TDS Approach Leads to Reduction in Chronic Absenteeism in NYC Schools

We’re excited to share this news from New York Community Schools. Talent Development Secondary was the lead partner in several of these schools during the study time period, and the success mentor approach we helped develop was central to the reduction in chronic absenteeism. -TDS

Recently, the RAND Corporation released a new study entitled “Illustrating the Promise of Community Schools: An Assessment of the Impact of the NYC Community Schools Initiative”. In the report, RAND examines the results of the first three years of NYC’s Community Schools initiative (2016-2018) and compares the performance of students in community schools with the performance of students in demographically-similar non-community schools. The findings are incredibly encouraging across a number of domains. You can see initial coverage in a story in the Washington Post.

According to RAND, NYC is implementing Community Schools on a scale that has not been seen before in the United States and they found that “the CS strategy appears to be having tangible impact on a variety of student outcomes.” Specifically:

• Students in Community Schools are more likely to graduate on time. In 2017-18, graduation rates in community schools were 7.2 percentage points higher than comparison schools.
• They miss fewer days of school. Chronic absenteeism was 7.3 percentage points lower in community elementary and middle schools, and 8.3 points lower in high schools.
• Disciplinary incidents declined sharply in elementary and middle schools compared to non-community schools. For every 100 students in elementary and middle community schools, community schools had 10 fewer disciplinary incidents per year.

NYC has championed a “whole child” approach to student learning, recognizing that student success is impacted by what happens in the classroom and by factors outside of school. Community Schools in New York, like in many cities, are fundamentally changing how we think about our schools and ensure that our students’ education is everyone’s top priority.

This report provides further evidence that integrating academics, health and wellness, and family empowerment into the fabric of schools leads to student success.