Research

Milwaukee Public Schools

A research team at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee used a quasi-experimental, peer-reviewed research technique and established a correlation between students who used Success Highways and higher grades, higher attendance, and increased class pass rates. First piloted in Milwaukee, these results were then replicated in other schools with large free and reduced lunch populations (Solberg, 2002).

The pilot site, South Division High School, had a high Title I population, low attendance rates, retention, and achievement. A total of 215 students (grades 9-10) used Success Highways during the study. Results show that when students had high levels of resilience, they also had higher GPAs, more credits, and better attendance. Additionally, since the introduction of Success Highways, South Division experienced fewer discipline referrals and higher graduation rates (unpublished raw data).

The researchers also found that students exposed to Success Highways had better attendance, higher grades, and more credits, and were more likely to graduate. Moreover, the more lessons students finished, the higher their outcomes were. Students exposed to two lessons had higher GPAs after two years than the average student; students exposed to three or more lessons achieved even higher GPAs after two years (Solberg, 2000; Solberg, 2005, Solberg, Carlstrom, & Kowalchuk 2001).

Sunnyside Unified School District

In an effort to improve graduation rates, Sunnyside Unified School District (SUSD) launched Project Graduation, a comprehensive, multi-faceted, research-based program that has received the Arizona Commission for Postsecondary Education's 2009 Pathways to Higher Education Award. The Success Highways curriculum is a key component within the initiative, and Revving Up assessment data has enabled the district to conduct research on whether resiliency can predict future academic performance.

Within the initiative, Hanover Research conducted an analysis of 370 ninth graders at Sunnyside High School and 375 ninth graders at Desert View High School to examine students' GPAs, number of failed courses, attendance rates, and resiliency scores. The studies found a significant relationship between students' level of academic success/failure (which is categorized into Tiers) and their average Revving Up resiliency scores. Furthermore, the researchers determined that resiliency score averages are a useful predictor of future Tier numbers for SUSD students. The following reports provide details of the results:

• Project Graduation: the Digital Advantage Resiliency Skills and Tier Data Analysis (Desert View High School)
• Project Graduation: the Digital Advantage Resiliency Skills and Tier Data Analysis (Sunnyside High School)

Denver Public Schools

Denver Public Schools (DPS) has included Success Highways as a main component of its Ninth Grade Academy since Summer 2007. To date, approximately 6,500 students have used the program in 16 schools.

DPS collected academic data on four cohorts of participants of the Ninth Grade Academy (Summer 2007-2010) as well as a comparison group of students who were of similar academic proficiency, grade level, gender, race/ethnicity, and free and reduced lunch status. A longitudinal study conducted by the district found that students who participated in Ninth Grade Academy were significantly more likely to stay in school and on-track to graduate each subsequent year. Additionally, these students had higher overall grade point averages and were more likely to pass all courses, and have higher attendance and lower tardy rates. Furthermore, the Ninth Grade Academy students were less likey to be suspended or expelled (Denver Public Schools, 2011).

Resiliency as an Indicator of Academic Success

Utilizing the DPS Ninth Grade Academy academic and resiliency data for the 2007, 2008, and 2009 Cohorts, researchers at the University of Colorado-Denver and the University of Wisconsin-Madison conducted three studies to evaluate whether items from Success Highways: Revving Up can predict academic success.

• Study 1 found students who demonstrated high academic success (composite of attendance, grades, and behavior reports) up to three years into high school reported significantly higher ratings for all 18 resiliency subscales than students who demonstrated low academic success. One implication of these findings is that the average scores for the academically successful students for each of the 18 subscales can be used as the comparison bar for students when they received their personalized Success Highways Revving Up Reports.
• Study 2 and 3 found that the 18 subscales from the Revving Up instrument were all able to predict future academic success. The strongest predictors are when students value the importance of going to college, attend school because it is deemed meaningful, are more confident to engage in classroom activities, and report lower academic stress and physical distress. The findings of Studies 2 and 3 benefit schools in that they provide an additional early warning indicator based on students' social-emotional needs. Within the Success Highways Needs Assessment and Resiliency Skills Assessment Reports, the results are used to identify students who are most at-risk for academic failure (Solberg, Davis, McLemore, 2010).

Validation of the Assessments

Studies measuring the validity of Success Highways assessments were first conducted in 1998 and then revalidated in 2000 for use with urban precollege populations (Solberg, n/d). After the program was used by approximately 25,000 students, a subsequent revalidation has been conducted at the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee in 2008 (Gillis & Sedivy, 2008). Measures for each of the six resiliency skills were validated using a sample of 4,922 students from various high schools across the United States. Roughly 51% of the participants were male and 47% were female. Additionally, of the participants where race was reported, 1706 (41.7%) were White, 650 (15.9%) were African American/Black, 33 (.8%) were American Indian, 91 (2.2%) were Asian/Pacific Islander, 1224 (29.9%) were Hispanic and/or Latino/a, and 387 (9.5%) identified as Other or More than One. The free and reduced lunch percentage of students included in the study was 46.46%. 52% of students were middle school students (7-8 grade) and 48% were high school students (9-12 grade). The results of the study found the overall reliability of the measures as follows, illustrating that each of the components within the assessment is accurately measuring resiliency as intended (Gillis & Sedivy, 2008).

Skill	Reliability
Importance of Education	.915
Connections	.838
Well-Being	.941
Motivation	.815
Confidence	.884
Stress	.935

• Build A Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic
• Breaking Barriers: Plotting the Path to Academic Success for School-Age African American Males