Eric Schaps

Schools as Communities, Poverty Levels of Student Populations, and Students’ Attitudes, Motives, and Performance: A Multilevel Analysis

Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine relationships between students’ sense of school community, poverty level, and student attitudes, motives, beliefs, and behavior among a diverse sample of 24 elementary schools. Major findings were that: (a) within schools, individual students’ sense of school community was significantly associated with almost all of the student outcome measures, (b) Between schools, school-level community and poverty were both significantly related to many of the student outcomes (the former positively, the latter negatively), (c) Most of the relationships between school community and student measures held for schools at different poverty levels, (d) Several significant interactions between school community and poverty level indicated that some of the strongest positive effects of school community occurred among schools with the most disadvantaged student populations.

A Review of 127 Drug Abuse Prevention Program Evaluations

This review examines outcome evaluations of 127 primary drug abuse prevention programs issued between 1968 and 1977. Included were studies which measured program effects on drug use, intentions to use drugs, and/or attitudes toward drug use. The studies were gathered through an extended search, and they may represent the largest collection of prevention program outcome evaluations currently available. As part of the review process, detailed summaries of all studies were prepared. Each study was described along 70 programming and research dimensions. The descriptive data were subjected to various cross-tabular and correlational analyses. This article describes characteristics of the prevention programs, program settings and target populations, research methods, and the evaluation reports themselves. Trends over time in programming and research practices are also identified. The most important findings concern program effectiveness. Overall, the 127 programs produced only minor effects on drug use behaviors and attitudes. However, in a substudy of the ten best-researched, highest-intensity service programs, effectiveness was judged to be more substantial. The best of the available evaluations are tentatively encouraging about the efficacy of “new generation” prevention programs. The review concludes with recommendations for prevention policy making, program planning, and program evaluation.

Effects of an Elementary School Intervention on Students' “Connectedness” to School and Social Adjustment During Middle School

This research examined the effects at follow-up during middle school of a comprehensive elementary-school intervention program, the Child Development Project, designed to reduce risk and promote resilience among youth. Parental consent to participate in the middle school study was obtained for 1,246 students from six program and six matched comparison elementary schools. Three of the program elementary schools were in the “high implementation” group, and three were in the “low implementation” group during the elementary school study. Findings indicated that, studywide, 40% of the outcome variables examined during middle school showed differences favoring program students, and there were no statistically reliable differences favoring comparison students. Among the “high implementation” group, 65% of the outcome variables showed differences favoring program students. Overall, program students were more engaged in and committed to school, were more prosocial and engaged in fewer problem behaviors than comparison students during middle school. Program students who experienced high implementation during elementary school also had higher academic performance, and associated with peers who were more prosocial and less antisocial than their matched comparison students during middle school. Implications of these findings for prevention programming are discussed.

Prevention effects of the Child Development Project: Early findings from an ongoing multisite demonstration trial.

The Child Development Project is a comprehensive school program to reduce risk and bolster protective factors among children. It includes classroom, school, and family involvement elements that, collectively, help schools become caring communities of learners-environments that are characterized by supportive social relationships, a sense of common purpose, and a commitment to prosocial values; that are responsive to childrens developmental and sociocultural needs; and thatfoster their resilience when confronted with stressful events and circumstances. The program was implemented in elementary schools from six school districts around the United States. Similar schools from these same districts served as a comparison group. Analyses of data on problem behaviors over a 3-year period indicated that the program was associated with significant reductions in student drug use and delinquency. Effects were strongestfor students in the subset of schools that had made the greatest degree of progress in program implementation.

Creating classrooms that students experience as communities.

Although prior research has shown sense of community in schools to be related to many positive student characteristics, effective interventions that can create or enhance this sense have not been demonstrated. In this paper we describe a comprehensive elementary school program, implemented by teachers, that was successful in creating a sense of community in the classrooms, as perceived by students. The program was implemented in three elementary schools in a suburban school district; three additional schools in the same district served as a comparison group. The program, which emphasized cooperative learning, the importance of democratic and prosocial values, student autonomy and self-direction, and a child-centered approach to teaching and classroom management, was experienced by a cohort of students from kindergarten through Grade 4, and by a subset of that cohort through Grade 6. Sense of community was assessed—by questionnaire—in Grades 4, 5, and 6; various student outcomes were assessed via questionnaire and interview. Results indicated that the program was successful in heightening students’ sense of community, and that the sense of community—by itself and in combination with program status—related positively to a number of student outcomes. There was also suggestive evidence that students who experienced their classroom as a community attempted to abide by its norms and values, and that the authority structure of the classroom was an important determinant of students’ experience of community and of some of its observed effects.

Enhancing Children’s Prosocial Behavior in the Classroom

A program designed to enhance children’s prosocial development was conducted in three suburban elementary schools for 5 consecutive years, focusing primarily on a single cohort of children as it moved from kindergarten through fourth grade. Repeated observations were conducted each year to assess program implementation and student interpersonal behavior in classrooms in the three “program” schools and in three “comparison” schools. Analyses of these observational data revealed significantly higher scores in the program than the comparison classrooms on each of five indices of program-relevant activities and practices: Cooperative Activities, Developmental Discipline, Activities Promoting Social Understanding, Highlighting Prosocial Values, and Helping Activities. Further analyses indicated that students in program classrooms scored significantly higher on two indices of interpersonal behavior: Supportive and Friendly Behavior and Spontaneous Prosocial Behavior. Corroborative data from a second, 2-year cohort in the same schools is also presented. Implications of these findings for educational practices that emphasize supportive teacher-student relationships and the provision of opportunities for student decision-making, autonomy, and collaborative interaction are discussed.

Evaluation of Seven School-Based Prevention Programs: A Final Report on the Napa Project

Described is a series of evaluation studies of seven school-based prevention programs, including four generic in-service teacher-training programs, two alternatives programs, and a drug education course. The programs were delivered to elementary or junior high students, and were evaluated individually and in several combinations or sequences, using rigorous research procedures and a comprehensive set of process and outcome measures. Only the drug education course showed any pattern of significant effects, and these were short-term and obtained only for girls. The findings call into question the efficacy of generic prevention programs, at least as such programs are commonly implemented.

A Program to Promote Interpersonal Consideration and Cooperation in Children

This chapter describes a project whose purpose is to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a comprehensive school- and home-based program to enhance prosocial tendencies in young children. This project (called the Child Development Project) was initiated in response to what we see as some critical problems in contemporary society: inadequate levels of social responsibility and concern for others’ welfare, accompanied by excessive self-centeredness and social alienation.1 These phenomena may be reflected in such recent trends as increasing vandalism, violence, delinquency, and school discipline problems. Although there are undoubtedly multiple determinants of these trends, the project is guided by the assumption that they can be effectively ameliorated through strengthening children’s tendencies to behave in more socially positive ways. The aim is to encourage children to be concerned about and responsive to the needs of others, without at the same time inappropriately sacrificing their own legitimate needs and interests.

A methodology for monitoring adolescent drug abuse trends.

This study uses current and retrospective survey data to describe il- licit drug use trends in a sizable adolescent population. The data were gathered in December 1970 from 13,603 students, 85% of those enrolled in a suburban Chicago high school district. The survey generated detailed information concerning six different epidemiologic parameters of drug use : incidence, prevalence, remission, exposure to drugs, frequency of use, and variety of drugs used. Respon- dents were asked to systematically chart their use of illicit drugs over the previous five years. The use of multiple epidemiologic parameters permit- ted us to trace the spread of drug use and the development of a sizable population of active drug users during the five-year period. While the findings regarding specific drug use trends in this population are primarily of interest to the communities which were studied, the ways in which various parameters can be used to identify and describe these trends may be of more general interest. This paper presents few findings concerning the relationships of these parameters to one another or to other

The Role of the School in Prosocial Development

With the exception of the family, no other social institution has as pervasive an influence on children’s social and moral development as the school. From the time a child enters kindergarten at age 5 until graduation from secondary school 13 years later, he or she will spend 15 to 30 hours per week, approximately 40 weeks each year, in school. Much of this time occurs during the so-called formative years, when the child is developing basic understandings of self and society and is expected to learn and conform to societal norms and to adopt basic cultural values. The learning that occurs during schooling thus encompasses considerably more than the acquisition of basic academic knowledge and intellectual skills (see Bar-Tal, 1978; Minuchin & Shapiro, 1983). Schools in all societies also have a formal responsibility for the socialization of children, and the role of the school in social and moral development has been central to educational thinking since at least the time of Socrates (Johnson, 1987).