Unsettled Wednesday, then cooler before heating up next week

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

A student support program that began in Minneapolis and has spread around the country is under new scrutiny in its home district. 

 connects at-risk students with a mentor who tracks attendance, grades, and behavior and checks in with the student at least once a week. Developed in partnership with the University of Minnesota in the 1990s, the program has been lauded nationally and is now used in about 40 states and five countries. 


Minneapolis officials, however, say the program isn't delivering strong enough results in their district, and they plan to cut its funding. They say a 2015 district study found the program resulted in a modest decrease in dropouts. 


Those results are prompting the district now to cut Check & Connect funding 30 percent this year, from $1 million to $700,000. The Minneapolis school board is expected to vote on that portion of the budget on April 12.

Education in Minnesota and across the nation


About 2,000 Minneapolis students participate in Check & Connect. It's now in all of the district's high schools and middle schools. Minneapolis has run the program in its current form since 2002. The U.S. Department of Education recognizes Check & Connect as one of a handful of effective dropout prevention programs. 


District researchers say Check & Connect can be effective when focused on its intended purpose, which, in Minneapolis, is dropout prevention. They say one problem is that Check & Connect mentors often get pulled into other tasks, like lunchroom duty.


"Schools are cut to bare bones. Administrators need assistance in many areas, and we've got a strong team willing to help and integrate themselves into the building," said program director Colleen Kaibel.


Some teachers and administrators, she added, would rather send difficult students to alternative schools, which have programs that are set up for struggling students. That conflicts with Check & Connect's mission to re-engage students in their current schools.


"If they don't believe that every child in their building can be successful, often we're keeping students in school who some would like to see out of their building," she said.


The 2015 study looked at Check & Connect participants who had been in the program at least two years. It found only a 6 percent decrease in dropout rates among students who were 11th graders in the 2015-16 school year.


That part of the study also tested 10th and 12th graders who had been in the program at least two years and didn't find any significant dropout reduction effect, but the researchers say that could have been affected by small sample sizes in those two groups.


Minneapolis plans more in-depth research over the next year of the obstacles to Check & Connect. If Check & Connect is being used for other purposes, the district might need to redirect its money, said Susanne Griffin, the district's chief academic officer.


"If this is what we designed it to do but what we really need is something else, then maybe we shouldn't do this, and maybe we should do that. Maybe that's where our money should go," she said. "But I think we don't want to make that decision because it isn't working well at a couple of places."


The district isn't talking about eliminating Check & Connect for now.


Kaibel said she's trying to compensate for the cuts with grant funding. She might reduce mentors' hours to avoid cutting positions at schools like Roosevelt, where the staff seems to be on board with the program. 


On a recent day, Roosevelt junior Reggie Rogers worked with mentor Liz Larson and talked about some recent grades that could have been better. Larson asked if he needed to add a study habits class for fourth quarter.


Rogers said his grades have improved since he started Check & Connect two years ago. He hopes to graduate on time next year, with Larson keeping him on task. 


He also hopes younger students will get the same help offered to him. "It'll help a lot of students come in and just get ready and right focused to it, and say this is not like little kids no more, you're not in middle school no more."

Education News

Shows

All Things Considered

NewsPartners

Solvejg Wastvedt

Author

A student support program designed in part to curb dropout rates that began in Minneapolis and spread around the country is under new scrutiny in its home district. Officials are preparing to cut its budget.

A student support program designed in part to curb dropout rates that began in Minneapolis and spread around the country is under new scrutiny in its home district. Officials are preparing to cuts its budget.

Does Minneapolis schools' mentor program work? Data cast doubt

Roosevelt junior Reggie Rogers and Liz Larson

Does Minneapolis schools' mentor program work? Data cast doubt

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox