Participating Schools

Following recruitment of 13 districts and 40 schools, random assignment to condition was conducted within district, among pair-matched sets of schools based on the percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunches. The sites were geographically dispersed and represented a range of district enrollment sizes. A majority of the districts were located in large urban or suburban areas with only three sites in rural districts. All participating schools were middle schools that included only grades 6 through 8. The average enrollment in these schools was 871 students and ranged between 462 students and 1,404 students. Minority students composed 65 percent of the student body, on average, and ranged between 15 percent and 100 percent. The average percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunches was 56 percent and ranged between 16 percent and 97 percent. There were no statistical differences between the intervention and control groups on these characteristics. Thirty-six schools (18 matched pairs) completed all 3 years of the project. For both pairs that did not complete all 3 years of the project, the control school was dropped from the study as a result of its paired intervention school ending its participation. The analytic sample for this report is comprised of data from these remaining 36 schools.