Although workplace requirements are mandating that employees possess higher-order skills, an alarming proportion of young Canadians are dropping out of secondary school before acquiring the skills they need to survive in a super-symbolic economy. Dropout prevention programs can curtail these trends and the effectiveness of one such program, the…

In 1997, the National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy convened nine focus groups of parents of teens and other adults who work with teens such as teachers, clergy, coaches, youth recreation specialists, youth-serving organization staff, and community outreach workers. This report publishes the results of these focus groups, which involved 57…

As part of the evaluation of the Ninth Grade Restructuring Program of the Detroit Public Schools, Ninth Grade Administrators were asked to select an academic or support program that they found to be successful in their schools. The overall purpose of the restructuring project is to enable the provision of programs, resources, and services that…

Establishing school-based drug prevention programs was the aim of the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1986 (DFSCA). A summary of the findings of a longitudinal study of DFSCA is presented in this report. Revitalized in 1995 as the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (SDFSCA), the Act's scope was extended to include prevention…

This report on drug abuse in schools is based on 6 years of analysis, focus groups, and field investigations. Prior research has determined that if young people do not engage in smoking or substance abuse by age 21, their chances of engaging later are next to nothing. It has also been determined that next to parents, schools have the greatest…

Eight separate brochures, presented here in English versions, but also available in six additional languages (Cambodian, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese), are designed to provide parents, adolescents, and children with information about sexual assault, self-protection, and healthy interpersonal relationships. Each brochure…

"Second Step" is a series of curricula for preschool through junior high/middle school students that addresses the issue of interpersonal violence among adolescents. It is designed to reduce their impulsive and aggressive behavior while increasing their levels of social competence through empathy training, interpersonal problem solving,…

This study assessed the effect of the Success for All school reform model on the standardized reading scores, attendance, and disciplinary needs of 217 students in three elementary schools using the program and 132 similar students in three other urban schools. The schools were also compared using teacher, student, and parent perception data on…

This paper describes the Starting Early Starting Smart (SESS) project, an early intervention program that has been developed in the context of the national, multi-site program and evaluation. The emphasis in SESS is on the integration of behavioral health services into easily accessible, non-threatening settings where caregivers naturally and…

An outcome evaluation was conducted for seven Project SHIELD (Supporting Healthy Individuals and Environments for Life Development) research-based and best practices interventions using secondary data from the 26th largest school district in the nation. The SHIELD program is designed to provide students and schools with enhanced infrastructure and…

This report provides an external evaluation of the fourth year (March 1, 1999-February 28, 2000) of the Native Hawaiian Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Program (NHSDFSCP). Previous evaluations recommended emphasis of three program components: (1) information development and dissemination; (2) education; and (3) school and…

This study examined the persistence of and financial aid to needy students, underrepresented minority students, and women students, especially those majoring in science, engineering, and mathematics at a large public research university. An institutional student tracking and student financial aid database was used to follow four freshmen cohorts…

Noting that early childhood education is one tool for violence prevention, this study examined the effectiveness of a preschool violence prevention program in influencing the knowledge and attitudes of Head Start teachers in a rural, heavily Hispanic, southern Texas community. Head Start teachers were nonrandomly assigned to a control group, a…

This audit report addresses whether New York school districts have established comprehensive school safety plans and completed necessary violence-prevention and response steps, and whether the New York State of Board of Education and State Education Department provided sufficient monitoring over school districts' efforts to keep schools safe from…

Starting Early Starting Smart (SESS) is an early childhood public/private initiative designed to identify new, empirical knowledge about the effectiveness of integrating substance abuse prevention, addictions treatment, and mental health services with primary health care and childcare service settings (e.g., Head Start, day care, preschool) to…