Skip Navigation

What Works Clearinghouse

Search
Intervention: First Things First

Overview

First Things First is a reform model intended to transform elementary, middle, and high schools serving significant proportions of economically disadvantaged students. Its three main components are: (1) “small learning communities” of students and teachers, (2) a family and student advocate system that pairs staff members and students to monitor and support progress and that serves as a bridge between the school and family, and (3) instructional improvements to make classroom teaching more rigorous and engaging and more closely aligned with state standards and assessments. 1

Research

One study of First Things First met the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evidence standards with reservations. The quasi-experimental research design included students from Houston high schools—3 First Things First schools, each matched to 10 or 11 comparison schools. Based on this one study, the WWC considers the extent of evidence for First Things First to be small for staying in school. That study did not examine the effectiveness of First Things First in the domains of progressing in school or completing school. 2

Effectiveness

First Things First was found to have no discernible effects on staying in school in its first year of implementation.

  Staying in school Progressing in school Completing school
Rating of effectiveness No discernible effects na na
Improvement index3 Average: –1 percentile point na na
na = not applicable

1 The descriptive information for this program was obtained from publicly available sources: the program’s website (www.irre.org/ftf, retrieved October 2007) and the research literature (Quint, Bloom, Black, & Stephens, 2005). The WWC asks developers to review the program description sections for accuracy from their perspective. Further verification of the accuracy of the descriptive information for this program is beyond the scope of this review.
2 The evidence in this report is based on available research. Findings and conclusions may change as new research becomes available.
3 These numbers show the average improvement indices for all findings across the study.