Our Work
The Center is a hub for discovery, innovation, research, practice, and knowledge sharing through which we work to help all children thrive. A central part of this work is our international leadership on integrated student support science and practice. Surrounding this work, we are innovating a variety of strategies for increasing opportunities in lasting, cost-effective, and scalable ways using developmental science, interdisciplinary research, and research-practice partnerships.听
City Connects
City Connects is a systematic, high-impact, cost-effective approach to helping every child in a school become ready to learn and engage in the classroom.City Connects provides each student in a school with a tailored set of resources, relationships, and enrichments designed to optimize healthy development and learning.
City Connects provides a clear, organized, and evidence-based strategy for schools to more effectively and efficiently leverage existing resources and produce outcomes. City Connects uses data both to continuously improve service delivery, and to test out scientifically-based approaches to student support so that practitioners using various approaches can learn about what works, for whom, and why.
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MyConnects
MyConnects is an online student support information system designed to support the City Connects practice. It offers Coordinators a way to manage individualized plans to provide every student with the right services at the right time. MyConnects enables City Connects Coordinators to collect and access information about community resources and also generate reports to share with school teachers, administrators and staff.
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Student Support Institute
The Student Support Institute is a district learning network created by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, and the Mary E. Walsh Center for Thriving Children. The Institute is comprised of district and school teams from across Massachusetts that are working to transform their approaches to student support on behalf of the more than 85,000 students they serve.
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National Guidelines for Integrated Student Support
The first national guidelines to help K-12 schools create successful approaches to deliver integrated student supports that address both in- and out-of-school barriers to learning 鈥� from hunger, to mental health, to basic needs 鈥� were developed by a national working group.
It is a first effort to encapsulate evidence-based best practices and define what high-quality implementation looks like in the day-to-day functioning of schools. Over time, as learnings from both research and practice continue to accumulate, we hope to refine and build on the guidelines.
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Growing Opportunities Lab
The Growing Opportunities Lab is innovating, implementing, and investigating ways to improve developmental and educational opportunities for children. The Lab鈥檚 focus is on opportunities that unfold within and through family and community. Examples of our work include creating enriching early math experiences and investigating the intersection between early learning and health care.
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Practice Briefs
Drawing on practical knowledge from the field, the Center has produced a series of practice briefs aimed at supporting the needs of practitioners as they implement systems of integrated student support in their schools.
Introducing Systems of Integrated Student Support
Financing Systems of Integrated Student Support
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support and Integrated Student Support
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Defining a School Coordinator
Reviewing Every Student
Analyzing the Resource Landscape
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Using Data to Inform Practice
Working With Community Partners
Selecting Technology for Integrated Student Support
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Understanding Principles of Effective Practice
The Whole Child: Building Systems of Integrated Student Support During & After Covid-19
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Research Briefs
Long-term effects of integrated student support on postsecondary enrollment and completion
The Impact of City Connects on Teachers and Schools
The Impact of Integrated Student Support on Outcomes
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The Impact of City Connects on Select Student Sub-Groups
The Long-Term Impact of Systemic Student Support in Elementary School: Reducing High School Dropout
The Return on Investment of City Connects
For Researchers
We learn from and contribute to cross-disciplinary research on the contexts, connections, and interventions that promote children鈥檚 thriving. Our Center incubates the following Research-Practice Partnerships:
City Connects
Scientific investigation of integrated student support is rapidly evolving and emerging from research in the fields of neuroscience, developmental psychology, social work, education, economics, and others. Building on the longstanding and robust research-practice partnership called City Connects, the Center aims to improve the nation鈥檚 understanding of effective approaches to student support by leveraging these advances in the sciences and using cutting-edge methodologies capable of analyzing the impact of complex, comprehensive interventions.
The Growing Opportunities Lab
The Growing Opportunities Lab is a research-practice partnership focused on opportunities to promote learning and development that unfold within and through family and community. Examples of our work include creating enriching early math experiences and investigating the intersection between early learning and health care.
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Our Peer Reviewed Articles
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听Integrated Student Support Intervention Mitigates the Adverse Impact of School Mobility on Middle School Students' Achievement and Behavior
Long-term effects of integrated student support: An evaluation of an elementary school intervention on postsecondary enrollment and completion
Leveraging integrated student support to identify and address COVID-19-related needs for students, families, and teachers
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Why Integrated Student Support
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The ecology of developmental processes. In W. Damon & R.M. Lerner (Eds.). Handbook of Child Psychology: Vol 1: Theoretical Models of Human Development (pp. 993-1028)
The essential role of school-community partnerships in school counseling. In H. L. K. Coleman & C. Yeh (Eds.), Handbook of school counseling (pp. 765-783)
Can Community and School鈥怋ased Supports Improve the Achievement of First鈥怗eneration Immigrant Children Attending High鈥怭overty Schools?
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Center Research Reports & Briefs
The听Effects of COVID-19 on Students, Families, and School Staff in 2020
Long-term effects of integrated student support on postsecondary enrollment and completion
2024 City Connects Progress Report
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The Impact of Integrated Student Support on Outcomes
The Impact of City Connects on Select Student Sub-Groups
The Impact of City Connects on Teachers and Schools
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For Policymakers
Leaders across the country are advancing integrated student support policy and practice. The resources below are designed to help decision-makers align policy with leading-edge research and to learn about trends and language in use across the country.听
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National Guidelines for Integrated Student Support
The first national guidelines to help K-12 schools create successful approaches to deliver integrated student supports that address both in- and out-of-school barriers to learning 鈥� from hunger, to mental health, to basic needs 鈥� were developed by a national working group.
It is a first effort to encapsulate evidence-based best practices and define what high quality implementation looks like in the day-to-day functioning of schools. Over time, as learnings from both research and practice continue to accumulate, we hope to refine and build on the guidelines.
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Policy briefs, toolkits, and research summaries
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Strengthening Whole Family Comprehensive Supports in Early Childhood: Implications for Head Start and Early Head Start
Building a Statewide System to Support Early Childhood Program Integration With Comprehensive Services
Principles of Effective Practice for Integrated Student Support
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Comprehensive Services for Children in Poverty: Setting the Agenda for Integrated Student Support
Tipping the Scales: How Integrating School and Community Resources Can Improve Student Outcomes and the Commonwealth's Future
Building Systems of Integrated Student Support: A Policy Brief for Federal Leaders
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Building Systems of Integrated Student Support: A Policy Brief for Local and State Leaders
Integrated Student Support and Workforce Development
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Research Briefs
Long-term effects of integrated student support on postsecondary enrollment and completion
The Impact of City Connects on Teachers and Schools
The Impact of Integrated Student Support on Outcomes
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