Effectiveness

Findings

The WWC review of interventions for dropout prevention addresses student outcomes in three domains: staying in school, progressing in school, and completing school. The Dynarski, Gleason, Rangarajan, and Wood (1998) study examined outcomes in the first two domains.

Staying in school. At the end of the three-year follow-up period, Dynarski et al. (1998) found that 8% of Twelve Together students had dropped out of school compared with 13% of control group students. Although this difference was not statistically significant, it was large enough to be considered substantively important based on WWC standards.

Progressing in school. Dynarski et al. (1998) found that, at the end of the three-year follow-up period, Twelve Together had no effect on progressing in school as measured by the highest grade completed.

Rating of effectiveness

The WWC rates the effects of an intervention in a given outcome domain as positive, potentially positive, mixed, no discernible effects, potentially negative, or negative. The rating of effectiveness takes into account four factors: the quality of the research design, the statistical significance of the findings,⁶ the size of the difference between participants in the intervention and comparison conditions, and the consistency in findings across studies (see the WWC Intervention Rating Scheme).