D Sivewright | PubMed Health

PubMed1997

The impact of drug education and prevention programs. Disparity between impressionistic and empirical assessments.

In the course of evaluating drug prevention programs for youth, we observed that although staff perceived the programs had quite favorably affected youths' attitudes and behavior, responses from these youths showed little significant impact on their use or attitudes related to drugs. This article explores several explanations for the disparity between staff impressions of the impact of these programs and results from attempts to measure impact objectivity. The analysis considers (a) clients' risk-level for drug use, (b) expectations as to how programs affect client behavior and attitudes, and (c) the sensitivity of empirical measures to ascertain changes reflecting impact of the program.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1993

An ecological approach to evaluating a special education program.

This study provides further evidence of the value of ecobehavioral measurements in program evaluations, especially since past evaluations have focused on individual-level factors rather than ecological factors. Static (e.g., classroom materials) and dynamic (e.g., group interactions) features of the classroom environment were used to describe the impact of a special education program on 84 behaviorally disturbed adolescent males. The program outcomes assessed included increases in appropriate and decreases in inappropriate behaviors. The findings reveal that the program apparently accomplished its objectives. However, the ecobehavioral data also suggest that these students were mostly involved in busywork; that is, they were working by themselves with instructional materials rather than participating in interactive activities with the teacher or peers. Ecological issues related to increasing student motivation are addressed.

Achievement↗