Supporting Students outside the Classroom: Can Wraparound Services Improve Academic Performance?

Communities in Schools is one of the nation's oldest and largest providers of integrated student supports, also known as "wraparound services." Started in New York City in the 1970s, the agency now works with more than 2,300 schools in 25 states and the District of Columbia. The model is straightforward: Communities in Schools recruits, trains, and places "site coordinators" in schools (typically high-poverty campuses where student performance is low), who usually work full time at the school and connect students to community resources available to them. This could include medical and dental care, mental health services, basic needs like food or shelter, academic enrichment programs, tutoring, and mentoring. Its services typically cost around $200 per student per school year. Communities in Schools also relies on site coordinators as a way to connect local schools with the overall organization, which functions as a federation of 131 "affiliate" nonprofits implementing the model. The impact of integrated student supports is often obvious when it comes to meeting students' immediate needs for food or medical care. However, large-scale evaluations of wraparound programs to date have shown only small benefits to student achievement, at best. In this article, Michael McShane offers several potential explanations for the persistent lack of demonstrable success and provides three positive steps that can be taken to help initiatives meet with more demonstrable success.