Impact of a Computer-Based, Social-Emotional Intervention on Outcomes Among Latino Students When Adult Monitors of the Student Training Are Non-professionals: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Many schools rely on non-professionals for instructional services in non-academic areas. This may put some students at a disadvantage. This study examined the impact of a computerized, social-emotional intervention, implemented by non-professionals, with 120 low-income, gender-segregated, predominantly Latino sixth graders, in an urban public charter school. School staff randomly assigned students to treatment or control conditions. Treatment group (TG) students were assigned self-regulated completion of 42 multimedia tutorials, four times a week for seven weeks, monitored by non-professionals. Control group students had live instruction from teacher-advisors. Eighty percent of the TG complied with the intervention. T-tests indicated significantly higher grade point average (GPA) for personal and social responsibility for TG, and meaningfully higher scores for academic GPA, absenteeism, and discipline referrals, which were not significant. There was no significant impact on attitudes about marijuana or alcohol, or locus of control. The study confirmed that non-professionals could be effective implementers. In the absence of baseline data indicating otherwise, it is possible that the differences in outcomes can be attributable to starting differences between groups.