Skip to content. Check and Connect

Located at the Institute on Community Integration, a University Affiliated Program on Developmental Disabilities

College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota

Funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education

In the News

The following Web sites and/or news items highlight the Check & Connect model:

Staying on Track for High School Graduation: Promoting Student Engagement
This article from The Prevention Researcher, by Karen Stout and Sandy Christenson, describes the history of school dropout, predictors of dropout, student engagement as the critical factor, and research about promoting school completion, with Check and Connect as an example of a research-based prevention program.

Quarter of NZ Students Quit Early (September 10, 2009)
This article from Stuff.Co.NZ describes New Zealand's high school graduation rates, which are the second-worst in the developed world, and quotes Sandra Christenson, one of the creators of Check & Connect, who recently presented at an education conference in New Zealand.

Mpls. Schools Dispute Dropout Vs. Graduation Rates (April 22, 2009)
This article from WCCO-TV, a Twin Cities television channel, describes how Check & Connect has contributed to improving graduation rates in Minneapolis Public Schools. See also a related video clip.

U of M's "Check & Connect" program tackles problem of school dropouts: New grant will expand program to include community college students in Minneapolis and Kentucky (March 31, 2009)
From the University of Minnesota's UMNews Service: "The U of M’s Institute on Community Integration (ICI) in the College of Education and Human Development has been successfully combating the [dropout] problem in K-12 education in Minnesota and around the country with its targeted 'Check & Connect' program. Now, a new research project at ICI has begun work to expand the Check & Connect model into postsecondary education for use with students ages 18-30 who are at risk of dropping out of community college."

Making the Connection: ICI Aims to Keep Students in College (March 2009)
From a project profile in the Institute on Community Integration's fyi Staff Newsletter: "Aiming to improve college graduation rates, on March 1, the Institute on Community Integration (ICI) and the University’s Department of Educational Psychology launched 'Making the Connection: Engaging and Retaining Young Adults in Postsecondary Education,' a two-year research project funded by a $727,237 grant from the Institute for Education Sciences (IES). Making the Connection will study the feasibility of adapting Check & Connect – a K-12 school engagement intervention developed at ICI – to community college settings with students ages 18-30."

Staying the course: Our city has a wealth of Culture, knowledge, history, dropouts. For Montreal to recognize its potential, it has to find a way for students to recognize theirs (February 14, 2009)
This article from The Montreal Gazette describes several dropout prevention programs currently being implemented in Montreal, among them an adaptation of Check & Connect.

Keeping Students Engaged With School: ICI’s Check & Connect (December 2008)
From an intervention profile in the Institute on Community Integration's fyi Staff Newsletter: "Each year roughly 1.23 million students in the U.S. do not graduate from high school with their peers. Students who leave school before graduation are more likely to become unemployed, incarcerated, and/or dependent on social programs than those with a high school diploma. The Institute on Community Integration (ICI) is responding to this problem by offering Check & Connect, a comprehensive, targeted intervention designed to enhance students’ engagement at school and with learning through relationship building and problem solving."

PDF IES Practice Guide: Dropout Prevention (September 2008) (PDF)
Geared toward educators, administrators, and policymakers, this guide provides recommendations that focus on reducing high school dropout rates. Strategies presented include identifying and advocating for at-risk students, implementing programs to improve behavior and social skills, and keeping students engaged in the school environment.

Engaging Students with School: The Essential Dimension of Dropout Prevention Programs (January 22, 2008)
In this National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities Webseminar, Dr. Sandy Christenson described universal and individualized interventions for students with and without disabilities. Viewing engagement as comprised of four subtypes, she explained the ideal heuristic to achieve an assessment-to-intervention link, as well as data-based interventions that maximize the goodness of the person/environment fit. Additionally, Dr. Christenson discussed effective interventions for students at risk of educational failure with a focus not only on attendance and academic skills, but also on indicators of students’ commitment to learning, perceptions of academic and social competence, and the sense of belonging by educators and parents.

PDF Investments in K-12 Education for Minnesota: What Works? (November 12, 2007) (PDF)
Henry M. Levin, a professor at Columbia University, and Clive R. Belfield, an assistant professor at Queens College, examined the public costs of a high school dropout on Minnesota taxpayers, then looked at the cost of programs that boost high school graduation rates. Voila: a positive cost-benefit ratio for several programs, including Check & Connect. Levin and Belfield presented this report at an education summit sponsored by Growth and Justice, a Minnesota think tank that focuses on the state’s economy. See a press release related to the report here.

PDF Approaches to Dropout Prevention: Heeding Early Warning Signs with Appropriate Interventions (October 2007) (PDF)
This report by the National High School Center, at the American Institutes for Research, outlines steps that high schools can take to identify at-risk students and identifies specific dropout prevention programs that have strong research showing positive or potentially positive effects, including Check & Connect, Achievement for Latinos through Academic Success (ALAS), and Career Academies.

PDF Dropout Risk Factors and Exemplary Programs: A Technical Report (May 16, 2007) (PDF)
Communities In Schools (CIS), the nation’s fifth-largest youth-serving organization and the leading dropout prevention organization, collaborated with the National Dropout Prevention Center/Network at Clemson University (NDPC/N) to conduct a comprehensive study of the dropout crisis in the U.S. The study sought to identify the risk factors or conditions that significantly increase the likelihood of students dropping out of school; and identify exemplary evidence-based programs that address the identified risk factors and conditions. Check & Connect was identified as an exemplary program.

Keeping Kids in School: What Research Says About Preventing Dropouts (April 5, 2007)
This Web page from the Center for Public Education, an initiative of the National School Boards Association and the National School Boards Foundation, describes several dropout prevention programs/initiatives, including Check & Connect.

Resources from “Preventing High School Dropout” Webinar (December 13, 2006)
The National High School Center hosted a Webinar on Dropout Prevention, “Preventing High School Dropout: Understanding the Underlying Issues and Useful Strategies to Address the Problem,” on December 13, 2006. It addressed research in the field and highlighted state implementation strategies for preventing students from dropping out. Featured presenters included Russell Rumberger, University of California, Santa Barbara, Professor and Director of Linguistic Minority Research Institute; Cammy Lehr, Coordinator of the Dropout Prevention, Retention, and Graduation Initiative at the Minnesota Department of Education; and Glory Kibbel, Interim Director of Choice and Equity for the School Choice Programs and Services Division, Minnesota Department of Education.

Intervention Report: Check & Connect (September 21, 2006)
The U.S. Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) publishes Intervention and Topic Reports that reflect a wide range of our nation's most pressing issues in education. The Check & Connect model is the topic of this Intervention Report. See also comparison table of all dropout prevention models reviewed by the WWC. The WWC prioritizes topics based on the following criteria: 1) potential to improve important student outcomes; 2) applicability to a broad range of students or to particularly important subpopulations; 3) policy relevance and perceived demand within the education community; and 4) likely availability of scientific studies.

Leaving Schools Behind: When Students Drop Out (March 2004)
A write-up from the University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development describes how Check & Connect works, what the research on it shows, what others say about the research, and why this research matters.

Social Programs That Work: Check and Connect (Dropout prevention program for high school students with learning, emotional, and/or behavioral disabilities) (no date)
The Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy seeks to address the issue that U.S. social programs (in areas such as education, crime and substance abuse, and poverty reduction) are often implemented with little regard to rigorous evidence, costing billions of dollars yet failing to address critical needs of our society. It works to provide policymakers and practitioners with clear, actionable information on what works, as demonstrated in scientifically-valid studies, that they can use to improve the lives of the people they serve. They have included Check & Connect as a program where "Randomized controlled trials show a sizable decrease in students' dropout rates, and increase in attendance and academic credits earned."

Strenthening the Safety Net: How Schools Can Help Youth with Emotional and Behavioral Needs Complete Their High School Education and Prepare for Life After School (no date)
This guide from the School Research Office at the University of Vermont describes research-based strategies to educate students with emotional/behavioral problems by maximizing resources already present in communities, including Check & Connect. Projects are briefly described in the executive summary and also described in detail on individual pages.