Attendance and TruancyNCT01487434
A Randomized Study to Abate Truancy and Violence in Grades 3-9 in Chicago Public Schools
A study testing Check & Connect in people with Attendance and Truancy and Student Engagement, run by Northwestern University at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
In partnership with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the goal of this project is to test the effectiveness of a manualized mentoring and case management program for students in grades 1-8. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 5 to 16 years
- Conditions the study is for
- Attendance and Truancy, Student Engagement, Dropout
- What is being tested?
- Check & Connect
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 5,300 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- Sep 2011to Aug 2020
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 5 to 16 years
- All sexes
- No healthy volunteers
- Child
Who may be able to join
- Student with 10-27 total absences in prior school year
- Students in Grades 1-7 at start of 2011-2012 or 2013-14 school years
- In attendance at one of the Chicago Public Schools elementary/middle schools randomly selected to be offered the intervention
Who cannot join
- None
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
About this study
Official title: Preventing Truancy in Urban Schools Through Provision of Social Services by Truancy Officers
In partnership with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the goal of this project is to test the effectiveness of a manualized mentoring and case management program for students in grades 1-8. Most of the current policy and research attention on dropout has focused on the dropout decision itself, even though dropout is more likely to be simply the end point of a longer-term developmental process. This project seeks to learn more about the relative effectiveness of preventing dropout through mentoring and case management programs, and to learn more about the relative effectiveness of intervening early vs. later.
Read the detailed description
High school graduation is tremendously protective against involvement with crime and violence, as well as against the risk of adult poverty, unemployment, and poor health. Most of the policy and research attention on dropout has focused on the dropout decision itself. Yet dropout is almost always the end point of a longer-term developmental process. For this project the investigators have raised nearly $7 million in external support from the U.S. Department of Education, the National Institutes of Health, and the William T. Grant Foundation to learn more about the relative effectiveness of preventing dropout by trying to re-engage children in school much earlier during their academic careers.
Specifically, this project is motivated by findings from the late University of Chicago sociologist James Coleman indicating that one of the strongest protective factors against school failure for children is having a strong relationship with a pro-social adult - something that far too many children do not currently have, particularly those growing up in distressed family and community environments. The investigators are partnering with other researchers at Northwestern, Duke, and the University of Minnesota to test at large scale the effects of a structured mentoring and monitoring programs called Check \& Connect. To date, the project has completed its pilot year, and starting this academic year will work with nearly 500 elementary and middle school students distributed across 23 CPS schools on the West and South sides of the city. Students will receive Check \& Connect assistance for two academic years total.
- Conditions
- Attendance and Truancy, Student Engagement, Dropout
- Being tested
- Check & Connect
- Keywords
- Attendance, Truancy, Student engagement, Mentoring, Monitoring, Case management
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Check & ConnectBehavioural
Structured mentoring and case management
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Check & Connect | Experimental | Check and Connect Structured Mentoring and Case Management Receives: Behavioral: Check & Connect |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Change in attendance and truancy
Attendance and truancy measured through school records on absences
Measured: 2 times a year (on average every 6 months) during the intervention and 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
Secondary outcomes (5)
Criminal activity and involvement
Criminal activity and involvement using criminal records will include individual-level administrative data on juvenile arrests from the Chicago Police Department and Cook County juvenile court records
Measured: 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
Employment history and workforce involvement
Employment outcomes using employment records will include formal labor market involvement as measured by quarterly unemployment insurance (UI) records from the Illinois Department of Employment Security
Measured: 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
Health and medical system participation
Health outcomes using health records will include Medicaid records on eligibility and service use from the Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX)
Measured: 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
Academic achievement
Academic achievement measured through school records will include grades received in school and scores on standardized achievement tests (Iowa Test of Basic Skills in reading and math)
Measured: 1 time a year each year during the intervention and 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
School engagement
School engagement measured through school records will include disciplinary actions/referrals
Measured: 1 time a year each year during the intervention and 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted7 Dec 2011 (estimated)
- Study startSep 2011
- Primary completionSep 2015
- Study completionAug 2020
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Publications (5)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for Attendance and TruancyStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by Northwestern UniversityThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Prevention
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 5,300 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Northwestern University
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), U.S. Department of Education, William T. Grant Foundation
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Jonathan Guryan, Northwestern University
- Investigators
- Jonathan Guryan, Ph.D., Principal investigator, Northwestern University
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT01487434
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- STU00035771
- Other IDs
- R01HD067500, R305A100706, 180140
- Status last verified
- Sep 2020
- First submitted
- 18 Nov 2011
- Last updated
- 9 Sep 2020
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
Publications
Allensworth, E. M. & John Q. Easton (2007). "What Matters for Staying On-Track and Graduating in Chicago Public High Schools." Chicago, Consortium on Chicago School Research.
Christenson, S.L, Sinclair M.F., Evelo D.L., and C.M. Hurley (1998) "Promoting school engagement with school using the Check & Connect model." Australian Journal of Guidance & Counseling, 9(1): 169-184.
Jacob, Brian and Jens Ludwig. (2009). "Improving Educational Outcomes for Poor Children." In Changing Poverty, Changing Policies, edited by Maria Cancian and Sheldon Danziger. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Sinclair, M.F., Christenson, S.L., Evelo D. L., and C.M. Hurley (1998). "Dropout prevention for youth with disabilities: Efficacy of a sustained school engagement procedure." Exceptional Children, 65(1): 7-21.
Sinclair, M. F., Christenson, S. L. and M. L. Thurlow. (2005). "Promoting school completion of urban secondary youth with emotional and behavioral disabilities." Exceptional Children, 71(4): 465-482.
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 9 Sep 2020. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Preventing Truancy in Urban Schools Through Provision of Social Services by Truancy Officers
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT01487434
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- STU00035771
- Conditions
- Attendance and Truancy, Student Engagement, Dropout
- Keywords
- Attendance, Truancy, Student engagement, Mentoring, Monitoring, Case management
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 5,300 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- Northwestern UniversityUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), U.S. Department of Education, William T. Grant Foundation
- Study start
- Sep 2011
- Primary completion
- Sep 2015 (actual)
- Study completion
- Aug 2020 (actual)
- First posted
- 7 Dec 2011 (estimated)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
In partnership with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the goal of this project is to test the effectiveness of a manualized mentoring and case management program for students in grades 1-8. Most of the current policy and research attention on dropout has focused on the dropout decision itself, even though dropout is more likely to be simply the end point of a longer-term developmental process. This project seeks to learn more about the relative effectiveness of preventing dropout through mentoring and case management programs, and to learn more about the relative effectiveness of intervening early vs. later.
Detailed description
High school graduation is tremendously protective against involvement with crime and violence, as well as against the risk of adult poverty, unemployment, and poor health. Most of the policy and research attention on dropout has focused on the dropout decision itself. Yet dropout is almost always the end point of a longer-term developmental process. For this project the investigators have raised nearly $7 million in external support from the U.S. Department of Education, the National Institutes of Health, and the William T. Grant Foundation to learn more about the relative effectiveness of preventing dropout by trying to re-engage children in school much earlier during their academic careers.
Specifically, this project is motivated by findings from the late University of Chicago sociologist James Coleman indicating that one of the strongest protective factors against school failure for children is having a strong relationship with a pro-social adult - something that far too many children do not currently have, particularly those growing up in distressed family and community environments. The investigators are partnering with other researchers at Northwestern, Duke, and the University of Minnesota to test at large scale the effects of a structured mentoring and monitoring programs called Check \& Connect. To date, the project has completed its pilot year, and starting this academic year will work with nearly 500 elementary and middle school students distributed across 23 CPS schools on the West and South sides of the city. Students will receive Check \& Connect assistance for two academic years total.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Prevention
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 1
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Check & Connect | Experimental | Behavioral: Check & ConnectCheck and Connect Structured Mentoring and Case Management |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 5 to 16 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Not accepted
- Age groups
- Child
Key inclusion criteria (3 listed)
- Student with 10-27 total absences in prior school year
- Students in Grades 1-7 at start of 2011-2012 or 2013-14 school years
- In attendance at one of the Chicago Public Schools elementary/middle schools randomly selected to be offered the intervention
Key exclusion criteria (1 listed)
- None
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Check & ConnectStructured mentoring and case management | Behavioural | Check & Connect |
Primary outcome
Change in attendance and truancy
Time frame: 2 times a year (on average every 6 months) during the intervention and 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
Attendance and truancy measured through school records on absences
5 secondary outcomes
Criminal activity and involvement
Time frame: 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
Employment history and workforce involvement
Time frame: 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
Health and medical system participation
Time frame: 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
Academic achievement
Time frame: 1 time a year each year during the intervention and 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
School engagement
Time frame: 1 time a year each year during the intervention and 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 9 Sep 2020.
- BackgroundAllensworth, E. M. & John Q. Easton (2007). "What Matters for Staying On-Track and Graduating in Chicago Public High Schools." Chicago, Consortium on Chicago School Research.
- BackgroundChristenson, S.L, Sinclair M.F., Evelo D.L., and C.M. Hurley (1998) "Promoting school engagement with school using the Check & Connect model." Australian Journal of Guidance & Counseling, 9(1): 169-184.
- BackgroundJacob, Brian and Jens Ludwig. (2009). "Improving Educational Outcomes for Poor Children." In Changing Poverty, Changing Policies, edited by Maria Cancian and Sheldon Danziger. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
- BackgroundSinclair, M.F., Christenson, S.L., Evelo D. L., and C.M. Hurley (1998). "Dropout prevention for youth with disabilities: Efficacy of a sustained school engagement procedure." Exceptional Children, 65(1): 7-21.
- BackgroundSinclair, M. F., Christenson, S. L. and M. L. Thurlow. (2005). "Promoting school completion of urban secondary youth with emotional and behavioral disabilities." Exceptional Children, 71(4): 465-482.
- Check \& ConnectLink provided by the sponsor.
Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Jonathan Guryan, Ph.D. principal investigator
Northwestern University
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Check & Connect in people with Attendance and Truancy and Student Engagement, run by Northwestern University at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 3 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 9 Sep 2020. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Change in attendance and truancy (time frame: 2 times a year (on average every 6 months) during the intervention and 1 time a year each year following the completion of the intervention for up to 25 years). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT01487434, which also lists 5 linked publications.
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 9 Sep 2020.