Efforts to support children in schools require addressing not only academic issues, but also out-of-school factors that can affect students’ ability to succeed. This study examined academic achievement of students participating in City Connects, a student support intervention operating in high-poverty elementary schools. The sample included 7,948 kindergarten to fifth-grade students in a large urban district during 1999–2009. School- and student-level treatment effects on report card grades and standardized test scores in elementary through middle school were estimated. Propensity score methods accounted for pre-intervention group differences. City Connects students demonstrated higher report card scores than comparisons and scored higher on middle school English language arts and mathematics tests. This study provides evidence for the value of addressing out-of-school factors that impact student learning.

We have studied the dynamics and transfer of the entanglement of the two identical atoms simultaneously interacting with vacuum field by employing the dressed-state representation. The two atoms are driven by classical fields. The influence of the initial entanglement degree of two atoms, the coupling strength between the atom and the classical field and the detuning between the atomic transition frequency and the frequency of classical field on the entanglement and atomic linear entropy is discussed. The initial entanglement of the two atoms can be transferred into the entanglement between the atom and cavity field when the dissipation is neglected. The maximally entangled state between the atoms and cavity field can be obtained under some certain conditions. The time of disentanglement of two atoms can be controlled and manipulated by adjusting the detuning and classical driving fields. Moreover, the larger the cavity decay rate is, the more quickly the entanglement of the two atoms decays.

Making causal inferences from a quasi‐experiment is difficult. Sensitivity analysis approaches to address hidden selection bias thus have gained popularity. This study serves as an introduction to a simple but practical form of sensitivity analysis using Monte Carlo simulation procedures. We examine estimated treatment effects for a school‐based support intervention designed to address student strengths and needs in academic and nonacademic areas by leveraging partnerships with community agencies. Middle school (Grades 6–8) statewide standardized test scores in mathematics and English language arts (ELA) were examined for students in a large urban district who participated in City Connects during elementary school. Results showed that the estimated treatment effects in both subjects were reduced slightly with the inclusion of U, a hypothesized unobserved binary variable. However, simulated effects fell within one‐sided 90% confidence intervals for original treatment effects, suggesting only a mild sensitivity to hidden bias. Moreover, almost identical estimated treatment effects were observed when the magnitude of the mathematical difference between each pair of the conditional probabilities of U given the treatment indicator Z was the same.

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