Investing in Innovation (i3) validation study of Families and Schools Together (FAST) final report
Bos, J., Spier, E., Bandeira de Mello, V., González, R., & Huang, F. (2018). Washington D.C.: American Institutes for Research. https://www.familiesandschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/AIR_FASTi3.pdf.
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examining1,232Students, gradesK-2
Department-funded evaluation
Review Details
Reviewed: April 2022
- Department-funded evaluation (findings for Families and Schools Together)
- Randomized Controlled Trial
- Meets WWC standards with reservations because it is a cluster randomized controlled trial with low cluster-level attrition that provides evidence of effects on clusters by demonstrating that the analytic sample of individuals is representative of the clusters.
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test) |
Families and Schools Together vs. Business as usual |
0 Weeks |
Cohort 2, grade 1;
|
95.25 |
94.50 |
No |
-- | |
|
Vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test) |
Families and Schools Together vs. Business as usual |
0 Weeks |
Cohort 1, grade 2;
|
88.52 |
88.71 |
No |
-- | |
|
Vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test) |
Families and Schools Together vs. Business as usual |
0 Weeks |
Cohort 1, grade 1;
|
82.72 |
83.94 |
No |
-- |
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Broad Reading (Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement) |
Families and Schools Together vs. Business as usual |
0 Weeks |
Cohort 1, grade 1;
|
452.33 |
454.61 |
No |
-- | |
|
Broad Reading (Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement) |
Families and Schools Together vs. Business as usual |
0 Weeks |
Cohort 1, grade 2;
|
467.08 |
469.20 |
No |
-- | |
|
Broad Reading (Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement) |
Families and Schools Together vs. Business as usual |
0 Weeks |
Cohort 2, grade 1;
|
453.83 |
455.84 |
No |
-- |
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ-III): Broad Mathematics cluster subtest |
Families and Schools Together vs. Business as usual |
0 Weeks |
Cohort 2, grade 1;
|
464.68 |
465.31 |
No |
-- | |
|
Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ-III): Broad Mathematics cluster subtest |
Families and Schools Together vs. Business as usual |
0 Weeks |
Cohort 1, grade 2;
|
474.88 |
476.20 |
No |
-- | |
|
Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ-III): Broad Mathematics cluster subtest |
Families and Schools Together vs. Business as usual |
0 Weeks |
Cohort 1, grade 1;
|
461.93 |
464.22 |
No |
-- |
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
School attendance |
Families and Schools Together vs. Business as usual |
0 Weeks |
Cohort 2, grade 1;
|
93.35 |
92.66 |
No |
-- | |
|
School attendance |
Families and Schools Together vs. Business as usual |
0 Weeks |
Cohort 2, kindergarten;
|
91.52 |
91.82 |
No |
-- |
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
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Pennsylvania
Study Details
Setting
The study took place in the School District of Philadelphia. In 2012–13 the district had 208 total elementary schools, 74 of which were eligible to participate in the study. Eligible schools were public, non-charter schools that were in turnaround status as of the 2012–13 school year or had not met their Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) during the 2011–12 school year, were not scheduled for closure by the district ,and had two, three, or four kindergarten classrooms as of the 2012–13 school year.
Study sample
Schools were persistently low performing. No other information on the sample characteristics is provided in the findings report.
Intervention Group
The Families and Schools Together (FAST) program is a school-level intervention that aims to help foster children's well-being and education by building positive relationships between families and schools, and by helping parents improve their parenting skills. Students and their families participated in eight weekly after-school sessions to get to know each other and school staff. Parents were then eligible to participate in FASTWORKS (monthly parent-led sessions that continued for two years after the program but that were not the focus of the intervention). Because of the low levels of program participation in this study, the implementation team extended the FAST sessions from the typical 8-week cycle to a 9- or 10-week cycle in some schools and allowed families to continue from the fall cycle to spring cycle and in subsequent school years (i.e., grades 1-2 in addition to kindergarten).
Comparison Group
The comparison group schools used a waitlist control design. Comparison group schools conducted business as usual during the study period and had access to FAST after the conclusion of the study. Comparison group schools likely had similar environments as they had in the past. Students in the comparison condition were kindergartners in schools that were randomized to the comparison group. Comparison group schools met the same eligibility criteria as the intervention schools, and data for the comparison condition were collected during the same years as for the intervention condition.
Support for implementation
Each FAST school created its own trained team that was responsible for recruiting and engaging FAST participants and operating FAST sessions for participating students and their families. There was no description of the training of the FAST team in the report.
An indicator of the effect of the intervention, the improvement index can be interpreted as the expected change in percentile rank for an average comparison group student if that student had received the intervention.
For more, please see the WWC Glossary entry for improvement index.
An outcome is the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are attained as a result of an activity. An outcome measures is an instrument, device, or method that provides data on the outcome.
A finding that is included in the effectiveness rating. Excluded findings may include subgroups and subscales.
The sample on which the analysis was conducted.
The group to which the intervention group is compared, which may include a different intervention, business as usual, or no services.
The timing of the post-intervention outcome measure.
The number of students included in the analysis.
The mean score of students in the intervention group.
The mean score of students in the comparison group.
The WWC considers a finding to be statistically significant if the likelihood that the finding is due to chance alone, rather than a real difference, is less than five percent.
The WWC reviews studies for WWC products, Department of Education grant competitions, and IES performance measures.
The name and version of the document used to guide the review of the study.
The version of the WWC design standards used to guide the review of the study.
The result of the WWC assessment of the study. The rating is based on the strength of evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention. Studies are given a rating of Meets WWC Design Standards without Reservations, Meets WWC Design Standards with Reservations, or >Does Not Meet WWC Design Standards.
A related publication that was reviewed alongside the main study of interest.
Study findings for this report.
Based on the direction, magnitude, and statistical significance of the findings within a domain, the WWC characterizes the findings from a study as one of the following: statistically significant positive effects, substantively important positive effects, indeterminate effects, substantively important negative effects, and statistically significant negative effects. For more, please see the WWC Handbook.
The WWC may review studies for multiple purposes, including different reports and re-reviews using updated standards. Each WWC review of this study is listed in the dropdown. Details on any review may be accessed by making a selection from the drop down list.
Tier 1 Strong indicates strong evidence of effectiveness,
Tier 2 Moderate indicates moderate evidence of effectiveness, and
Tier 3 Promising indicates promising evidence of effectiveness,
as defined in the
non-regulatory guidance for ESSA
and the regulations for ED discretionary grants (EDGAR Part 77).