This randomized trial included 186 high school students in Grades 9 to 11 from ten public high schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania, all with ADHD. Students were placed by chance in the Challenging Horizons Program (CHP) or in community care, where families got a list of local resources. Over one school year, CHP offered short coaching sessions at school twice a week, plus evening groups for parents and teens. Students attended about half of the planned coaching sessions (about 50%).
Parents of CHP students reported better organization skills, better homework performance and fewer academic problems. These gains held six months later. The effects were small to moderate in size.
Report card grades fell less steeply for CHP students than for the community care group. But this edge did not last into the following school year, when the two groups ended with about the same grades.
Ratings from teachers and from the teens themselves showed no significant differences. Test scores were mixed. CHP students scored higher in reading, community care students scored higher in math, and writing showed no difference.
Parents knew which group their teen was in, so their ratings could be biased. There were too few girls and non-White students to test whether results differed by gender, race or ethnicity.
The authors suggest the gains may need continued or booster sessions in later school years, plus extra academic support for students who keep underachieving.
The numbers Stats and what the terms mean
The statistics behind the plain-language claims above.
- DuPaul, 2021: parent-rated gains in organization, homework and academic problems, effect sizes d = 0.32 to 0.58.
- DuPaul, 2021: difference in report card grades the following school year, d = 0.06.
What the terms mean:
- d is an effect size. Roughly, 0.2 is small, 0.5 is moderate and 0.8 is large. A minus sign shows the direction of the change, not its size.
Source: DuPaul G, Evans S, Owens J, et al.. School-based intervention for adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Effects on academic functioning. Journal of School Psychology (2021). doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2021.07.001