My Student's Team

Strong relationships with non-parental adults are associated with greater student success. Despite this, many children receive little educational support from adults in their families’ social networks – even from those with whom they have relationships. This randomized experiment evaluates a scalable intervention called “My Student’s Team,” which entails proactively inviting and empowering parent-nominated adults who have pre-existing relationships with students (e.g., family members, neighbors, coaches) to support students’ educations. Students’ parents name an adult “supporter” whom they permit to receive school-related information about their children. Supporters of students assigned to the intervention group are sent regular communications, such as class schedules, progress reports, attendance updates, behavior reports, invitations to school activities, notifications of upcoming tests, and conversational prompts. An implementation pilot was conducted during the 2015-2016 school year followed by a modestly-powered roll-out in 2016-2017. We now plan for a well-powered roll-out during the 2017-2018 school year, which is currently being implemented. We predict that this intervention will improve end-of-year course grades, grade point average, test scores, and attendance. This research will also enhance our understanding of how adults within students’ social networks can influence student success.