Skip to content. Check and Connect - A model for promoting student's engagement in school.

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:

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.
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.
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.
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.