In efforts to keep kids on track to graduate, a new evaluation of the Diplomas Now intervention suggests an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. 

After a single year of implementation through the federal Investing in Innovation program, MDRC researchers found Diplomas Now significantly boosted the number of 6th graders who showed none of the early red flags for dropping out of high school: shaky attendance, poor grades, or behavior problems. It likewise provided support to students who entered 9th grade vulnerable but on track—but the program had less success in pulling freshmen back on track if they had had years of problems in middle school. 

"Even kids that come in on track can get off track, and Diplomas Now positions itself at that first slip— to catch them quick to make sure they don't fall more off track," said William Corrin, MDRC deputy director and lead investigator for the Diplomas Now evaluation.

Diplomas Now's Talent Development intervention trains teachers to do intensive monitoring of students' core grades, attendance, and discipline rates, while pairing high-risk students with one-on-one mentors and other supports through City Year and Communities in Schools. 

That proved important in the transition from 5th to 6th grades. About a third of students who had good reading and math performance in 5th grade had, by the end of 6th grade, lower grades, started to act out in class, or started to miss school. In control-group schools this took longer to spot: In Diplomas Now schools, only 1 in 4 students, rather than 1 in 3, started to go off track in 6th grade.

After a year of implementing the program, 75 percent of 6th graders in participating schools had no warning signs, while only 68 percent of their peers in comparison schools were completely on track.....

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