Communities in Schools (CIS) of Central Texas encourages students to stay in school through campus-based programs offering a network of volunteers, social services, and business and community resources. As a dropout prevention program, it provides a support system to at-risk students, encouraging them to be successful in elementary, middle, and high school.

Study Goals:

The goal of this study was to evaluate the findings of the impact analysis conducted between 2013-2014. The analysis examined the unique effects of working with AmeriCorps members, in the effort to answer if students served by AmeriCorps members would have better outcomes compared to students served by other CIS staff that were not AmeriCorps members.

Research Questions:

The research questions were:

  • What were the characteristics of AmeriCorps members in 2013-2014?
  • What were characteristics of students served by AmeriCorps members? How are they similar/different to other students served by CIS?
  • How do the outcomes for students served by AmeriCorps members compare to those not served by the program?
  • Did the outcomes of the students in AmeriCorps improve over time? Were the outcomes affected by the number of hours served, or any student characteristics?
  • When the pre-test differences are controlled, were there any significant outcome differences of students served by AmeriCorps versus the other students served by CIS?

Findings:

The evaluation found the following:

  • Students served by AmeriCorps continued to have fewer disciplinary incidents but had missed more classes at end‐of-year than students served by CIS alone.
  • The middle and high school students served by AmeriCorps had higher final grades in math and science.
  • When examining changes in grades, the evaluation found that middle and high school students served by AmeriCorps members had smaller decreases overall from pre- to post-test than the students served by CIS alone.
  • At post-test, students served by AmeriCorps members had improvements in social skills and grades.

For more information, download the full report.

Full report

Full Report
CISofCentralTX.18AC199687.Report1-Revised_508.pdf

Further information

Program/Intervention
Communities in Schools AmeriCorps
Implementing Organization
Communities In Schools of Central Texas
Intermediary(s)

Communities In Schools of Central Texas

AmeriCorps Program(s)
AmeriCorps State and National
Age(s) Studied
6-12 (Childhood)
13-17 (Adolescent)
Outcome Category
K-12 success
Study Type(s)
Impact
Study Design(s)
Quasi-Experimental (QED)
Level of Evidence
Moderate
Researcher/Evaluator
Agile Analytics
Published Year
2015
Study Site Location (State)
Texas