Check & Connect Online Support Modules

• NEW! Readiness Tool: A Guide for Exploring Check & Connect at Your Site
  This self-paced online learning module is designed for site leadership teams to learn more about Check & Connect and evaluate their site’s readiness to implement, based on the following indicators:
  • Implementing Site Indicators
    • Need
    • Fit
    • Capacity
  • Program Indicators
    • Evidence
    • Usability
    • Supports

  After completing the module, learners will be able to:

  • Rate each of the Program Indicators for Check & Connect: Evidence, Usability, and Supports.
  • Evaluate, as a leadership team, if your site is ready to successfully implement Check & Connect by rating the Implementing Site Indicators: Need, Fit, and Capacity.
• The Mentor Practice Profile (MPP)
  This self-paced online learning module focuses on how to use the MPP to improve performance as a mentor.

  After completing the module, learners will be able to:

  • Understand how the MPP clearly articulates expectations of proficiency as a C&C mentor
  • Use the MPP to identify their own strengths and areas for growth
  • Develop a plan to enhance their efficacy
  • Mentor Practice Profile Self-Evaluation Tool
    This tool is designed to help mentors reflect on their strengths as well as identify room for growth as they progress through the MPP-focused support module above.
• "Check" Data
  This self-paced online learning module focuses on how to maximize the use of data in your Check & Connect implementation.

  After completing the module, learners will be able to:

  • Identify the ABC’s of “Check” data
  • Analyze “Check” data to assess for risk
• The Weekly “Connect” Meeting
  This self-paced online learning module focuses on the weekly “Connect” meeting between the mentor and each student.

  After completing the module, learners will be able to:

  • Understand the four tasks of the basic intervention, or “Connect” Meeting. These tasks are:
    • At Least Weekly:
      • Share “Check” Data
      • Provide feedback
    • At Least Monthly:
      • Discuss the importance of school
      • Problem-solve WITH the student
  • Apply the concepts demonstrated in examples of what the “Connect” meeting looks and sounds like
  • Recognize that the mentor-student relationship is the critical foundation for achieving success with C&C interventions
• Collaborating with Families
  This self-paced online learning module focuses on how the mentor's relationship with families enhances family engagement.

  After completing the module, learners will be able to:

  • Understand the Four A’s (approach, attitudes, atmosphere, actions) as the foundation of establishing trusting relationships with families
  • Identify a personal area for growth in engaging families such as:
    • enhancing home-school communication
    • home visits
    • responding to parents' questions and concerns
    • encouraging home support for learning
  • Plan to improve engagement (two-way communication, collaboration, etc.) with families they serve
  • Family Engagement Reflection
    This tool is designed to help mentors reflect on their family engagement practice as they progress through the Family Engagement Support Module above.
• Planning for Mentor Professional Development
  This self-paced online learning module focuses on how the C&C coordinator plans targeted professional development (PD) to support mentors' growth.

  After completing the module, the learner will be able to:

  • Recognize the importance of ongoing PD for mentors to ensure fidelity of implementation
  • Identify mentors' strengths & areas for improvement
  • Use C&C resources to plan data-driven PD
• The Student Engagement Instrument (SEI)
  This self-paced online learning module focuses on how to use data from the Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) to enhance student engagement.

  After completing the module, learners will be able to:

  • Recognize the purpose and uses of the SEI
  • Interpret average total and subdomain scores of the SEI
  • Use data from the SEI to individualize interventions for students

Check & Connect Online Resources

• Online Mentoring Guide (PDF) - This guide offers strategies for fostering online relationships, planning conversations around school, and facilitating online interventions.
• Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) - The Student Engagement Instrument (SEI™) is a brief 35 item self-reporting survey measuring cognitive and affective engagement. Data allows school professionals to gain insights into a student’s sense of control, intrinsic motivation, and future aspirations (cognitive engagement factors).
• Mentor Practice Profile (PDF) - The purpose of this practice profile is to guide the C&C mentor through the implementation of the C&C Comprehensive Student Engagement Model. The critical components of the C&C mentor position include: building relationships with students; systematic monitoring and analysis of student-level “check” data; providing personalized “connect”
• Check & Connect Video (4 min. 30 sec.) - The 4 1/2 minute introductory video shows perspectives of Check & Connect from students, mentors, teachers, and administrators across several different models of implementation.
• Implementation Options & Funding Tips (PDF) - This resource explains the pros and cons of utilizing dedicated mentors, school staff, or community volunteers in the role of the Check & Connect mentor. Funding options and grant writing resources are also described.
• Frequently Asked Questions - Find answers to a range of questions, including the background of Check & Connect, as well as specifically how Check & Connect can be implemented at your site.
• Using Check & Connect with Existing Initiatives - Check & Connect fits well within multi-tiered systems of support as well as other district and school-wide initiatives.
• Check & Connect Research Poster (PDF) - This research poster highlights how C&C is used, its development, its impact on students, and recent federally funded research.

* The University of Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration developed the seven online support modules and other select online resources with funding from a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Grant #H327S170015. These resources do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. Project Officer, Anita Vermeer.

Check & Connect In the News

The following news and magazine articles discuss Check & Connect and its impact on students (for articles about specific Check & Connect sites, see Check & Connect Community Sites in the News page):

Keeping kids in school (November 2015)
From Connect, the magazine of the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota: "...In its 2015 annual update, 'Building a Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic,' the Alliance acknowledges several contributing factors, including national attention to the problem and a staggering realization of its implications. High school dropouts don’t go on to college and have less of a chance to land decent jobs or to become engaged or contributing members of their communities. One intervention that has proven to keep kids in school came out of the Institute on Community Integration in the College of Education and Human Development."

High school dropouts: Should we let them go? The Daily Circuit show, Minnesota Public Radio (November 5, 2012)
This hour-long conversation and call-in show on Minnesota Public Radio featured C&C researcher Karen Stout, former chairman of the Metropolitan Council Peter Bell, and senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research Susan Bowles Therriault.

Connecting Students to Learning: ICI's Check & Connect Expanding Its Reach (2012)
From an intervention profile in the Institute on Community Integration's fyi staff newsletter: "To prevent school dropout among K-12 students, in 1995 the Institute on Community Integration (ICI) launched Check & Connect, a research-based intervention to increase student engagement at school and with learning. Now, Check & Connect has launched an expanded suite of training and consultation options, its staff are conducting new large-scale research studies on its efficacy, and its new Web site has been unveiled."

Solving the Mental Health Crisis for Our Children (2010)
Huffington Post article by Rosalynn Carter. "In Minnesota, an innovative program called Check & Connect, developed by the University of Minnesota's Institute on Community Integration in Minneapolis, uses strategies such as social skills training and relationship building to increase student engagement with school and reduce dropout rates."

Keeping Kids in Class: Check & Connect Demonstrably Lowers Dropout Rate (2009)
From Connect, the magazine of the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota (see pp. 18-19): "Each year roughly 1.23 million students in the United States do not graduate from high school with their peers—an issue that has both societal and individual implications. Students who drop out are more likely to become unemployed, incarcerated, and/or dependent on social programs than those with a high school diploma. In response, educational psychology professor Sandra Christenson, in partnership with the Institute for Community Integration (ICI), researched and developed Check & Connect. This comprehensive, targeted intervention is designed to enhance student engagement at school and with learning through relationship building and problem solving."

Keeping Students Engaged With School: ICI’s Check & Connect (2008)
From an intervention profile in the Institute on Community Integration's fyi staff newsletter: "Each year roughly 1.23 million students in the U.S. do not graduate from high school with their peers. Students who leave school before graduation are more likely to become unemployed, incarcerated, and/or dependent on social programs than those with a high school diploma. The Institute on Community Integration (ICI) is responding to this problem by offering Check & Connect, a comprehensive, targeted intervention designed to enhance students’ engagement at school and with learning through relationship building and problem solving."

Check & Connect in National Databases

Check & Connect is referenced in several databases, including the following:

• Check & Connect in the What Works Clearinghouse, Institute of Education Sciences
• Check & Connect in the Attendance Works "What Works" listing, Attendance Works
• Check & Connect in Social Programs That Work, Coalition for Evidence-based Policy
• Check & Connect in the Model Programs Database, National Dropout Prevention Center
• Check & Connect in Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Defense, Penn State University

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