# Presentation: 076846

## Is the SDFSCA State Grants Program effectively promoting safe and drug-free schools?

**Chris Ringwalt, DrPH****Senior Research Scientist**
**Phone: (919) 265-2613**
**E-mail: ringwalt@pire.org**

## Key Principle of Effectiveness

-    Programs and activities “shall be based on scientifically based research that provides evidence that the program to be used will reduce violence and illegal drug use.”
-    Title IV – 21st Century Schools
-    Section 4115(a)(1)(C)

## The prevalence of effective universal substance use prevention curricula

-    Preliminary evidence from the second
-    School-Based Substance Use Prevention Programs Study (SSUPPS)
-    Sponsored by NIDA (R01 DA016669)

## Study methodology

- Representative sample of all public schools that include middle school grades
- Sample stratified by population density, school size, and poverty
- 2204 schools sampled
- Respondents were school staff person identified as *lead* substance use prevention teacher
- Survey data collected in spring 2005 via Web, then mail, then phone
- Response rate = 78.1%

## Prevalence of NREPP-recognized universal prevention curriculum

-      During the current school year, which of the following substance use prevention curricula are you:
*using*
*using the most*
-      with students in middle or junior high grades in your school?
-      [Extensive list follows of school-based prevention curricula]

## Prevalence of NREPP-recognized universal prevention curriculum, by population density

## How long?

-      When did your school first start using the substance use prevention curriculum you are using the most with students in middle or junior high grades?
- Less than 1 year
- At least 1 year, but less than 3 years
- At least 3 years, but less than 5 years
- At least 5 years

## How long effective prevention curriculum used the most has been in place

## How likely to continue?

-      How likely is it that the substance use prevention curriculum you are using the most with students in middle or junior high grades will continue to be used:
- Next school year
- In 3 years
- In 5 years

## Likelihood of continuation of effective prevention curriculum

## How many students reached?

-       About what proportion of students in middle or junior high grades in your school will have received the curriculum you are using the most before starting high school grades?
- 0%
- 1-20%
- 21-40%
- 41-60%
- 61-80%
- 81-100%

## 0% category on next slide refers to schools with students who:

- Receive *no substance use prevention curricula whatsoever*
- Receive a substance use prevention curriculum *not shown to be effective*

## Middle schools’ reports of the proportion of their students who receive an evidence-based curriculum

## Summary

- Almost half the nation’s middle schools report having at least one effective (i.e., evidence-based) substance use prevention curriculum in place
- However, only a quarter are using one *the most*
- Differences in use by population density of community served are modest
- Two-thirds of schools using effective curricula *the most* have had them in place for at least 3 years
- The likelihood that schools will continue using these curricula in the future is very high
- However, 80% of the nation’s middle schools report that *none *of their students is exposed to an effective substance use prevention curriculum

## Difficulties in determining the effectiveness of the SDFSCA Program

- Control schools with no prevention programming now impossible to find; program effects cannot be isolated from potential competing attributions
- There is increasing school resistance to non-mandated drug use surveys; evaluations harder and more expensive to conduct
- There are other challenges to collecting survey data, especially given ED’s mandate for active parental consent and new concerns that drug use surveys may be iatrogenic
- School-based archival data concerning reports of substance use activity are unreliable
- Teacher fidelity to curriculum *very* hard to assess

## Proposed mechanisms to determine effectiveness of SDFSCA Programs

- Support periodic surveys of nationally
- representative sample of schools to determine:
- Proportion and distribution of schools using effective (i.e., evidence-based) curricula
- Reach (exposure) of effective curricula to all students
- Extent to which *content* thought to be effective is taught
- Extent to which *teaching strategies* thought to be effective are used
- Extent to which teachers are administering evidence-based curricula with fidelity
- Progress over time both relative to earlier surveys and to established goals