Mentoring and Counseling Interventions
Exposure to gun violence traumatizes children – and this trauma follows them into the classroom. We partner with community-based organizations to identify and evaluate trauma-informed interventions, including mentorship and counseling programs, that surface and strengthen skills in students that help them navigate difficult situations and succeed in school.
While gun violence may affect boys more directly as participants, our research suggests as high as 38% of school-aged girls in Chicago public high schools exhibit signs of PTSD — double the probability of PTSD in service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan- as a result of high rates of trauma exposure, including gun violence.
Youth Guidance’s Working on Womanhood (WOW) program, a group-based peer mentoring program serving school aged girls in Chicago neighborhood schools, reduces PTSD symptoms by 22% in addition to reducing anxiety and depression.
Our evaluation of Youth Guidance’s Becoming a Man (BAM), a school-based group counseling program for young men in 7th-12th grades, found that BAM participants experienced 50% fewer arrests for violent crimes.
Back to Our Future (B2OF)
Back to Our Future (B2OF) is a state-funded, district-led, evidence-informed effort to re-engage disconnected students at an elevated risk for gun violence involvement.
Communities in Schools (CIS)
The Education Lab partnered with Communities in Schools to evaluate an intervention program of academic and socio-emotional learning supports for students at risk of dropping out of school.
Chicago Student Success Initiative (CSSI)
The Education Lab partnered with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to develop new interventions for schools disproportionately serving students at the highest risk of school dropout or violence involvement.
Youth Advocate Programs
The Crime Lab and Education Lab, in partnership with Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (YAP), conducted a randomized controlled trial of YAP’s wraparound advocacy services to evaluate the program’s impact on youth academic outcomes and violence engagement outcomes.
Scaling Promising Practices in Youth Mentoring
This case study by Results for America highlights the Crime Lab and Education Lab’s role in the City of Chicago’s bold initiative to expand the evidence-based Becoming a Man group mentoring model to serve thousands of young men.
Randomized evaluation of a school-based, trauma-informed group intervention for young women in Chicago
Science Advances journal publication.
Working on Womanhood- Research Brief
Research brief for the Working on Womanhood project.
Seizing the Opportunity to Advance Education Equity
2021 Education Lab report on barriers to education faced by CPS students.
Latest Updates
NYC expands restorative justice programs: ‘This is for them to come feel safe’
The Gothamist’s Samantha Max cites Education Lab research that found using restorative practices to address student behavior can reduce arrests and suspensions.
Implementation, and Impact of High-Dosage Tutoring Programs
Today the national nonprofit Accelerate announced a new initiative that will bring together top education researchers from across the U.S. to develop rigorous research on the impact, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of various high-dosage tutoring programs. The Education Lab is a member of Accelerate’s inaugural Research Learning Community as part of a commitment to helping policymakers and school districts access the high-quality and transparent evidence they need to make informed decisions for their students.
What aspects of teaching should remain human?
Chris Berdik, for The Hechinger Report, highlights Saga Education’s partnership with the Education Lab to scale high-dosage tutoring through the Personalized Learning Initiative, where AI is playing a growing role in the delivery of tutoring.
