The Impact of an Intensive Year-Round Middle School Program on College Attendance
Garcia, Ivonne; Grossman, Jean Baldwin; Herrera, Carla; Linden, Leign L. (2020). MDRC. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED606561
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examining951Students, grades5-8
Single Study Review
Review Details
Reviewed: June 2021
- Single Study Review (findings for Higher Achievement)
- Randomized Controlled Trial
- Meets WWC standards without reservations because it is a randomized controlled trial with low attrition.
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
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Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Attended college |
Higher Achievement vs. Business as usual |
10 Years |
Full sample;
|
71.70 |
74.00 |
No |
-- | ||
| Show Supplemental Findings | |||||||||
|
Attended 2-year college |
Higher Achievement vs. Business as usual |
10 Years |
Full sample;
|
22.90 |
24.00 |
No |
-- | ||
|
Attended 4-year college |
Higher Achievement vs. Business as usual |
10 Years |
Full sample;
|
59.60 |
62.00 |
No |
-- | ||
|
college acceptance rate |
Higher Achievement vs. Business as usual |
10 Years |
Full sample;
|
62.90 |
62.80 |
-- |
-- | ||
|
Average incoming freshmen SAT mathematics score |
Higher Achievement vs. Business as usual |
10 Years |
Full sample;
|
544.10 |
542.00 |
-- |
-- | ||
|
Average incoming freshmen SAT reading/writing score |
Higher Achievement vs. Business as usual |
10 Years |
Full sample;
|
558.30 |
553.00 |
-- |
-- | ||
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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Female: 59%
Male: 41% -
Suburban, Urban
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District of Columbia, Virginia
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Race Black 75% Other or unknown 25% -
Ethnicity Hispanic 76% Not Hispanic or Latino 24%
Study Details
Setting
The study was conducted in several middle schools located near five of the intervention's Achievement Centers in Washington, DC and Arlington, VA.
Study sample
The study sample included 521 students in the intervention group and 430 students in the comparison group. Of the students in the study sample, 59 percent were female and 75 percent were Black. Almost eighty percent (76 percent) were Latino and 63 percent were eligible for free or reduced price lunch.
Intervention Group
Higher Achievement is an intensive summer and after-school program that provides up to 650 hours of academic enrichment activities. The four-year intervention is offered to 5th and 6th grade students and is implemented through 8th grade. The Summer Academy is conducted five days per week for six weeks; students (referred to as ‘scholars’) take academic classes (e.g., math, science, literature) in small groups in the morning and participate in electives in the afternoon. The summer program also offers field trips, participation in academic competitions, and a three-day overnight trip to a university, where students experience college life by attending classes, sleeping in dorms, going to lectures, and eating in dining halls. The Afterschool Academy is conducted three days weekly for 25 weeks and provides homework assistance, a recreational elective, and small-group academic instruction.
Comparison Group
Students in the comparison group participate in the business-as-usual activities offered by their middle schools.
Support for implementation
No additional details were provided.
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.
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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).