New Beginnings High School Summary Report of Impact
New Beginnings High School Summary Report of Impact
September 2022
Erin Chaparro
Evaluation Director
This study used a control group design. Teens with a background of adverse childhood experiences attending alternative high schools (New Beginnings) were invited to participate in the Lasting Happiness program. A control group also took the pre- and post-surveys.
Site A: New Beginnings High School, Ft. Meade, Florida, serves approximately 150 at-risk youth who have not been successful in the traditional county high school. However, there were only about 40 students who attended with any regularity. Ninety-three percent of the students at this site indicated that they had experienced some type of interruption in their education and had either failed a previous grade were expelled or suspended from school, or dropped out of school prior to enrolling at NBHS.
While there was originally a combined total of 35 students enrolled in the project at the Ft. Meade site, only 15 students completed the project. The students who did not complete the project also stopped attending school altogether. Three staff members facilitated the Lasting Happiness groups included in the two cohorts.
Site B: New Beginnings High School in Lakeland, Florida serves approximately 400 at-risk youth who have not been successful in a traditional high school setting. While there were approximately 400 youth enrolled, only about one-fourth of them attended school with any consistency or regularity. Ninety-two percent of the students at this site indicated that they had experienced some type of interruption in their education and had either failed a previous grade, were expelled or suspended from school, or dropped out of school prior to enrolling at NBHS.
While there was originally a combined total of 66 students enrolled in the project at the Lakeland site, only 37 students completed the project. Of the students who did not complete the program, 85% stopped attending school regularly. There were 5 facilitators, 3 in the Fall for cohort 1 and 2 in the Spring for cohort 2. Cohorts 1 and 2 ran concurrently with those on the Ft. Meade and the Winter Haven campuses.
Site C: New Beginnings High School - Winter Haven, Florida serves approximately 425 at-risk youth who have not been successful in a traditional high school setting. While there were approximately 425 youth enrolled, only about one-fourth of them attended school with any consistency or regularity. Ninety-seven percent of the students at this site indicated that they had experienced some type of interruption in their education and had either failed a previous grade, were expelled or suspended from school, or dropped out of school before enrolling at NBHS.
On the Winter Haven campus, a total of 57 students enrolled in the project. However, only 32 students completed the project. Of the students who did not complete the program, most of them stopped attending school regularly. The same 3 facilitators taught both cohorts 1 and 2. Cohorts 1 and 2 ran concurrently with those on the Ft. Meade and Lakeland campuses.
Across all sites, there were two 15-week implementations conducted: Fall 2021 from September through December and Spring 2022 from January through May.
Results:
· The intervention led to a medium-to-large improvement in negative mental health indicators (SMD = -0.75) in the intervention group compared to the control group. The effect is so large because the control group had a small-to-medium increase in negative mental health indicators (SMD = 0.34) and the intervention group displayed an outright decrease (SMD = -0.41) in the negative mental health indicators over the course of the intervention.
· The attrition/retention rates for treatment and control should be taken into consideration while interpreting the results. At the same time, it should be noted how good retention was for the intervention group compared to control (42% and 11%, respectively, for Satisfaction with Life; 51% and 12%, respectively, for the Stress Survey). In a sample of high-risk adolescents placed in an alternative high school setting, that is an important outcome of its own as retention in the program was a direct product of retention in school. Details of the results can be found at this link: Final NBHS eval report _10_1_22.pdf
