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 study included in this report covers the staying in school and progressing in school domains. The findings below present the authors’ estimates and WWC-calculated estimates of the size and the statistical significance of the effects of STEP on students.¹⁰

Staying in School. The study found no statistically significant differences between STEP and control group youth in their self-reported dropout rates about four years after random assignment. In addition, the effect sizes were not large enough (at least 0.25) to be considered substantively important according to WWC criteria.

Progressing in School. The study found no statistically significant differences between STEP and control group youth in their highest grade completed about four years after random assignment. However, the WWC is not able to calculate effect sizes in the progressing in school domain because the study authors did not provide standard deviations of the outcomes.

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, the size of the difference between participants in the intervention and the comparison conditions, and the consistency in findings across studies (see the WWC Intervention Rating Scheme).