Common Elements of Practice, Process and Implementation in Out-of-School-Time Academic Interventions for At-risk Children: a Systematic Review

Thomas Engell,Kristine Amlund Hagen,Hege Kornør,Benedicte Kirkøen,Kristine Horseng Ludvigsen,Karianne Thune Hammerstrøm

doi:10.1007/s11121-020-01091-w

Abstract

Academic achievement is a strong preventive factor against marginalization. Children at risk of academic failure and drop out can benefit from out-of-school-time academic (OSTA) interventions. Wide-scaled implementation and sustainment of effective interventions remain a struggle across education, welfare, and health. The need for approaches to increase implementability, effectiveness, and efficiency of interventions is pressing. Advancements in the field of education and mental health suggest identifying and studying discrete elements that are common across interventions for the purpose of hypothesis generation, intervention optimization, design improvement, and implementation. This review identified OSTA interventions for primary school children at risk of academic failure. Common elements methodology was used to code practice elements (n = 62), process elements (n = 49), and implementation elements (n = 36) in 30 effective and six ineffective OSTA interventions in matrices. Based on frequency counts, common practice, process, and implementation elements across the interventions were identified, and given frequency count values (FV) reflecting how often elements were included in effective studies as opposed to in ineffective studies. The five common practice elements with the highest FVs were homework support, training in positive parental school involvement, positive reinforcement, structured tutoring, and psychoeducation. The most common process element was regular support to intervention receiver, and the most common implementation element was quality monitoring. Common combinations of elements were also identified and given FVs. Results from this review can inform efforts to design or optimize OSTA interventions, and inform education, implementation, and practice to improve academic achievement for children at risk.

Highlights

Poor academic achievement and school dropout are among the unfavorable outcomes experienced by children exposed to poverty, unstable home environments, involvement with child protection services, and poor parenting skills (OECD 2016)
How frequently are the most common elements used in effective of-school-time academic (OSTA) interventions, and how frequently are the common elements used in interventions without statistically significant effects on academic achievement?
We included 36 independent studies of 30 effective interventions and 6 ineffective interventions for common elements analyses based on information from 29 articles, 5 dissertations, 3 evaluation reports, and 7 intervention manuals

Summary

Introduction

Poor academic achievement and school dropout are among the unfavorable outcomes experienced by children exposed to poverty, unstable home environments, involvement with child protection services, and poor parenting skills (OECD 2016). Children at risk often develop gaps in knowledge early in their academic careers. These early educational shortcomings often exacerbate over time and contribute to academic failure and dropout in later school years (Sebba et al 2015). Academic achievement is a strong protective factor against marginalization in adulthood (Johnson et al 2010). Children at risk who achieve academically are less likely to experience illness, to use drugs, to engage in criminal behavior, and to become recipients of welfare services (Berlin et al 2011). Preventing academic failure can be valuable to children

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Conclusion