Top header image: Caylee Gaskill (photo by Ashley Arthur)
Research-based Check & Connect program pairs at-risk students with mentors, support
A long-running student success model expands to reach more students
They are the students with the most hurdles in front of them. Some are in foster care. Some are in alternative schools or were recently in the juvenile justice system. Others have already left high school but are struggling in community college or trade school. Many come from historically marginalized racial or ethnic communities. Almost all face economic disadvantages.
Leaning in close, Ann Romine tries to convey the profound satisfaction in hearing about these students as they improve their grades, graduate, or move into good jobs.
She is a national trainer for Check & Connect, a student intervention developed at the Institute on Community Integration (ICI) 36 years ago in a partnership with Minneapolis Public Schools, where the program is still in place. It has been used in schools in all 50 states and nearly a dozen other countries, from Ireland to Singapore to Australia. Closer to home, Minnesota’s St. Louis County committed federal COVID-19 relief funds to bring the program to about three dozen K-12 schools across the region in 2021. The result: A 75 percent drop in absences and a 62 percent decline in suspensions from prior-year levels.
Check & Connect is an evidence-based model that pairs at-risk students with a trusted mentor who provides support, accountability, and advocacy for students as they work to improve attendance, behavior, and grades. Mentors work with school personnel, family members, and others on both the accountability and advocacy goals of the intervention.
More recently, ICI has partnered with non-profit organizations and other groups interested in bringing the intervention to specific at-risk populations.
“I get fired up about the different adaptations of this model. It resonates where people see a need for an evidence-based framework to support higher-risk communities,” Romine says. “It’s the opportunity to ask how we can make sure there is somebody who is consistently showing up for these students.”
In Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, the nation’s 18th-largest district, a team of case managers is using Check & Connect to mentor students who are transitioning from the alternative high school back into the regular curriculum. Some are coming from the juvenile justice system, some from incidents that resulted in major suspensions or expulsions. Case managers work to get buy-in from students and parents who often have deep distrust of schools. And school personnel aren’t always appreciative of an advocate who may question a grade or present another side to a behavior situation.
“The advocacy role makes this position more powerful because they know how the district should work, and if they see something that’s not quite right, they can step in,” says Edwin Wilson, project manager for the North Carolina district’s student discipline and behavior support department. “Our high schools are large—1,800 to 3,400 students—so you can see how easy it would be to get lost in the crowd.” His case managers have become invaluable in other ways, he says, from improving student futures to steering families to community resources they can use today.
Kayla Pharr was a special education teacher for seven years before becoming a social worker at the alternative school. Wilson hired her to be one of the district’s three reintegration case managers using Check & Connect, each with a case load of up to 25 students at a time.
Ann Romine and James Houseworth, key ICI trainers/presenters. Photo by Jerry Smith.
“As hard as it often is, this is the success side, where we get to see the students who have put in the work and done everything asked of them to get to the point of reintegrating back into the school,” Pharr says. “We used to have to just turn them loose, and I’d watch how many kids would come back to the alternative school. This was the perfect opportunity to step in and create a supportive community at their home schools.”
One of the success stories was a young woman transitioning from the alternative school who needed 12 credits to graduate, about half of the typical credits needed over the course of high school. Pharr worked with her every school day and spoke with the student’s mother a few times each week. The student graduated and is now in community college and running a hair styling business.
“The biggest thing that sticks with students is persistence,” Pharr says. “Showing kids you’re not giving up on them, texting them all the time. Even the most resistant students come around when they realize I’m not going away. And then when you get a chance to advocate for them with staff, that’s when it really clicks.”
Kenneth Purcell, another case manager, puts a finger on what makes the model work. Its documentation system keeps everyone accountable, he says, but the human element is critical. As Check & Connect says on its website, it is the power of one caring adult in a student’s life.
“I’m going to be honest. I could have been one of these kids,” Purcell says. “What makes the magic happen is building the relationship with them.”
In West Virginia, ICI partners with Mission West Virginia’s Bridge program to offer Check & Connect in local schools to teens in foster and kinship care. In its most recent outcomes report, the Bridge program said nearly 96 percent of its 123 seniors graduated on time (data show the statewide average for students in foster/kinship care is 71 percent), nearly two-thirds had plans to attend college or technical school, and more than a third had plans to begin jobs or military service. They earned nearly $1.8 million in grant and scholarship funds. Among the nearly 500 high school students in the Bridge program overall, absences and suspensions declined significantly, and 70 percent maintained or increased their grade point average.
Mentors from the Bridge program have gone beyond the basics, connecting with local technical schools to facilitate apprenticeships and certification opportunities for students while still in high school. Some are already earning paychecks during part of their school day from a nearby car manufacturing plant.
“A lot of the students we work with really excel in technical centers. It’s something different than a traditional classroom, and they’re learning a trade that they can take with them, so they’re already getting that post-secondary element,” says Ashley Arthur, manager of the Bridge program for Mission West Virginia (missionwv.org).
One of those students is Caylee Gaskill, who is working toward a welding certification as part of her high school day. She says the Bridge program helped her build confidence in her skills.
“This is a career dream,” she says of the credentials she’s building. “The best part about it is when you weld something up, all by yourself, and you are so proud to show it off,” she says.
She calls the Bridge program her safe space.
Caylee Gaskill calls the Bridge program in West Virginia her safe space. Photo by Ashley Arthur.
“[It] helps me be a better person at heart. They have helped me through tough times and sad times. Most of all they made sure I knew that if I set my mind on something and stay confident, then I can do it,” she says. “I think there are a lot of things that I couldn’t have achieved without this program. They give me the confidence to do things I thought I’d never do.”
Darlinda McCumbers, a Bridge mentor, says her mentees have improved their self-esteem and interpersonal skills and feel less isolated, in addition to the gains they’ve recorded in attendance, behavior, and grades.
“When you build strong, positive connections with kids, it gives them a sense of belonging and support that they may be lacking elsewhere in their lives,” she says.
Back in Minnesota, a pilot study at Central Lakes College showed promising results at the post-secondary level. That led the Check & Connect team to explore stronger ties between its high school programs and post-secondary opportunities.
Visiting Mission West Virginia last spring, James Houseworth, PhD, a principal investigator and researcher for the model, found that the West Virginia program was already informally doing a lot of the things the ICI team wanted to incorporate into Check & Connect.
Case managers Dr. Tamara Glover, Kenneth Purcell, and Kayla Pharr are using the Check & Connect program in North Carolina to advocate for students transitioning back into high school. Photo by Edwin Wilson.
“A lot of these mentors, in order to keep these students motivated to finish high school, ended up interacting with career/tech programs,” Houseworth says. “It was an important way for them to serve these students within the Check & Connect model. It is the notion that it’s not just graduating high school that is going to motivate them, but the idea that here is this future right in front of you that you can actually start while you’re still in high school. And if you get this certification, you can get paid more per hour, well above minimum wage, and have a decent lifestyle. There is an end in sight, with something valuable waiting in your future.”
Now, Houseworth and the team are advising more Check & Connect users about potential public funding sources that could help with those efforts.
Talk with anyone on the Check & Connect team, and the conversation comes back to that passion for supporting mentors.
“Mentors are the core of Check & Connect,” Houseworth says. “They are the one extra adult who keeps kids on track. Just think about how valuable it would be to have a consistent person to help a student through the transition from high school to post-secondary.”
Adapting to new situations is a key feature of Check & Connect. The program itself began as a model for students with disabilities but grew over time as wider student populations sought help in keeping kids in school.
That adaptability demonstrates the value in centers like ICI, a federally designated University Center of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, says ICI Director Amy Hewitt.
“These research centers were created in the 1960s under federal disability law,” Hewitt says. “And yet, like the rest of ICI’s work, Check & Connect does not ultimately represent a single special interest, but a common good that creates healthier and stronger communities.”
–Janet Stewart