achievement gap relative to non-underperforming district schools; see Table 2.

Significance of the work
Results are of interest to researchers, educators, and policy makers interested in student support programs designed to offset out-of-school barriers to learning due to poverty. Whole-child approaches are a necessity for public education.

Author

• Mary Elizabeth Walsh