Outcomes of a Trauma-Responsive Educational Approach at Scale

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Illinois funded the rapid scale-up of a whole-school trauma approach, Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing (REACH). Schools that took part in REACH formed a team, participated in training, completed the Trauma Responsive Schools Implementation Assessment (TRS-IA) and then developed an action plan based on the results of that assessment. The independent, quasi-experimental outcome evaluation of REACH capitalized on natural contrasts between the 950 schools that enrolled in REACH and the 3,035 schools that did not, and REACH schools that attained more versus fewer implementation milestones. Analyses showed that 132 REACH schools with pre/post data significantly improved their scores on all eight dimensions of the TRS-IA. Controlling for school characteristics and baseline levels of outcome variables, we saw that REACH schools were more likely to retain their teachers than were schools that had not enrolled in REACH. REACH schools that were "engaged" had fewer students who were chronically absent than REACH schools that were not engaged. REACH schools that were "very engaged" had fewer out-of- school suspensions than schools that were not engaged. There was no relationship between REACH and school climate. Overall, REACH is a promising whole-school trauma-responsive intervention.