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| USDE Safe & Drug Free Principles of Effectiveness |
The United
States Department of Education, SDFSC office
recommends the implementation of
research-based drug and violence prevention
programs and strategies. These would be
consistent with what are known as the
Principles of Effectiveness, they are:
- Base
programming on a thorough assessment of
objective data about the drug and
violence problems in the schools and
communities served. Each grant recipient
shall conduct a thorough needs
assessment of the nature and extent of
youth drug use and violence problems.
Schools are encouraged to build upon
existing data collection efforts and
examine available objective data from a
variety of sources, including law
enforcement and public health officials.
While information regarding adult drug
use and violence problems are considered
to be important, school districts at a
minimum should include in the needs
assessment data on youth drug use and
violence.
- Design
activities to meet measurable goals and
objectives for drug and violence
prevention. School districts shall
develop goals and objectives that focus
on program outcomes, as well as program
implementation. While measures of
implementation are important they are
not sufficient to measure program
outcomes. Grantees shall develop goals
and objectives that will permit them to
determine the extent to which program
activities are effective in reducing or
preventing drug use, violence, or
disruptive behavior among youth.
- Design
and implement their activities based on
research or evaluation that provides
evidence that the strategies used
prevent or reduce drug use, violence or
disruptive behavior among youth. In
designing and improving their programs,
schools taking into consideration their
needs assessment and measurable goals
and objectives, select and implement
programs that have demonstrated that
they can be effective in preventing or
reducing drug use, violence or
disruptive behavior. While the U.S.
Department of Education recognizes the
importance of flexibility in addressing
local needs, the Department believes
that the implementation of
research-based approaches will
significantly enhance the effectiveness
of programs supported with SDFSC funds.
Grant recipients are encouraged to
review the breadth of available research
and evaluation literature in selecting
effective strategies most responsive to
their needs, and to replicate these
strategies in a manner consistent with
their original design.
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Evaluate programs periodically to assess
the progress toward achieving set forth
goals and objectives, and use the
evaluation results to refine, improve,
and strengthen the program, and to
refine the goals and objectives as
appropriate. Grant recipients are to
assess their programs and use the
information about program outcomes to
re-evaluate existing program efforts.
While it is understood that prevention
programs may have a long implementation
phase, may have long-term goals, and may
include some objectives that are broadly
focused, grantees shall not continue to
implement strategies or programs that
cannot demonstrate positive outcomes in
terms of reducing or preventing drug
use, violence, or disruptive behavior
among youth. Grantees shall use their
assessment results to determine whether
programs need to be strengthened or
improved, and whether program goals and
objectives are reasonable or have
already been met and should be revised.
Consistent with other sections of the
existing law grantees shall report to
the public on progress toward attaining
measurable goals and objectives for drug
and violence prevention.
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