IMPACT REPORT 

August 

2022 

An Evaluation of the 

True North AmeriCorps Program 

Report Authors: 

Peter Nelson, Ph.D. – peter@serveminnesota.org 

Patrick Kaiser, M.Ed. – patrick@serveminnesota.org 

Project: 

True North AmeriCorps 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the National Science & Service Collaborative 

We believe partnerships between researchers, AmeriCorps programs, and communities 

can transform research and practice, leading to sustainable, community-driven 

solutions. We value a broad and inclusive definition of “collaboration” because

improving societal outcomes is maximized when the tools of science, expertise of 

communities, and resources of AmeriCorps are deployed in a truly collaborative way. 

The Center’s portfolio includes projects to evaluate the impact of AmeriCorps 

programming, projects to advance the existing knowledge base in education, and 

development projects to bring new and innovative programming to communities across 

the nation. 

https://nssc.serveminnesota.org/ 

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Table of Contents 

About the National Science & Service Collaborative............................................................2 

Introduction...............................................................................................................................4 

Theory of Change .................................................................................................................4 

Current Evaluation ................................................................................................................5 

Impact Assessment ...................................................................................................................6 

Matching and Participants...................................................................................................6 

Measures................................................................................................................................7 

Analysis Procedures ..............................................................................................................8 

Results ....................................................................................................................................8 

Conclusion and Discussion .....................................................................................................10 

Implications for Practice.....................................................................................................10 

Limitations ............................................................................................................................11 

Conclusion...........................................................................................................................12 

References ..............................................................................................................................13 

About the Authors...................................................................................................................14 

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Introduction 

Launched in 2003, the True North 

AmeriCorps program (TNAC) is an 

affiliate of the Duluth Area Family YMCA, 

serving economically disadvantaged 

children in the city of Duluth and three 

surrounding rural counties. The program 

has undergone significant changes in 

recent years. Prior to 2019, TNAC 

members were placed in partnering 

schools and after-school programs to 

provide reading and math support as 

well as general support for school 

engagement. 

In the last grant cycle, the program 

shifted focus in at least two important 

ways. First, the program almost 

exclusively served students in afterschool programs (e.g., daily structured 

programming at schools and drop-in 

programming at community and youth 

centers), shifting away from school-day 

partnerships. Second, the program 

modified activities to focus more intently 

on supporting students’ engagement in

school-related activities by way of 

fostering positive adult relationships. As 

such, the program no longer directly 

assessed students’ reading and math

achievement. 

Despite promising changes to the 

program’s theory of change, a clear

need to strengthen the program for 

evidence-building persisted. In their 2020 

evaluation, Nelson & Kaiser observed a 

statistically significant and negative 

effect of treatment assignment when 

comparing treated and untreated 

student scores on the SAYO-Staff survey 

distributed by the National Institute of 

Out-of-School Time. 

Yet the results observed in the previous 

evaluation were illustrative of important 

limitations of program infrastructure and 

areas for ongoing improvement. For 

example, although members were 

trained more directly in building 

relationships with students and a variety 

of training approaches were adopted to 

align with this focus, the SAYO-S was 

retained as the primary outcome of 

interest for the program during the 2020 

evaluation. This is relevant because the 

nature of member activities and 

outcome measures needed 

improvement. 

Theory of Change 

TNAC’s current Theory of Change holds

that the provision of a caring adult for 

students will create an environment that 

promotes increases in school 

engagement, noting that those 

increases are associated with long-term 

academic success outcomes (e.g., 

Reschly & Christenson, 2006). 

Currently, all participating students are 

referred to TNAC members by a 

representative at the site, school, or 

home. Participating students receive 

targeted sessions in which the member 

provides a variety of formal “check-in”

supports characterized by goal-oriented 

problem-solving and social-emotional 

skill building as well as informal support in 

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the form of after-school activity 

participation and homework help. TNAC 

members may serve a maximum of 40 

students (approximately 20-40 

depending on site). The program does 

not currently graduate or exit students 

based on performance so participating 

students typically receive support for the 

full program year. 

Current Evaluation 

The present evaluation sought to 

address many of the limitations 

associated with previous evaluations. 

TNAC was instrumental in positioning the 

program for a revised evaluation by 

introducing a new assessment and 

approach to data collection—these two 

programmatic changes resulted in an 

assessment more aligned with member 

activities and a data infrastructure that 

better positioned the program to 

engage in evaluative activities. 

The current evaluation focused 

specifically on student scores on the 

Devereux Student Strengths Assessment 

(DESSA), which is a CASEL-aligned social 

emotional assessment with defensible 

psychometric data (described in more 

detail within the report). The DESSA is 

composed of eight subscales and 

produces a composite score. The 

primary evaluation questions for the 

current evaluation explicitly focus on the 

composite score and the resulting 

qualitative designation of post-test 

DESSA scores. More formally, the 

evaluation was guided by two research 

questions: 

1. Relative to students of a similar 

age and baseline DESSA score, to 

what extent do end-of-year adult 

ratings of students served by 

TNAC members differ from ratings 

of students not served by TNAC 

members? 

2. To what extent does the 

probability of receiving a 

composite score in the “typical”

range differ between students 

served by a TNAC member and a 

matched comparison group? 

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Impact Assessment 

As described previously, the evaluation 

was restricted to the DESSA survey at 

TNAC partner sites. Outcomes were 

collected at two time points: fall 

(baseline) and spring for nearly all 

students at a given site. Regardless of 

assignment to support from a TNAC 

member, all participants received some 

form of adult support per the nature of 

the intervention setting (i.e., out of 

school support programs). However, 

students support by a TNAC member 

received individualized support on 

setting personal goals and improving SEL 

skills addressed by the DESSA. 

DESSA ratings were obtained by either 

(1) AmeriCorps members serving at the 

site, or (2) an adult familiar with the 

student at the site. 

Matching and Participants 

Data for the current evaluation were 

obtained from an extant data file from 

the 2021-2022 program year. That file 

included demographic and DESSA data 

for all students served by True North 

members. To be included in the 

treatment group for the evaluation, 

students must have had a fall and spring 

DESSA score and have begun support 

from a TNAC member before December 

1, 2021 and continued through April 1, 

2022. Regardless of treatment provision 

both fall and spring DESSA scores were 

required to be collected from the same 

rater (i.e., the member or a staff 

member at the partner site). 

The initial data file included 521 

students, 282 of which were students 

assigned to the caseload of a TNAC 

member. Thus, there were 239 students 

in the data file who did not receive 

support from a TNAC member. 

After applying the aforementioned 

inclusion criteria, there were 262 

“treated” students and 150 comparison 

students. To create a matched 

comparison group, we used propensity 

scores. Propensity matching is largely 

advocated as a valid and useful quasiexperimental method for evaluating 

group differences, as it is designed to 

balance groups across a number of preexisting factors that could otherwise 

account for differences in the outcome 

measures (Smith, 1997; Stuart & Rubin, 

2008). In the current evaluation we used 

the MatchIt package in R to create a 

matched sample (Ho, Imai, King, & 

Stuart, 2011). The matching process 

included two analytic steps. In the first 

step, logistic regression was used to 

calculate each students’ propensity (or

likelihood) for receiving TNAC support 

based on (1) baseline DESSA composite 

scores and (2) age. The second analytic 

step involved matching cases according 

to their propensity scores, where 

students in the treatment group were 

matched with a student who did not 

receive the treatment but had a similar 

propensity for receiving the treatment. In 

the present analysis we used nearest 

neighbor matching with replacement to 

pair cases based on their likelihood of 

participating in TNAC (Rubin, 1973). 

Comparison cases not matched to a 

treatment case were excluded from 

further analysis. The final sample 

consisted of 341 students (262 in 

treatment and 79 comparison students). 

The loss of comparison students in the 

matched file was directly related to 

differences in baseline DESSA scores 

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and/or age. Descriptive data for the 

analytic sample separated by group are 

included in Table 1. Students in the 

treatment received an average of 46 

sessions from a TNAC member focused 

on SEL skills and an additional 51 sessions 

in other areas. The large standard 

deviation for sessions indicates 

substantial variability in the number of 

sessions students received. 

All data reported on the analytic 

sample—including inferential analyses—

reflect case weighting adjustments 

produced by the matching process. A 

series of chi-square and t-tests indicated 

that there were no statistically significant 

differences between groups in regard to 

any of the demographic frequencies or 

fall group averages outlined in Table 1. 

Table 1. Fall Demographic and DESSA Data across Groups 

Variables Treatment Comparison 

Demographics 

Age 

Female 

7.77 (SD = 2.10) 

44% 

7.62 (SD = 1.77) 

51% 

White 67% 72% 

Asian 1% 3% 

Black/African American 

Native American 

10% 

4% 

5% 

3% 

Multi-Racial 16% 18% 

Service 

Avg. SEL Sessions 

Avg. “Other” Sessions

45.64 (44.14) 

50.98 (47.28) 

-

-

DESSA Fall Composite Scores 

DESSA Composite Score 

Students Scoring in 

“Typical” Range

45.43 (10.00) 

61% 

45.00 (10.10) 

60% 

Measures 

The DESSA is a standardized, normreferenced behavior rating scale that 

assesses social-emotional competencies 

in kindergarten through the eighth 

grade. The measure is organized into 

eight social-emotional competency 

scales aligned to the CASEL framework: 

self-awareness, social-awareness, selfmanagement, goal-directed behavior, 

relationship skills, personal responsibility, 

decision making, and optimistic thinking. 

The DESSA can be completed by 

parents, teachers, or staff at schools and 

child-serving agencies, including afterschool programs. For each of the 72 

items on the measure, the rater is asked 

to indicate on a five-point scale how 

often the student engaged in each 

behavior over the past four weeks. 

Upon completing the measure, the 

student receives a raw score in each of 

the eight competencies. Raw scores are 

converted to standard T-scores so that 

the separate scales of the DESSA can be 

directly compared and so an individual 

student’s behavior can be compared to 

that of the other children in the 

standardization sample. Students also 

receive a Social-Emotional Composite 

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score which is a combination of the 

eight scales. The Composite score is the 

most reliable and valid overall indicator 

of strengths within the DESSA. 

The DESSA categorizes each of the 

student’s eight scale scores and the

composite score into range descriptions. 

Students with DESSA scale T-scores 40 

and below are identified as “need for

instruction”, meaning the student was

rated as showing few behaviors 

associated with the particular socialemotional strength and are considered 

at risk for exhibiting or developing socialemotional problems. Scale scores of 41 

to 59 are described as “typical”. 

Students in this range would likely 

benefit from universal strategies 

designed to promote the social and 

emotional competence of all children. 

Finally, scores of 60 and above are 

considered “strengths” for that student 

(LeBuffe, Shapiro, & Naglieri, 2014). 

Analysis Procedures 

As outlined previously, there were two 

outcomes of interest in the current 

evaluation: differences in end-of-year 

DESSA composite scores and the 

probability of receiving a DESSA 

composite score within the “typical”

range. That is, the second outcome of 

interest represents a slightly different 

interpretation of the same score of 

interest in the first research question. The 

use and interpretation of DESSA scores in 

the “typical” range was included

because it is a substantively meaningful 

criterion for intervention. That is, it is 

meaningful and consistent with the 

program’s theory of change to estimate

whether or not a student needs 

additional intervention or perceived to 

be functioning in the typical or strong 

range of social-emotional skills. 

To assess the degree to which DESSA 

composite scores differed across groups 

at the end of the year, we fit a linear 

regression model to the data that 

included fall DESSA scores, student age, 

and a dummy-coded variable for 

treatment assignment. Likewise, to assess 

differences in rate of reaching the 

“typical” rating, we fit a logistic

regression model to the data with the 

same covariates adopted for the linear 

regression model. 

Results 

Descriptive results for DESSA composite 

scores are displayed in Table 2. In 

general, the average DESSA score for 

treated and untreated students 

increased across time, from a t-score of 

approximately 45 at baseline to a spring 

t-score of 51.52 among students 

receiving TNAC support and 49.65 

among comparison students. The slightly 

larger increase among treatment 

students was also reflected in the 

proportion of students receiving a 

composite t-score within the typical 

range when comparing treated (86%) 

and comparison (77%) students. 

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Table 2. Descriptive data for Fall and Spring DESSA Ratings 

Fall Spring 

Baseline 

Score 

Baseline 

Typical % 

End-of-Year End-of-Year 

Score Typical % 

TNAC Treatment 

Comparison 

45.43 

(10.00) 

45.00 

(10.10) 

61% 

60% 

51.52 86% (10.93) 

49.65 77% (11.53) 

To further examine the degree to which 

changes in DESSA ratings differed as a 

function of TNAC service, the end-ofyear DESSA t-scores were regressed on 

the aforementioned demographic and 

prior performance covariates (see Table 

3). There was a statistically significant 

and positive association between DESSA 

fall composite scores and end-of-year 

scores (B = 0.68) as well as age and endof-year scores (B = 0.80). There was no 

meaningful association observed 

between receiving TNAC support and 

end-of-year DESSA scores (p = 0.10). 

Results were generally similar in the 

logistic regression model with the 

exception that there was a statistically 

significant and positive increase in the 

probability of receiving a DESSA 

composite score in the “typical” rating

category among students receiving 

TNAC support. For example, among age 

seven students who did not receive a 

DESSA composite score within the 

typical range, the probability of 

receiving ratings within the typical 

category at the end of the year 

increased by 18% among students 

receiving TNAC support. 

Table 3. Linear and Logistic Regression Results 

End of Year DESSA 

Composite 

Probability of 

“Typical ” Rating 

B SE B SE 

Age 0.80*** 0.25 0.18* 0.13 

DESSA Fall Composite 

“Typical” Criterion at Fall Rating

0.68*** 

-

0.05 

-

-

1.93*** 

-

0.35 

Treatment 1.84 1.13 0.76* 0.35 

* p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p <.001 

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Conclusion and Discussion 

In the current evaluation, we sought to 

examine the degree to which students 

assigned to receive TNAC support 

demonstrated increases in socialemotional competencies as measured 

by the DESSA. Descriptive analysis 

showed treatment students – those who 

received targeted support from a TNAC 

member – increased their DESSA 

composite score by an average of 6.1 Tscore points while comparison students 

who did not receive targeted support 

increased their score by an average of 

4.7 points. Guidance from DESSA 

indicates a change of 2-4 points in one 

program year is considered a small 

change while a 5-7 point change is 

considered medium. Following this 

guidance, both students receiving 

targeted TNAC support and students 

who did not receive targeted support 

generally made medium gains, with the 

TNAC supported students making slightly 

larger gains. However, the difference in 

composite scores between the two 

groups was not statistically significant. 

The difference in the percentage of 

students scoring in the “Typical” range

showed slightly more promising results. 

The percent of treatment students in the 

“Typical” range increased by 25 

percentage points (61% to 86%) while 

the comparison students increased by 

17 percentage points (60% to 77%). This 

difference was statistically significant. 

That is, although students in the two 

groups did not differ in regard to their 

overall composite scores, students 

assigned to TNAC support had a slightly 

larger probability of receiving ratings 

within the typical range at the end of 

the year. 

Implications for Practice 

TNAC appears to support student SEL skill 

development; however, the effects 

observed in the study were relatively 

small. With the program’s goal of

continuous improvement, the current 

evaluation results offer insight on 

potential program changes. 

Student Selection 

TNAC selects students for targeted 

support based on teacher and staff 

recommendations. After selection, the 

member completes the baseline DESSA 

on these students. This process led to 

61% of students in the TNAC service 

group starting the year already in the 

“Typical” range for their socialemotional competencies. Conversely, 

40% of students who were not served 

scored in the “need for instruction”

range at baseline. Thus, a large number 

of students at a lower risk level received 

support while many higher risk students 

did not receive support. By using 

baseline DESSA scores as part of the 

selection criteria process, TNAC could 

better target their support to students 

with the highest need. In addition, the 

use of a cut score for service may 

facilitate other means for evaluation 

design (e.g., regression discontinuity). 

Session Delivery 

Participating students had substantial 

variation in the number of sessions they 

received. The average student received 

a total of 97 sessions while the range was 

0 to 382 sessions. The extensive 

distribution indicates potential 

inconsistency in delivery across members 

and sites. Since it is reasonable to 

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expect more sessions would produce 

greater improvement in student skills, 

students would likely benefit from 

increased consistency in session delivery. 

Finally, student sessions were generally 

evenly divided between SEL and “other”

skills. Encouraging members to spend a 

greater percentage of sessions on SEL 

skills may lead to more student 

improvement on the DESSA measure. 

However, if potential student 

improvements from content covered 

during sessions focused on “other” skills

are important to TNAC’s theory of

change, the program would benefit 

from collecting additional data on these 

skills. For example, if some sessions focus 

on improving student attendance, 

school or social connectedness, or selfefficacy the program could pursue the 

collection of additional data. In this 

case, data such as self-efficacy or 

perceived social connection could be 

obtained directly from students. 

Documentation 

TNAC members currently select two 

competencies per student to focus on 

during their sessions. The program year 

that was the focus of the current 

evaluation was the first year TNAC 

attempted to track the focus area for 

students, and member reported data 

was incomplete. Clearer and more 

consistent documentation on the focus 

areas, including the focus area of each 

session and the strategies used by the 

member, would help evaluate 

differences observed between 

particpaiting students and assist the 

program with more targeted continuous 

improvement efforts. 

Limitations 

The primary objective of the evaluation 

was to assess the effect of the TNAC 

program on students’ social-emotional 

skills. In order to achieve this objective, 

the evaluation was designed to measure 

program effects using a quasiexperimental design. However, 

unavoidable limitations inherent in the 

study design and in working with sites 

and students constrained some aspects 

of the evaluation’s design,

implementation, and analysis. 

The DESSA measure used in the analysis 

was completed by either the TNAC 

member or another adult at the site. 

There are limitations with any rating tool 

as raters may have different levels of 

understanding about the student or 

there could be variability in how the 

measure is completed, potentially 

impacting the reliability of the results. 

As with most programs, there are 

feasibility limits to data collection. In the 

current evaluation, TNAC was able to 

collect limited information on program 

implementation, particularly related to 

the specific interventions and content 

used by members with each student. 

Having additional information in future 

evaluations would help determine if 

some activities produce a greater 

positive impact. 

Relatedly, incomplete data on individual 

student activities limited the ability to 

use the individual competency 

captured by the DESSA in a targeted 

way. Instead, the evaluation focused on 

the DESSA composite score. Capturing 

additional details on member activities 

with each student and their related 

social-emotional competency would 

allow evaluators to analyze program 

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impact using a sub-measure that is more 

closely aligned with the member 

activities with each student. 

Conclusion 

During the previous grant cycle, TNAC 

has shown a strong commitment to 

program improvement initiatives. Since 

the 2019-2020 evaluation, the program 

has refined its program model, changed 

its primary outcome measure, and 

updated its data collection system. The 

results in the current evaluation 

demonstrate the impact of these 

changes. Rather than finding null and 

negative effects, the current evaluation 

observed patterns of growth in the 

desired direction and statistically 

significant effects on the rate at which 

students scored in the “Typical” range

on the DESSA. Additionally, descriptive 

analysis, though not statistically 

significant, showed TNAC supported 

students increased their DESSA 

composite score by an average of 6.1 

points, while comparison students 

increased their score by an average of 

4.7 points. In both cases, the rate of 

improvement from baseline to post-test 

was at or above national norms on the 

DESSA. 

By continuing its focus on program 

improvement, TNAC can build on these 

results and position itself for greater 

impact going forward. 

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References 

Ho, D. E., Imai, K., King, G., & Stuart, E. A. (2011). MatchIt: nonparametric preprocessing 

for parametric causal inference. Journal of Statistical Software, http://gking. harvard. 

edu/matchit. 

LeBuffe, P. A., Shapiro, V. B., & Naglieri, J. A. (2014). Devereux Student Strengths 

Assessment: A measure of Social-Emotional Competencies of Children in Kindergarten 

Through Eighth Grade. Aperture Education, 100 Main Street, Suite 201, Fort Mill, SC 29715. 

Reschly, A. L., & Christenson, S. L. (2006). Prediction of dropout among students with mild 

disabilities: A case for the inclusion of student engagement variables. Remedial and 

Special Education, 27(5), 276-292. 

Rubin, D. B. (1973). The use of matched sampling and regression adjustment to remove 

bias in observational studies. Biometrics, 185-203. 

Smith, H. L. (1997). 6. Matching with Multiple Controls to Estimate Treatment Effects in 

Observational Studies. Sociological methodology, 27(1), 325-353. 

Stuart, E. A., & Rubin, D. B. (2008). Best practices in quasi-experimental designs. Best 

practices in quantitative methods, 155-176. 

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About the Authors 

Peter Nelson, Ph.D. 

Director of Research and Innovation, ServeMinnesota 

Peter engages with ServeMinnesota pilot programs and existing programs to ensure key 

principles of effective implementation and evidence-building occur. Before joining 

ServeMinnesota, Peter was an Assistant Professor of School Psychology at Penn State 

University. Formerly a high school teacher, he regularly publishes and presents research 

related to data-based decision making and academic intervention in the school setting. 

Peter serves on the editorial board for School Psychology Review, School Psychology 

Forum, and Assessment for Effective Intervention. 

Patrick Kaiser, M.Ed. 

Director of Education Evaluation, ServeMinnesota 

Patrick manages evaluation and reporting for ServeMinnesota’s programs with a focus

on educational programming. He also supports the evaluation needs of partner 

organizations replicating Minnesota programs across the country. Patrick previously 

taught fifth grade in Savannah, GA as an AmeriCorps member and worked in education 

policy advocacy in Atlanta, GA. Patrick attended the University of Notre Dame where 

he received a B.A. in Political Science and Economics and a M.Ed. in Elementary 

Education. 

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