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Tag Archives: Research

Guest blog: Four tips to improve your WhyTry research

"Students would come in...with frowns on their faces and leave with smiles."

This year, I conducted research about the impact that the WhyTry Program had on two 4th grade classes in the Southeastern region of the United States. I would like to share my experience with you, along with some information that I hope will be helpful if you are also conducting research on WhyTry. This turned out to be a very interesting, educational, as well as a frustrating process!

In my research project, I utilized pretest and posttest information from one class. Furthermore, I collected data regarding the students’ English, Math, and attendance in two classes. I conducted an analysis in which I compared the students’ data while they were in WhyTry to the grading quarter after they finished WhyTry. In the end, the results of my study were not significant, however this could be due to a multitude of reasons- the data was collected over a very short period of time, data was only collected from two classes in one school, the pretest/posttest was not validated, etc.

As a result of my experience with this research project, I have a few recommendations for those of you that plan on conducting Why Try research:

  1. When using secondary data, ensure that you have access to all data in your research design. While I thought I had this access, it was not until I began collecting my data that I realized this was not the case. This resulted in having to make tremendous changes to my research design.
  2.  Ensure a large data set, especially when working with students, as parental consent greatly limits the final sample size of your study.
  3. Research on the WhyTry Program should be mixed method. My study only utilized quantitative data and would have been much more valuable with a qualitative aspect.
  4. Ensure that your assessments are validated materials, as it strengthens the significance of the results. It was not until after the pretest was distributed that I found out it was not the validated assessment offered by the WhyTry Program.

Although the results of my research were not significant, I see such significance in this program. In one of the schools where WhyTry was implemented, we did not see the same class for six consecutive weeks. Instead, sometimes weeks passed between the time we were able to see them. However, at the beginning of each class when we conducted a recap, we were always shocked to hear how much information these students retained! Furthermore, there were many times when students would come into the classroom with a frown on their faces and leave with smiles. Other students would come in with smiles because they were so happy to see us. Finally, there were times when we saw the students implementing the goals of WhyTry right there in our classroom. All of this evidence is proof of the impact this program has on the students we taught this year.

Thank you for reading this post- hope this information was beneficial! Good luck to any of you who are also conducting research on Why Try!

 

Marissa Emrich is a senior social work student, aspiring school counselor, fiancee, sister, friend, and daughter.   To read more about research surrounding WhyTry, visit our website.

Guest blog: How an intern fell in love with WhyTry

Why Try? To gain freedom, opportunity, and self-respect! This has been one of the most beneficial, positive, preventative programs I have been a part of. If you are involved in the school system or in working with students, I would encourage you to take a look into it!

This semester, I have been involved in a program called WhyTry where I, along with three other school social workers, have worked with 4th grade students in this social skills based class. These three social workers wrote a grant to have this program implemented in Hamilton County, Tennessee for the first time. They were given this grant and began working in two at-risk elementary schools during this school year.  There are a total of ten lessons in WhyTry that include lessons like “Tearing off Labels,” where the instructors teach about replacing our negative labels with positive ones; and a lesson on “Jumping Hurdles” where life’s challenges are discussed along with solutions to those problems.

Since this program has been such an integral part of my internship, I decided to conduct my senior research project on the impact this program has on three different fourth grade classes. This semester, I collected background research on this and other similar programs and discovered what an incredible impact this program has already had on a very large number of students. Next semester, I will conduct the study by utilizing pre- and post- tests along with information from the school database.

WhyTry was started by Christian Moore, who recognized that traditional learning did not cover the social emotional aspects of learning. Already, this program is in over 16,000 schools both in the United States, Canada, and Australia. This program can be implemented in kindergarten all the way through 12th grade and has shown to be effective in a variety of settings including school, foster care, and alternative campuses. Results from this program have shown increases in attendance, behavior, and grades. One study saw a .62 increase in the students’ GPAs while another study saw a 33% increase in their students’ GPAs. Results from another study showed that students’ self-perception increased after this program and another saw a decrease in the students’ aggressive tendencies. Finally, one study saw an increase in the students’ attendance that attended WhyTry.

More than just these statistical results, I have seen students come in with frowns on their faces and leave with smiles. I have heard them remember valuable information that we taught them weeks before and already noticed improvements in students’ behavior. This program has already proven to be beneficial and I hope that the research I conduct next semester will educate the grant funders on the reasons why this program should be expanded.


Marissa Emrich is a senior social work student, aspiring school counselor, fiancee, sister, friend, and daughter.  For more information on her research, leave a comment on her blog.  To read more about research surrounding WhyTry, visit our website.