The Connections Screener (Pristawa, 2014) was developed based on research on the importance of connectedness. Recently the process developed to collect data on school connectedness (the Connections Screener) was examined for its relationship to several student outcome variables: tardy arrivals, attendance, disciplinary referrals, failed courses, and school dropout. This research found that:
You can read the research article by clicking on the following link: “High schoolers’ and middle schoolers’ connections in their schools: Relation to tardiness, absences, disciplinary referrals, and failed courses"...students with higher levels of perceived connectedness to adults and peers in their school building had more positive school outcomes. Students with higher levels of connectedness had fewer instances of disciplinary referrals and fewer failed courses when compared to peers with lower levels of perceived connectedness. Further, students who named their advisory teacher as an adult connection had fewer instances of tardy arrivals, absences, and failed courses.
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Thank you to all of the Burrillville High School Administrators, Faculty and Staff for supporting the Connections Screening and assisting with administration of the surveys for the past 14 years. A special acknowledgement to Dr. Michael Whaley (former BHS Principal) who supported the idea right from the start and encouraged me to run with it. We have always received building level support for connections because Dr. Whaley made it a priority.
The idea to survey students as part of the Connections Screening process first came from Alyson Doumato (School Psychologist at Burrillville Middle School) during a discussion she and I had way back in 2009. Alyson has been a key person in the development of our Connections Surveys, and she has also led the Connections Screening Process at BMS since they started it just a few years after BHS. Thank you, Alyson!
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A special thanks to the original Burrillville High School RTI team (pictured above) who developed the Connections Screening process and got the project started way back in 2010: Peter Berthelette (BHS Guidance Counselor), Jennifer Fowler (BHS Special Educator), Kerri Gautreau (BHS Math Teacher), Kathryn (Fleming) Hauser (BHS Reading Specialist), Joshua Goodwin (BHS Social Studies Teacher/PBGR Coordinator), Sherrill Mckeon (Former BHS Assistant Principal), Kathryn (Johnston) Lord (Former BHS Assistant Principal), and Dr. Michael Whaley (BHS Principal). Thank you, too, to all of the staff members who participated on the BHS RTI/MTSS team over the past decade (too many to name!) and helped in some way with the Connections Screening during their time.
I would also also like to acknowledge the assistance of these Rhode Island College school psychology graduate students through the years: Lauren Mastrobuono, Tabitha Newman, Tim Luz, Adrianna Vescera, Marisa Ma, Rachel Feragne, Daniel Mirabile, Lily Nieto who, during their internship in Burrillville, helped with refining the process, entering data, analyzing data, and conducting follow-ups and interventions with students.
In addition, our Statewide Connections Project ran from 2012 to 2017 and was originally started through the support and assistance of Michele Walden-Doppke and Nicole Bucka (Educational Consultants initially with Northern RI Collaborative and now with West Bay Collaborative). I am very appreciative of their encouragement to share our practice with other schools, which ultimately helped reach more students. A special thanks also goes out to the University of Rhode Island, including Dr. Ira Reiter, Dr. Gary Stoner, and their teams of graduate students over the years: Marisa Marraccini, Erin Churchill, Lily Hall, Teressa Davis, Gyda Gudsmondsdottir, Bryn Martinez, Kim Tremblay, and Haleigh Hutcheson. These students helped with establishing the connections process, conducting research, developing connections resources/materials, data entry, and data analysis. Finally, thank you to Dr. Frank Pallotta (Former Burrillville Superintendent) and Lois Short (Former Burrillville Curriculum Director) who supported the Connections Project in our school district, granted permission to share the schools’ data for research purposes, and approved many professional days for the purpose of presenting on Connections both at the state and national level.
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Reference:
Churchill, E. D., Rogers, M. R., & Pristawa, K. A. (2021). “High schoolers’ and middle schoolers’ connections in their schools: Relation to tardiness, absences, disciplinary referrals, and failed courses”. National Youth-At-Risk Journal, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.20429/nyarj.2021.040203