Breakthrough Miami: A Quasi-Experimental External Impact Evaluation (2021-2024)

Research finds that students from low-income and under-resourced backgrounds are at a critical academic and social disadvantage due to inequitable in-school and out-of-school-time (OST) learning opportunities. The Breakthrough Miami (BTM) AmeriCorps program is guided by a vision of ensuring that low-income, under-resourced, and traditionally underrepresented students in Miami-Dade County can succeed in school and attain post-secondary success.

BTM year-round programming addresses the opportunity gap by providing interventions to support students in accessing rigorous courses and learning environments, deep OST learning, academic advising, and socio-emotional development to help students meet distinct developmental needs at each grade level. BTM’s model is rooted in a students-teaching-students model, where near peers teach and mentor participating BTM Scholars. Scholars are recruited at the end of elementary school and are requested to make a long-term commitment to the program lasting through high school.

During a six-week Summer Institute, BTM Scholars participated in developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive academic courses, electives, and socio-emotional learning daily over six weeks provided by BTM AmeriCorps members who serve as Teaching Fellows. During the academic year, BTM focused on delivering guidance on school options, academic advising, and academic support in addition to hands-on learning during 14 BTM Saturdays.

This external impact evaluation focused on BTM activities during the 2021-2024 grant cycle, during which the program received funding through AmeriCorps. More specifically, evaluation activities focused on the experience of participants in BTM programming over the summer of 2022. In particular, evaluation work focused on 1) the impact of participating on Scholars in grades six and seven as of 2021-2022 and 2) the role of AmeriCorps Members who served as teaching fellows.

Research Questions

1. Did students participating in the BTM program demonstrate significantly better academic performance as measured by GPA than comparison students?
2. Did students participating in the BTM program perform significantly better than comparison students on state assessments of ELA and mathematics?
3. Did students participating in the BTM program demonstrate significantly better attendance rates than comparison students?
4. Did students participating in the BTM program demonstrate significantly better school behavior than comparison students, as determined by indoor and outdoor suspensions?

Findings

Findings from the external impact evaluation provided initial evidence for a positive effect of participating in BTM on Scholars academic outcomes.

• Participating Scholars had significantly higher GPAs than a comparison group that was matched based on sociodemographic characteristics and on baseline outcome measures. While the magnitude of this effect was small, it represents the effect of just one year of participation. The program’s influence on academic outcomes may increase over time and with a greater duration of participation.
• BTM Scholars also had significantly fewer total school absences than the matched comparison group. Again, the magnitude of this effect was small, but points to improvements in school engagement.
• The effects for assessment scores, unexcused absences, and indoor/outdoor suspensions were not statistically significant.