A study on the impact of City Connects has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse, a national source of scientific evidence on what works in education. The study, Estimating the Impact of Integrated Student Support on Elementary School Achievement: A Natural Experiment, was given Tier 1 status by the Clearinghouse, representing the strongest level of evidence. The study is now featured on the federal Institute of Education Sciences website.
“This is further validation of what we already knew and what we’ve been working so hard to share with the world. There’s been a lot of great work demonstrating how effective City Connects is, but this study gives us a particularly strong form of evidence that we haven’t had before,” said Jordan Lawson, Researcher at Boston College’s Mary E. Walsh Center for Thriving Children and lead author of the study. “This helps strengthen the case that is already starting to be made for the importance of integrated student support and its adoption.”
“As awareness grows that what happens outside the classroom matters deeply to students’ ability to learn and thrive, good intentions are not enough; we need strong evidence of interventions that can address those factors systematically and effectively,” said Yan Leigh, Director of Research and Evaluation at the Mary E. Walsh Center for Thriving Children. “This study adds a significant layer of evidence-based research to the existing body of knowledge and further supports our confidence in understanding what positive impacts City Connects can have for students.”
City Connects is an evidence-based model of integrated student support that addresses students’ needs and fosters their strengths by connecting them to school and community resources. This intervention has been studied for decades, with researchers finding empirical evidence to show City Connects’ positive impact on student attendance, engagement, academic achievement, and post-secondary success. This study, however, offers the strongest evidence to date of the positive impacts of integrated student support, by being the first to utilize randomization—a powerful research method—in the elementary school context.
I believe in it, and now the research shows that others should believe in it, too. – Jordan Lawson
Researchers were able to use the random component of Boston Public Schools’ kindergarten enrollment lottery system to approximate a randomized control trial. Because some students in Boston’s large, urban district are randomly assigned to schools, researchers could compare students randomly assigned to schools with and without City Connects.
“Randomization is the strongest way possible, from a research lens, to show that this intervention is really making a difference for children. It helps us confirm that the difference in academic achievement we’re seeing between students in City Connects and comparison schools is really attributable to the intervention instead of something else that may be hidden in the background,” said Lawson. “This is important because people looking to adopt and push forward integrated student support now have the strongest form of evidence to further their case. That could help bring these supports to more schools and more children, giving them greater access to the resources they need to overcome barriers and thrive. I think that’s really powerful.”
Analyzing data for nearly 2,500 students, researchers were able to determine that students who were randomly assigned to schools with City Connects scored meaningfully higher on standardized tests in third, fourth, and fifth grade than those who were randomly assigned to schools without City Connects. For fifth graders, student achievement improved by as much as 20 percentile points—a level of improvement equivalent to about 90 percent of the size of the average estimated Black-White achievement gap, and about 50 percent of the size of the estimated gap between students from high- and low-income families.
“This comes at a significant time for the field. As awareness grows that what happens outside the classroom matters deeply to students’ ability to learn and thrive, good intentions are not enough; we need strong evidence of interventions that can address those factors systematically and effectively,” said Leigh. “This study shows what is possible when integrated student support is implemented through a well-defined model like City Connects. Hopefully, it will encourage ongoing investments in the work and the rigorous research that is necessary to identify which approaches are effective for whom, and under what conditions.”
The study’s Tier 1 designation from the What Works Clearinghouse means that it featured strong evidence, met Clearinghouse standards without reservations, and reported positive effects on one or more outcome domains. Researchers hope this new level of attention will help more educators and policymakers adopt systems of integrated student support.
“At City Connects, we already know how important it is to address out-of-school experiences that students bring into the classroom with them that really impact their learning. Schools and educators know this, too. The challenge has often been having the resources, supports, and partnerships to respond effectively,” said Lawson. “I hope the takeaway from this is that integrated student support is not only doable, but that it works. Now we have rigorous research to support what we have long understood. I hope integrated student support will be more widely adopted. I believe in it, and now the research shows that others should believe in it, too.”
“This recognition represents both a significant accomplishment and a starting point. On one hand, the recognition provides strong evidence that City Connects can positively affect student academic achievement; on the other, it creates significant opportunities for the next generation of research to examine how the City Connects model functions across settings, student populations, and at scale. This is how we continue developing a body of knowledge from which researchers can learn, but also so that the educators and community members who make decisions about how they can most effectively serve their students can use this as well,” said Leigh.
