@ the Center for Health Innovation, Research, and Policy (CHIRP)

The design and implementation of school-based evaluations can typically be challenging as it often is not feasible to randomize individual students to differing exposures as they share the same school environment. Additionally, policies that impact schools are often implemented at the local, state, and national level, which create further challenges when designing evaluations because randomization at the school-level is not possible. Therefore, assessing the quality of school-based evaluations is particularly important when interpreting the results of these studies.

 

The goal of the School-based Measurement & Assessment of Results Tool (SMART) is to provide a simple tool for quality assessments of cross-sectional, cohort, and quasi-experimental studies conducted in schools to be used in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. This project is a collaboration across a nationally recognized team of school-based researchers. The scale was adapted from the validated Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for assessing the quality of nonrandomized studies in meta-analyses, and uses a point system (+) to judge studies based on three primary domains:  (1) selection of study groups; (2) comparability of the study groups; and (3) evaluation of the outcomes. The face/content validity of SMART was established and refined by leading experts in the field based on the comprehensiveness, clarity, and appropriateness of the tool for research in school setting. SMART as also been successfully applied to multiple systematic reviews examining school-based evaluations in both the United States and internationally. 

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​​​​References:

1.  University of Ottawa https://www.ohri.ca/programs/clinical_epidemiology/oxford.asp

2.  Cohen JF, Hecht AA, McLoughlin GM, Turner L, Schwartz MB. Universal school meals and associations with student participation, attendance, academic performance, diet quality, food security, and body mass index: A systematic review. Nutrients. 2021;13(3):911.

3.  Cohen JF, Hecht AA, Hager ER, Turner L, Burkholder K, Schwartz MB. Strategies to improve school meal consumption: a systematic review. Nutrients. 2021;13(10):3520.

4.  Hecht AA, Olarte DA, McLoughlin GM, Cohen JF. Strategies to Increase Student Participation in School Meals in the United States: A Systematic Review. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 2023;