Barbara Gunn

Early Elementary School Intervention to Reduce Conduct Problems: A Randomized Trial With Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Children

Childrens aggressive behavior and reading difficulties during early elementary school years are risk factors for adolescent problem behaviors such as delinquency, academic failure, and substance use. This study determined if a comprehensive intervention that was designed to address both of these risk factors could affect teacher, parent, and observer measures of internalizing and externalizing problems. European American (n = 116) and Hispanic (n = 168) children from 3 communities who were selected for aggressiveness or reading difficulties were randomly assigned to an intervention or no-intervention control condition. Intervention families received parent training, and their children received social behavior interventions and supplementary reading instruction over a 2-year period. At the end of intervention, playground observations showed that treated children displayed less negative social behavior than controls. At the end of a 1-year follow-up, treated children showed less teacher-rated internalizing and less parent-rated coercive and antisocial behavior than controls. The studys limitations and implications for prevention are discussed.

Supplemental Instruction in Decoding Skills for Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Students in Early Elementary School A Follow-Up

This article describes a follow-up study that experimentally evaluated the effects of supplemental reading instruction for children in kindergarten through Grade 3. Students from 10 elementary schools in three school districts were screened using the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. Two hundred fifty-six K—2 students were identified for participation, then randomly assigned to receive or not receive 2 years of supplemental reading instruction that taught basic decoding and comprehension skills. Reading ability was measured in the fall prior to the first year of the intervention and again in the spring of Years 1, 2, and 3. At the end of the 2-year intervention, children who received the supplemental instruction performed better on measures of word attack, word identification, oral reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. One year after the intervention, children in the supplemental instruction group still showed greater improvement in word attack and oral reading fluency than the comparison students.

Short-Term Efficacy of Click City®: Tobacco: Changing Etiological Mechanisms Related to the Onset of Tobacco Use

This paper described the short-term results from an ongoing randomized controlled efficacy study of Click City®: Tobacco, a tobacco prevention program designed for 5th graders, with a booster in sixth grade. Click City®: Tobacco is an innovative school-based prevention program delivered via an intranet, a series of linked computers with a single server. The components of the program target theoretically based and empirically supported etiological mechanisms predictive of future willingness and intentions to use tobacco and initiation of tobacco use. Each component was designed to change one or more etiological mechanisms and was empirically evaluated in the laboratory prior to inclusion in the program. Short-term results from 47 elementary schools (24 schools who used Click City®: Tobacco, and 23 who continued with their usual curriculum) showed change in intentions and willingness to use tobacco from baseline to 1-week following the completion of the 5th grade sessions. The results demonstrate the short-term efficacy of this program and suggest that experimentally evaluating components prior to including them in the program contributed to the efficacy of the program. The program was most efficacious for students who were most at risk.

Long-term efficacy of click city ® : Tobacco: A school-based tobacco prevention program

INTRODUCTION Click City (®) : Tobacco is an innovative, computer-based tobacco prevention program designed to be implemented in 5th-grade classrooms with a booster in 6th grade. The program targets etiological mechanisms predictive of future willingness and intentions to use tobacco and initiation of tobacco use. Each component was empirically evaluated to assure that it changed its targeted mechanism. This paper describes long-term outcomes for students who participated in a randomized controlled efficacy trial of the program. METHODS A total of 26 middle schools were stratified and randomly assigned to the Click City (®) : Tobacco program or Usual Curriculum. The 47 elementary schools that fed into each middle school were assigned to the same condition as their respective middle school. In Click City (®) : Tobacco schools, 1,168 students from 24 elementary schools and 13 middle schools participated. In Usual Curriculum schools, 1,154 students from 23 elementary schools and 13 middle schools participated. All participating students completed baseline, post-6th grade program, and 7th grade assessments. RESULTS As compared to students in schools that continued with their usual curriculum, intentions and willingness to smoke increased less from baseline to 6th grade and from baseline to 7th grade, among students in schools that used the Click City (®) : Tobacco curriculum. Changes in mechanisms were also in the expected direction. The program was particularly efficacious for at-risk students. CONCLUSIONS Results provide evidence to support the long-term efficacy of Click City (®) : Tobacco. Program development, based on an empirical evaluation of each component, most likely played a role in the success of the program.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of "Read Well Kindergarten".

Abstract This article reports the outcomes of an experimental evaluation of Read Well Kindergarten (RWK), a program that focuses on the development of vocabulary, phonological awareness, alphabetic understanding, and decoding. Kindergarten teachers in 24 elementary schools in New Mexico and Oregon were randomly assigned, by school, to teach RWK or their own program. Treatment teachers received 2 days of training and taught daily lessons. Project staff assessed 1,520 students at pretest and 1,428 at posttest with measures of vocabulary, phonological awareness, alphabetic understanding, and decoding. Follow-up testing was conducted in fall and spring of first grade. Analyses of final outcomes revealed a statistically significant difference favoring intervention students on curriculum-based measures of sight words and decodable words. Although these results did not generalize to standardized measures, follow-up analyses indicated that the impact of RWK rested on the rate of opportunities for independent student practice for letter names, letter sounds, sight words, and oral reading fluency, collected at the end of kindergarten. The findings suggest the potential efficacy of RWK in conjunction with frequent opportunities for independent practice for developing beginning reading skills.

Instruction to Help Young Children Develop Language and Literacy Skills: The Roles of Program Design and Instructional Guidance

This article discusses the kinds of instructional activities that young children need to develop basic language and literacy skills based on recent research and program evaluations. This includes approaches to develop alphabetic understanding, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and oral language. Activities and materials from the Pre-kindergarten Literacy program are provided as examples of methods preschool teachers can use to help young children develop skills in these domains. Activities have a basic structure to provide teachers with a clear understanding of what to do, including research support for learning objectives and instructional practices.

Postintervention Effects of Click City®: Alcohol on Changing Etiological Mechanisms Related to the Onset of Heavy Drinking

Introduction. Alcohol consumption, including heavy drinking, is the fourth leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Youth who engage in heavy drinking are likely to experience a number of problems associated with their use. In 2015, U.S. prevalence of heavy drinking was 17% among 12th graders. These data suggest a clear need for conducting alcohol prevention activities among youth. Method. We designed the Click City®: Alcohol program for 7th graders, with a booster in 8th grade. We conducted an efficacy trial in 25 schools in three counties in Oregon. Schools were randomized to either the Click City: Alcohol (n = 12) or Usual Curriculum condition (n = 13). We present the results of a short-term evaluation, assessing change in outcomes from baseline to 1 week following the intervention among students in Click City: Alcohol schools versus those in Usual Curriculum schools. Results. Students who used the Click City: Alcohol program significantly decreased their intentions to drink heavily in the future, as compared with students in the Usual Curriculum control condition, although the effect size was small. Changes in the targeted mechanisms were in the expected direction and were significant for all but one mechanism, with moderate effect sizes. Conclusion. Our short-term findings provide preliminary support for the efficacy of the Click City: Alcohol program to change adolescents’ intentions to engage in heavy drinking. If the results are maintained over time, the program has the potential to prevent the onset of heavy drinking among teens and reduce the negative consequences associated with heavy drinking, including neurological and other health consequences.