Citation

Birkeland S, Murphy-Graham E, Weiss C. Eval. Program Plann. 2005; 28(3): 247-256.

Affiliation

Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. (carol_weiss@gse.harvard.edu)

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2005.04.001

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

D.A.R.E. is the most popular school-based drug abuse prevention program in the U.S., but evaluations have found that positive effects on students' knowledge, attitudes, and behavior (often observed right after the program) fade away over time. By late adolescence students exposed and not exposed to the program are indistinguishable.

Some school districts ignore the evidence and continue to offer D.A.R.E. In our study of 16 school districts, we found two persuasive reasons: (1) Evaluations generally measure drug use as the main outcome, but school officials are skeptical that any low-input short-term program like D.A.R.E. can change adolescents' drug-taking behavior. (2) Evaluations often do not often report relationships between cops and kids. Improvement in these relationships is a main reason for many districts' continued implementation of D.A.R.E. Districts also mention other understandable although more problematic rationales for keeping D.A.R.E.