Research & Evaluation

The Rales Center is focused on evaluating the impact of its programs and advancing the science of school health. Center faculty, clinicians, trainees, educators, families, and community partners work together to better understand what works in school health, for whom, and how to make it work better. To date, we have shown that the Rales Health Center is associated with better student health and educational achievement, and that the Heath Center generates more than four dollars in net social benefit for every dollar invested.

Peer Reviewed Publications

1. Predictors of student mask mandate policies in United States school districts during the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1217638/full
2. An Intervention to Promote Adherence to Glasses Wearing Among Urban Public Elementary School Students: Associations With Classroom Behavior.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33047653/
3. Pediatric asthma is associated with poorer three-year academic achievement in urban elementary and middle school students.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33207219/
4. A risk stratification algorithm for asthma identification and prioritization in a low-income urban school.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32383185/
5. Shoring up the safety net for children in the COVID-19 pandemic.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-020-1071-7
6. Asthma and Attendance in Urban Schools.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6880919/
7. Are” No” and” No Thanks” the Same for School-based Health Center Enrollment?.https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/psp/hbpr/2019/00000006/00000001/art00009
8. Cost benefit of comprehensive primary and preventive school-based health care.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29031700f

Program Evaluation

The Rales Model is being rigorously evaluated. The evaluation has three goals: 1) to characterize the process of implementing comprehensive, coordinated school health, including lessons learned; 2) to characterize health status at KIPP Baltimore; and 3) to quantify the impact of the program on health and educational outcomes.

The results of the evaluation from years 1-4 (school years 2015-16 to 2018-19) are now available. Year 5 outcomes were omitted from evaluation due to the COVID pandemic, which shifted the school to virtual learning in March 2020. (The Rales Center’s efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic are detailed separately here).

Results indicate that a new model of fully-integrated school health, one that embodies the CDC’s WSCC model, can be successfully implemented in a large, urban school setting. We observed large and robust associations between health conditions and poorer school attendance and standardized test performance. The Rales Model was associated with high utilization, better identification of students at health and social risk, and better medication adherence among students with chronic conditions. Moreover, enrollment in the Rales Health Center was associated with marked decreases in chronic absenteeism among students with chronic conditions as well as modest but meaningful improvements in standardized test score growth over time, particularly in math.

To learn more about the impact of the model on health and educational outcomes, click on a report below. The Executive Summary provides an overview of findings, while initiative-specific reports provide additional details about the process of implementation and lessons learned that can inform scaling in other settings.

P