Nationally, Child Trends, a nonprofit research organization, has taken look at integrated student supports (ISS)  — a school-based approach to promoting academic success by providing support for the whole child to addresses academic and non-academic barriers to achievement —  and found a growing evidence base.

As Child Trends explains in its new report — “Making the Grade: A Progress Report and Next Steps for Integrated Student Supports” — integrated services help children and families and “further our nation’s collective efforts to close education opportunity gaps, raise graduation rates, and better compete on the international stage.”

Among the report’s findings on the existing evidence base:

  • “Evaluation studies find a mix of positive and null (non‐significant) findings, but there are virtually no negative effects across the evaluations.”
  •  “New evidence from an application of a microsimulation model” finds “that students’ participation in effective ISS interventions will have long‐term benefits.”
  •  “Nonacademic outcomes are rarely measured… even though they are central to the conceptual model, which limits our understanding of the mechanisms driving ISS success,” and
  • The evidence base does not clearly identify the specific, concrete elements that make implementation of ISS programs successful. At City Connects,we’ve been asking a similar question: How, specifically, does our model achieve its results over time?

While the evidence base for integrated services still has to grow and mature, Child Trends says it is “cautiously optimistic about the potential for this approach to improve student outcomes, especially in schools with concentrations of at‐risk students."

Read the full article about integrated student supports by Alyssa Haywoode at City Connects.