They are the students with hurdles in front of them. Some are in foster care. Some are in alternative schools or were recently in the juvenile justice system. Others have already left high school but are struggling in community college or trade school. Many come from historically marginalized racial or ethnic communities. Almost all face economic disadvantages.
Developed 36 years ago at the College of Education and Human Development’s Institute on Community Integration, Check & Connect is a national leader in student intervention. It has been used in schools in all 50 states and nearly a dozen other countries, from Ireland to Singapore to Australia.
Closer to home, Minnesota’s St. Louis County committed federal COVID-19 relief funds to bring the program to about three dozen K-12 schools across the region in 2021. The result: A 75 percent drop in absences and a 62 percent decline in suspensions from prior-year levels.
Check & Connect is an evidence-based model that pairs at-risk students with a trusted mentor who provides support, accountability and advocacy for students as they work to improve attendance, behavior and grades. Mentors work with school personnel, family members and others on both the accountability and advocacy goals of the intervention.
More recently, the Institute on Community Integration has partnered with nonprofit organizations and other groups interested in bringing the intervention to specific at-risk populations.
“I get fired up about the different adaptations of this model. It resonates where people see a need for an evidence-based framework to support higher-risk communities,” says Ann Romine, a national Check & Connect trainer at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. “It’s the opportunity to ask how we can make sure there is somebody who is consistently showing up for these students.”
Success across the country
In Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, the nation’s 18th-largest district, a team of case managers is using Check & Connect to mentor students who are transitioning from the alternative high school back into the regular curriculum. Some are coming from the juvenile justice system, some from incidents that resulted in major suspensions or expulsions. Case managers work to get buy-in from students and parents who often have deep distrust of schools. And school personnel aren’t always appreciative of an advocate who may question a grade or present another side to a behavior situation.
“The advocacy role makes this position more powerful because they know how the district should work, and if they see something that’s not quite right, they can step in,” says Edwin Wilson, project manager for the North Carolina district’s student discipline and behavior support department. “Our high schools are large — 1,800 to 3,400 students — so you can see how easy it would be to get lost in the crowd.”
His case managers have become invaluable in other ways, he says, from improving student futures to steering families to community resources they can use today.
Kenneth Purcell, another case manager, puts a finger on what makes the model work. Its documentation system keeps everyone accountable, he says, but the human element is critical. As Check & Connect says on its website, it is the power of one caring adult in a student’s life.
“I’m going to be honest. I could have been one of these kids,” Purcell says. “What makes the magic happen is building the relationship with them.”
In West Virginia, the Institute on Community Integration partners with Mission West Virginia’s Bridge program to offer Check & Connect in local schools to teens in foster and kinship care. In its most recent outcomes report, the Bridge program said nearly 96 percent of its 123 seniors graduated on time (data show the statewide average for students in foster/kinship care is 71 percent), nearly two-thirds had plans to attend college or technical school and more than a third had plans to begin jobs or military service. Among the nearly 500 high school students in the Bridge program overall, absences and suspensions declined significantly, and 70 percent maintained or increased their grade point average.
Back in Minnesota, a pilot study at Central Lakes College recently showed promising results at the post-secondary level. That has led the Check & Connect team to explore stronger ties between its high school programs and post-secondary opportunities.
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