The University of Vermont received a $3.5 million grant from the U.S Department of Education to test a promising new individualized intervention program designed to help high school students with emotional and behavior challenges. 

The grant, administered through the National Center for Education Research, Institute of Education Sciences, was awarded to Jesse Suter, research assistant professor in the Center on Disability & Community Inclusion (CDCI) within the College of Education and Social Services. Suter, who is principal investigator on the grant, will conduct a multisite randomized controlled trial of an intervention called RENEW (Rehabilitation, Empowerment, Natural supports, Education and Work) that draws upon research of what works in children’s mental health and school-to-career supports. 

The trial will involve approximately 380 ninth and tenth grade high school students from 10 schools across four states who are considered at risk for school failure because of academic problems and/or being disengaged from school. They also have emotional or behavioral challenges that have not responded to Tier 1 or Tier 2 supports within a Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework.

The primary goal of the grant, which runs from July 2015 to June 2019, is to test whether students who receive RENEW have better outcomes than students receiving typical services. Specifically, Suter and co-principal investigator Joanne Malloy, clinical assistant professor in the School of Social Work and the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire University, will test for differences in student engagement, self-determination, social support, as well as academic and behavioral functioning.

“Approximately half of students with emotional and behavioral challenges drop out of school, which is the highest rate of any student group,” said Suter. “Even worse, most don’t receive the supports needed to succeed and graduate. The RENEW approach was designed to help these students by increasing their engagement in school, self-determination, social support networks, and long-term academic and emotional and behavioral functioning.” 

Suter adds that although RENEW is being used around the country, it has not yet been rigorously evaluated. “That’s why our team proposed conducting a randomized controlled trial of RENEW to compare youth who receive RENEW to youth receiving typical supports,” he says. “I believe our grant application was successful because the reviewers agreed we've identified a critically important topic, and RENEW is a promising approach. Also, they gave us high scores for our multi-site research team and research methodology. I’m particularly excited because this is the first Institute of Education Sciences grant awarded to UVM.”