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Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) Evaluation

Project

Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) is a comprehensive, strength-based approach to improving secondary school experiences and outcomes. It uses eight interlocking strategies to build intentional staff-to-staff, staff-to-student, and student-to-student relationships in middle and high schools. BARR is currently being implemented in more than 100 schools throughout the United States, ranging from large urban high schools to small rural middle and high schools.

AIR conducted a large-scale independent evaluation of the BARR model in ninth grade in eleven high schools in Maine, California, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Texas. This sample of schools included large and small schools in urban, suburban, and rural areas, serving students from a wide range of demographic and socio-economic backgrounds.

Evaluation

Funded with a validation grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation (i3) program, this evaluation used random assignment of ninth-grade students to BARR and control conditions to estimate the impacts of the BARR model after one year. The evaluation also assessed the fidelity of implementation of BARR in the eleven study schools and identified barriers to and facilitators of successful implementation.

The evaluation focused on several teacher- and student-level outcomes. The teacher outcomes included measures of teacher collaboration and use of data, among others. The academic outcomes included course failure, students’ grade point average (GPA), and performance on the Northwest Evaluation Association’s (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) standardized reading and mathematics assessments. Study outcomes also included student-reported measures of supportive relationships, perceptions of teachers’ expectations of them, student engagement, and others. In addition to these outcomes, the report includes impact estimates for attendance, suspensions, and persistence into 10th grade.

Results

The evaluation found that the BARR model was implemented with fidelity and that the experiences and practices of BARR teachers differed from those in the control group in meaningful ways. Compared with their counterparts in the control group, BARR teachers reported more positive views of their colleagues, that they were more satisfied with the supports available to them in their school, that they were more likely to use data to inform their instruction, higher levels of self-efficacy, and more positive views about their students.

The evaluation found that BARR reduced course failure and increased students’ GPA at the end of ninth grade. BARR also improved student experiences in school, including student reports of supportive relationships, expectations and rigor, and engagement. BARR did not have statistically significant impacts on NWEA math and reading scores, attendance, suspensions, or persistence into 10th grade.

The positive effects of BARR were strongest among students predicted to do worse academically: those eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, minority students, boys, and students scoring in the bottom quadrant on an NWEA baseline test. As a result, BARR significantly reduced gaps in ninth grade academic achievement between different groups of students within and across the eleven study schools.

 

Improving Student Outcomes in High School by Strengthening Relationships: Results from a Rigorous Evaluation of BARR (PDF)

Related Work

BARR Model classroom with students
30 Jul 2019
Report

Building Assets and Reducing Risks (BARR) Validation Study: Final Report

BARR is a comprehensive, strength-based approach that uses eight interlocking strategies to build intentional staff-to-staff, staff-to-student, and student-to-student relationships in secondary schools. Read the final report of a large-scale independent evaluation of the BARR model in ninth grade in eleven high schools.
Image of teacher and students in BARR classroom
30 Mar 2018
Video

Improving Student Outcomes and Building Positive Relationships through the BARR Model

Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) is an evidence-based strategy that uses research and real-time data to increase teacher effectiveness and improve student outcomes. Hans Bos explains the methodology behind an AIR evaluation that found the model leads to better academic performance, fewer course failures, more courses attained, and better relationships.
2 Jan 2017
Report

I3 BARR Validation Study Impact Findings: Cohorts 1 and 2

The Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) model is a comprehensive, strength-based approach to education that aims to improve achievement for all students by improving a school’s effectiveness at building relationships, leveraging real-time student data, and capitalizing on the strengths of each student. This report provides findings from the first two years of an evaluation of the BARR program in six schools divided into two cohorts.
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photo of Hans Bos

Hans Bos

Senior Vice President

Trisha Borman

Managing Researcher
Sonica Dhillon

Gurjeet (Sonica) Dhillon

Senior Researcher

Topics

Education
District and School Improvement
Teacher Preparation and Performance

Latest News & Updates

30 Jul 2019
News Release

American Institutes for Research Evaluation Finds that BARR Model is an Effective Intervention in Grade 9

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