Conference Program

This paper presents the counterfactual evaluation of the educational project R.E.A.C.T. (Reti per Educare gli Adolescenti Attraverso la Comunità e il Territorio/Networks for Educating Adolescents through Community and Local Context), aimed at tackling educational poverty (Save the Children, 2014; Lohmann & Ferger, 2014), a widespread phenomenon in Italy both in terms of skills attainment (European Commission, 2025) and from a multidimensional perspective (ISTAT, 2024). The intervention, implemented during the 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 school years, involved 10 lower secondary schools located in highly deprived areas across Italy. Training and cultural activities were delivered to the local communities and to all students in the participating schools, with the objective of activating and strengthening the local “comunità educanti” (Zamengo & Valenzano, 2018; Tomei & Galligani, 2020). In addition, 226 particularly vulnerable students were provided with individualized educational plans developed through the Family Group Conference (FGC) model (Frost et al., 2014). This approach was adopted to better identify students’ needs, mobilize family networks, and engage both formal and informal educational agencies within the local context. R.E.A.C.T. represents an interesting application of FGCs for explicitly educational purposes, within an international context where this tool is primarily used in child protection and welfare services (Hohashi & Yi, 2025; Edwards & Parkinson, 2018), and where evidence regarding its effectiveness remains mixed (Dijkstra et al., 2016; Mitchell, 2020; Nurmatov, 2020; Hohashi & Yi, 2025).

The impact evaluation focuses on the vulnerable students who participated in the individualized educational plans. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) design was adopted: teachers identified 431 students experiencing significant academic and relational difficulties, and through random assignment, 226 were allocated to the treatment group and 205 to the control group. For this population, both short- and long-term outcomes were assessed.

Short-term outcomes concerned students’ perceived well-being (measured through dimensions of school well-being, relationships with teachers, relationships with parents, and expectations about their future). A questionnaire administered before and after the intervention allowed these dimensions to be measured and changes over time to be recorded.

Long-term outcomes referred to students’ educational trajectories in the years following the intervention (promotion to the next grade and school dropout) as well as academic performance (grades obtained and scores in the national INVALSI standardized tests). These outcomes were recorded using data from the Anagrafe Nazionale degli Studenti (National Student Registry), covering four school years from 2018/2019 to 2021/2022, and from INVALSI.

The analyses show a positive impact of the project on perceived school well-being (but no significant effects on relationships with teachers and parents or on future expectations). In the long term, the intervention is associated with a reduction in the risk of grade retention and school dropout among participating students.