Research

Six studies reviewed by the WWC investigated the effects of the Check & Connect program. One study met WWC evidence standards, and a second study met evidence standards with reservations. Two studies did not meet WWC relevance screens—one did not focus on the relevant student age range (middle and high school) and the other did not examine outcomes from the three domains relevant for the review. The two remaining studies did not meet WWC evidence screens because they lacked an equivalent comparison group.

The study that met WWC evidence standards (Sinclair, Christenson, Evelo, & Hurley, 1998) was a randomized controlled trial that included 94 high school students from the Minneapolis public schools with learning, emotional, or behavioral disabilities. Students were randomly assigned at the beginning of ninth grade, with 47 students assigned to the treatment group and 47 students assigned to the control group. In this study, both treatment and control group students received Check & Connect services in seventh and eighth grade, but only treatment group students continued to receive these services in ninth grade.

The study that met evidence standards with reservations (Sinclair, Christenson, & Thurlow, 2005) was a randomized controlled trial with a relatively large attrition rate—slightly more than 30% of those originally assigned. ⁴ The post-attrition sample included 144 ninth-grade students from Minneapolis public schools with emotional or behavioral disabilities, including 71 students randomly assigned to the treatment group and 73 students randomly assigned to the control group. In this study, treatment group students received Check & Connect services throughout high school, while the control group received no Check & Connect services.