Good Practices
Implementing research-based programmes faithfully (I)
Recent information from the U.S. Department of Education emphasizes not only the importance of research-based programmes but also the need to implement the programmes faithfully.
In August, the U.S. Department of Education convened a technical assistance conference for middle school coordinators of drug and violence prevention programmes funded under the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act. Featured at the conference were descriptions of nine research-based prevention programmes identified as "exemplary" by the Education Department and 33 programmes that the department currently considers "promising".
A major presentation at the conference by Denise and Gary Gottfredson of the University of Maryland's Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, however, indicated that while certain programmes have been shown to be effective in theory, the effectiveness of a programme is related more closely to "implementation quality". In many schools, they said, programmes and practices to reduce problem behaviour are poorly implemented when measured by the level of participation by school personnel, the frequency of staff participation and the extensiveness of student exposure.
As examples of low- and high-quality interventions, they cited programme durations ranging from one week to a school year; just one person on the staff participating, compared with "a broad range of school staff, police and community members"; whether the programme is voluntary for students or required; and whether staff receives only a short demonstration of a programme or two to three days of training in its implementation. When counselling is involved, they stress the importance of follow-up. And they point out that it does no good to have an excellent programme design if the implementers do not follow the manual.
Here are some of the school-based drug and violence prevention programmes identified as exemplary by the U.S. Department of Education:
ATLAS -- Athletes Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids
www.ohsu.edu/som-hpsm/info.htm.
CASASTART -- programme to build resiliency in students age 8-13
www.casacolumbia.org.
Life Skills Training -- tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse prevention in middle and junior high schools
www.lifeskillstraining.com.
Project ALERT -- drug prevention for middle school students and ALERT Plus for high schoolers
www.rand.org.
Project TNT -- Toward No Tobacco Use, comprehensive 10-day curriculum for middle schools
www.etr.org.
Second Step: A Violence Prevention Programme -- developmentally appropriate age-based curriculum to develop social skills www.cfchildren.org.
Information about all of the exemplary and promising drug and violence prevention programmes is currently being prepared in booklet form by the U.S. Department of Education. Announcement of the availability of this material will appear on the Safe and Drug-Free Schools web site:
www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SDFS/
Source:
Health and Health Care in Schools, Volume 2, #7, Sept 2001
http://www.healthinschools.org/ejournal/sep01_4.htm
Thanks to Doug McCall, Canadian Association for School Health
http://www.schoolfile.com/CASH.htm