Too many talented students who go to under-resourced schools do not achieve their full potential. Though they may perform very well relative to their classmates, these students do not receive the same kinds of academically challenging opportunities throughout their educational journey as do their counterparts in better-resourced public and private schools. Rather than matriculating to competitive high schools and from there to selective colleges they are qualified to attend, these students often go to less academically competitive high schools and on to colleges where graduation rates are low. Some even forgo college altogether. To address this problem, Higher Achievement offers an intensive, academically oriented program for middle school students in under-resourced schools. Starting in the summer before fifth or sixth grade, Higher Achievement offers its participants, called "scholars," 650 extra hours of academic enrichment and instruction after school and during the summers through the eighth grade. The program includes English and math instruction as well as field trips to competitive high schools and colleges, achievement test preparation, and assistance in applying for financial aid. This short report presents the results of a randomized controlled trial of Higher Achievement that started in 2005, comparing the outcomes of students who were offered the opportunity to participate in Higher Achievement (the program group) and students who were not (the control group). It presents the impacts of the program one, two, and four years after enrollment, as well as its long-term impacts on college attendance. The study found that Higher Achievement was successful at changing the educational trajectory of students through middle school and improved the academic quality of many students' high school experiences, but did not affect the colleges to which they matriculated. By Year 2, there were positive impacts on students' math and reading test scores. In Year 4, the impacts on math test scores remained statistically significant. Higher Achievement had a small impact on the types of high schools its scholars ultimately attended. Program group students were more likely than control group students to matriculate to private or parochial schools and less likely to go to nonacademically competitive charter or magnet schools. By 2019, there was no difference in college going. More than 70 percent of both program and control group students had ever attended college. There were no differences in the academic quality of the colleges Higher Achievement's scholars ultimately attended, as measured by being a two- or four-year college; a college having a lower acceptance rate; or a college whose freshmen on average had higher SAT math or reading scores. Higher Achievement's college impacts did not differ by whether a student's parent had attended college or by student characteristics. The study shows that Higher Achievement is a very effective middle school program, improving students' middle school trajectories. However, the impacts did not persist after the program through high school and college.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a school-wide attendance and truancy intervention and universal procedures (ATI-UP) on student attendance. Student attendance was measured through average daily attendance and the percentage of students who would be considered chronically absent, i.e., missing 10% or more of school. The sample included 27 elementary schools in Oregon implementing school-wide positive behavior intervention and supports (SWPBIS) with varying levels of fidelity. Results indicate that schools can have a moderate effect on increasing average daily attendance (ADA) and a small effect on decreasing chronic absenteeism, although these results were not statistically significant. SWPBIS implementation did not act as a statistically significant moderator on the ATI-UP effects, although the treatment effect on ADA decreased with higher SWPBIS implementation. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The Talent Development Middle School model was created to make a difference in struggling urban middle schools. The model is part of a trend in school improvement strategies whereby whole-school reform projects aim to improve performance and attendance outcomes for students through the use of major changes in both the organizational structure and the educational processes of middle schools. The models that function in this way--broadly referred to as "comprehensive school reform (CSR) models"--have been developed both nationally and locally, and they receive support from a combination of federal, state, and local funding as well as from private foundations. Talent Development has been a key target of federal resources earmarked for expanding the use of CSR initiatives in middle schools. The model reflects many of the core principles embedded in the CSR movement. School-level structural changes, for example, create more personalized learning environments for students and teachers; curricular changes improve the rigor of coursework and raise teachers' and students' expectations; and professional development for teachers fills gaps in both content knowledge and pedagogy. The findings in this report--which offers an initial assessment of the first and most intensive effort at scaling up the use of the Talent Development Middle School model--indicate that Talent Development had a positive impact on eighth-grade math achievement and exhibited modest impacts on attendance rates. At the same time, the model produced an inconsistent pattern of impacts on eighth-grade reading and had few significant impacts on outcomes for seventh-grade students. This assessment is based on an innovative analytic methodology that relies on a combination of before-and-after and comparison-schools methods. Although the findings offer hope that the Talent Development model can improve academic outcomes, at least in math, for middle school students, more data collection and analysis are needed before definite conclusions can be drawn. A subsequent report will track outcomes for two additional years of implementation and will provide a clearer picture of the potential for improvements in middle school achievement to lead to greater persistence in high school and, eventually, to graduation. Appended are: (1) Tables for Eighth-Grade Students in Early-Implementing Schools; and (2) Tables for Seventh-Grade Students in Early-Implementing Schools. (Contains 4 boxes, 11 figures, and 13 tables.) [Dissemination of MDRC publications is also supported by Starr Foundation.]