How It Works
City Connects
An Evidence-Based Approach to Student Support and Wellness
Drawing on the expertise of Boston College’s City Connects practice, Marian University Preparatory School offers comprehensive student support for every student. Marian University Preparatory School’s City Connects Coordinator collaborates with teachers and staff to build individualized student support plans designed around each student’s needs, strengths, and out-of-school factors. We ensure every student is fully known, understood, and supported inside and outside of school.
City Connects is an evidence-based approach to addressing the out-of-school factors impacting children's ability to succeed and thrive. By leveraging existing community-based and in-school resources, it offers a systematic way for schools to connect every student to the right supports at the right time.
At its core, City Connects recognizes that a child's course of development can be altered when needs are addressed with the right support and opportunities designed to cultivate strength and enhance resilience. All children deserve quality support and are capable of learning and thriving with careful attention to their unique strengths, needs, and interests.
How does City Connects work?
At the elementary level, students enrolled in City Connects schools experience better academic outcomes than their peers who are not enrolled. These outcomes include improved effort, better grades, better attendance, and improved performance on state tests.
Beyond academic achievement, as they move into middle and high school, students who experienced City Connects in elementary school outperform comparison peers on indicators of educational success and life chances. City Connects has a positive impact on grade retention, chronic absenteeism, and high school dropout rates. New research has shown that once City Connects students graduate from high school, they have higher enrollment and graduation rates from post-secondary institutions.
You may learn more about City Connects and the Center for Vibrant Schools by visiting their website.
