Citation

Gorman DM. Eval. Program Plann. 2002; 25(3): 295-302.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0149-7189(02)00023-X

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

'Science-based' and 'research-based' are terms that have increasingly been applied to school drug and violence prevention programs over the past 5 years. The US Department of Education recently produced a list of research-based drug and violence prevention programs, which conferred `Exemplary' status on nine programs. According to the criteria used to define Exemplary, there must be at least one evaluation that has demonstrated an effect on a behavioral outcome, and this evidence must come from a methodologically sound evaluation. This paper discusses these criteria through an examination of two evaluations of school-based programs that were conferred Exemplary status--the Second Step curriculum and the Adolescent Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids (ATLAS) program. The preponderance of evidence reported in each evaluation shows that the programs had little or no effect on behavioral outcomes. Also, both evaluations have methodological flaws, especially with regard to recruitment and retention of participants. These findings suggest that the Exemplary criteria were either poorly defined or not well operationalized in the process of program selection.