Improving the evaluation and impact of mental health and other supportive school-based programmes on students' academic outcomes

Abstract

Schools are under increased pressure to demonstrate that all programming promotes student academic achievement. As a result, school-based programmes originally designed to address non-academic issues are now being asked to demonstrate the impact on academic outcomes. The current special issue is the first of two that will examine the association between school-based non-academic services (such as school mental health, family support and mentoring) and students' academic success. These papers provide empirical tests of three programmes and commentary on theoretically and empirically based recommendations for improvement. The final paper provides evidence for the effectiveness of one approach. As these articles highlight, tying the activities of these supportive programmes more closely to academic outcomes, setting clear academic goals, monitoring academic progress and providing feedback to practitioners about progress towards these goals may help increase the probability of non-academic programmes positively impacting academic outcomes.

Keywords:

• school mental health
• family support
• mentoring
• evaluation
• standardized testing