Building Assets and Reducing Risks (BARR) Validation Study. Final Report

American Institutes for Research. 1000 Thomas Jefferson Street NW, Washington, DC 20007. Tel: 202-403-5000; Fax: 202-403-5001; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.air.org

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Office of Innovation and Improvement (ED), Investing in Innovation (i3)

Grade 9; High Schools; High School Freshmen; Program Effectiveness; Risk Management; Barriers; Teacher Collaboration; Data Use; Academic Achievement; Academic Failure; Grade Point Average; Scores; Reading Achievement; Mathematics Achievement; Achievement Tests; Interpersonal Relationship; Teacher Expectations of Students; Student Attitudes; Learner Engagement; Attendance; Suspension; Academic Persistence; Student Behavior; Student School Relationship; Social Development; Emotional Development; Self Efficacy; Teacher Attitudes; Parent Teacher Cooperation; Accountability; Gender Differences; Racial Differences; Ethnicity

Maine; California; Minnesota; Kentucky; Texas

This is the final report of a large-scale independent evaluation of the Building Assets and Reducing Risks (BARR) model in ninth grade in eleven high schools in Maine, California, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Texas. This sample of schools included large and small schools in urban, suburban, and rural areas, serving students from a wide range of demographic and socio-economic backgrounds. Funded with a validation grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) program and carried out by researchers at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), this evaluation used random assignment of ninth-grade students to BARR and control conditions to estimate the impacts of the BARR model after one year. The evaluation also assessed the fidelity of implementation of BARR in the eleven study schools and identified barriers to and facilitators of successful implementation. The evaluation focused on several teacher- and student-level outcomes. The teacher outcomes included measures of teacher collaboration, and use of data, among others. The academic outcomes included course failure, students' grade point average (GPA), and performance on the Northwest Evaluation Association's (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) standardized reading and mathematics assessments. Student-reported experiences included measures of supportive relationships, perceptions of teachers' expectations of them, student engagement, and others. In addition to these outcomes, the report includes impact estimates for attendance, suspensions, and persistence into 10th grade. [This report was written with Brenna O'Brien, Cheryl Graczewski, So Jung Park, Feng Liu, Ethan Adelman-Sil, Lynn Hu.]

ERIC

Meets Evidence Standards without Reservations

2020

ED602462