Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness December 11, 2006

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Society for Research on Educational
EffectivenessDecember 11, 2006

• Reducing Risk and Enhancing Protection to Remove
  Barriers to Learning
• Richard F. Catalano, Director
• Social Development Research Group
• University of Washington
• www.sdrg.org

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Leading Predictors of School Dropout

• Poverty
• Delinquency and Drug Abuse
• Academic Competence
• Battin et al., 2000 Newcomb et al., 2002.

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Academic Competence, Delinquency, and Drug Abuse

• Are the strongest predictors of dropout
• Are modifiable
• Share common predictors

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Advances in Prediction

• Longitudinal studies have identified predictors
  of positive outcomes like success in school
• As well as the predictors of substance abuse,
  delinquency and other problem behaviors

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X
Family
X
X
X
School
X
X
Individual/Peer
X
X
X
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Protective Factors

• Individual Characteristics
• High Intelligence
• Resilient Temperament
• Competencies and Skills (Cognitive, Social and
  Emotional)
• In each social domain (family, school, peer group
  and neighborhood)
• Prosocial Opportunities
• Recognition for Prosocial Involvement
• Bonding (Attachment and Commitment)
• Healthy Beliefs and Clear Standards

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Risk Increases and Protection Decreases
Prevalence of 30 Day Alcohol Use
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Risk Increases and Protection Decreases
Prevalence of 30 Day Marijuana Use
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Risk Increases and Protection Decreases
Prevalence of Attacked to Hurt
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Risk Decreases and Protection Increases
Prevalence of Academic Success (B or better
average)
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Number of School Building Risk Factors and
Probability of Meeting WASL Standard (10th Grade
Students)
Arthur et al., 2006
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Number of School Building Protective Factors and
Probability of Meeting WASL Standard (10th grade
students)
Arthur et al., 2006
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Prevention Partnerships with Schools are
Necessary in this Time of No Child Left Behind

• If students are to achieve their best, schools
  must address risk and protection to remove
  barriers to learning and enhance school
  commitment
• Prevention programs like Seattle Social
  Development Project remove barriers to learning,
  motivate students to learn, and engage parents as
  partners in student learning

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Twenty Five Years of Research on School Based
Youth Development Programs

• 1981-present--Seattle Social Development Project
  in Seattle Public Schools
• 1985--1992--Raising Healthy Children in Renton
  Public Schools
• 1993-present--Raising Healthy Children in Edmonds
  Public Schools

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Advantages of Longitudinal Controlled Trials

• Natural history of development can be studied to
  identify targets for intervention
• Strong tests of causal hypotheses
• Short and long term effects can be examined
• Farrington, 2004

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7th Grade Prevention Targets and Academic
Achievement at 10th Grade

• Achievement Grades
• Test Score
• Partiala r Partiala r
• Child Report of School Bonding .139 .134
• Skills
• Teacher report of social skills .159 .302
• Teacher report of emotional skills .168 .184
• Parent report of cons. thinking .235 .213
• Child report of decision making .120 .122
• p lt .05, p lt .01, acontrolling for
  demographics and 4th grade achievement test score
• Fleming et al., 2005

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Proactive Classroom Management Increases Bonding
to School
Growth in Student bonding Fall-Spring
Harachi, et al, 1999
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Proactive Classroom Management Increases Social
Competency
Growth in Social competence Fall-Spring
Harachi, et al, 1999
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Reading Achievement Decreases Problem Behavior
Drug use
Low income
Covert antisocial behavior
Grade 7 problem behavior
Male
-.25
-.30
Physical aggression
Level at 3rd Grade
Change from 3rd to 6th grade
Grade 3 reading achievement
Grade 4 reading achievement
Grade 6 reading achievement
Grade 5 reading achievement
Fleming, et al. 2004
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Advantages of Longitudinal Controlled Trials

• Natural history of development can be studied to
  identify targets for intervention
• Strong tests of causal hypotheses
• Short and long term effects can be examined
• Farrington, 2004

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Seattle Social Development ProjectLong Term
Effects on Academic and Behavioral Outcomes

• Investigators
• J. David Hawkins, Ph.D.
• Richard F. Catalano, Ph.D.
• Karl G. Hill, Ph.D.
• Richard Kosterman, Ph.D.
• Robert D. Abbott, Ph.D.
• Social Development Research Group
• School of Social Work
• University of Washington
• 9725 3rd Avenue NE, Suite 401
• Seattle, Washington 98115
• Funded by
• National Institute on Drug Abuse, National
  Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse,
  National Institute on Mental Health, Office of
  Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,
  Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

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Seattle Social Development Project Design

• Initiated in 1981 in 8 Seattle elementary schools.

• Expanded in 1985, to include 18 Seattle
  elementary schools to add a late intervention
  condition and additional control students.

• Quasi-experimental study
• Full treatment (grades 1-6) n 149 Late
  treatment (grades 5-6) n 243 Control
  n 206
• 808 (77) of the 5th grade students constitute
  the longitudinal study sample.

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Intervention Components

• Component One Teacher Training in Classroom
  Instruction and Management
• Component Two Parent Trainingin Behavior
  Management and Academic Support
• Component Three Child Social, Emotional and
  Cognitive Skill Development

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Instructional Strategies Direct Instruction

• Activate Background Knowledge
• Clear Objectives
• Provide Input
• Check for Understanding
• Guided Practice
• Monitor and Adjust
• Feedback
• Individual Practice

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Instructional Strategies Cooperative Learning

• Involve small teams of students of different
  ability levels and backgrounds as learning
  partners
• Provide recognition to teams for academic
  improvement of individual members over past
  performance

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Proactive Classroom Management

• Establish consistent classroom expectations and
  routines at the beginning of the year
• Give clear, explicit instructions for behavior
• Recognize desirable student behavior and efforts
  to comply
• Use methods that keep minor classroom disruptions
  from interrupting instruction

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Parent Programs

• Raising Healthy Children (grades 1-2)
• Observe and pinpoint desirable and undesirable
  child behaviors
• Teach expectations for behaviors
• Provide consistent positive reinforcement for
  desired behavior
• Provide consistent and moderate consequences for
  undesired behaviors
• Supporting School Success (grades 2-3)
• Initiate conversation with teachers about
  childrens learning
• Help children develop reading and math skills
• Create a home environment supportive of learning
• Guiding Good Choices (grades 5-6)
• Establish a family policy on drug use
• Practice refusal skills with children
• Use self-control skills to reduce family conflict
• Create new opportunities in the family for
  children to contribute and learn

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Social, Cognitive and Emotional Skills Training

• Listening
• Following directions
• Social awareness (boundaries, taking perspective
  of others)
• Sharing and working together
• Manners and civility (please and thank you)
• Compliments and encouragement
• Problem solving
• Emotional regulation (anger control)
• Refusal skills

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Support Structures

• School Staff
• 5 days of teacher training
• Coaching by teacher trainer
• Principal support
• Family
• Training in each parenting curriculum

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Seattle Social Development Project Panel
Retention
School Level
MEANAGE 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 (17) 18 21
24 27 N 808 703 558 654 778 783 770
-- 757 766 752 747 87 69 81 96 97 95
-- 94 95 93 93
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Attrition and Selection Bias

• No significant differences for those lost to
  attrition versus those retained with respect to
  distribution of participants into the
  intervention conditions.
• No significant differences between the
  intervention and control groups with respect to
• Gender, ethnicity, or childhood poverty
• Mean years living in Seattle by grade 6
• Mean number of residences lived in from age 5 to
  14
• Proportion of single-parent homes during grade 5
• Living in a disorganized neighborhood at age 16
• Family size, mothers education, or age at time
  of survey

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Seattle Social Development Project Changed Risk,
Protection and Outcomes

• By the start of 5th grade, those in the full
  intervention had
• less initiation of alcohol
• less initiation of delinquency
• better family management
• better family communication
• better family involvement
• higher attachment to family
• higher school rewards
• higher school bonding

• By age 18 Youths in the Full Intervention had
• less heavy alcohol use 25.0 C vs 15.4
  Full
• less lifetime violence 59.7 C vs
  48.3 Full
• less lifetime sexual activity 83.0 C vs
  72.1 Full
• fewer lifetime sex partners 61.5 C vs 49.7
  Full
• improved school bonding
• less grade repetition 22.8 C vs
  14.0 Full
• reduced school discipline rpts58.0 C vs 46.0
  Full

• Intervention has specific benefits for children
  from poverty through age 18.
• More attachment to school
• Fewer held back in school
• Better achievement
• Less school misbehavior
• Less drinking and driving

• By age 21, broad significant effects were found
  on positive adult functioning
• More high school graduates
• More attending college
• More employed
• Fewer depressive symptoms 2.93 C vs
  2.31 Full
• Fewer with a criminal record 53 C vs
  42 Full
• Less drug selling 13 C vs 4 Full
• Fewer females were pregnant 40 C vs 23
  Full
• Fewer STDs among African American34 C vs 7
  Full

• At the end of the 2nd grade
• boys less aggressive
• girls less self-destructive

Late
Grade Age
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Seattle Social Development Project Effects at Age
12California Achievement Test Scores
plt.05 compared with controls N 548 to 551.
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Seattle Social Development Project Effects at Age
21 Education

Prevalence

plt.05 compared with controls.
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Cost-Benefit

• An independent cost-benefit analysis estimated
  that projected benefits resulting from the SSDP
  intervention would produce a net positive return
  per participant.

Aos et al. (2004)
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Summary

• Academic competence, delinquency and drug use all
  affect school success
• The same longitudinal predictors affect academic
  competence, delinquency and drug use
• Addressing these predictors by improving teaching
  practices, family management skills, and
  childrens skills can enhance academic success
  and prevent multiple problems across development
• Promoting positive development in elementary
  grades can prevent problems before they occur,
  reducing costs to society

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Society for Research on Educational
EffectivenessDecember 11, 2006

• Reducing Risk and Enhancing Protection to Remove
  Barriers to Learning
• Richard F. Catalano, Director
• Social Development Research Group
• University of Washington
• www.sdrg.org

38
Building Level Exposure to Risk and Protection
Predicts Standardized Achievement Test Scores

• Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL)
  standardized achievement test scores of the
  schools 10th grade students
• Youth Survey measures of a schools average
  number of elevated risk and protective factors
  among their 10th grade students
• Data on 82,030 students in 423 schools and 156
  school districts collected in 2002-03 at the
  school building level

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Social Development Approach

• Social Development approaches attempt to change
  the environment and the individual to reduce risk
  and enhance protection across development

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Teaching Practices are Changed Through RHC
Intervention

Mean observed score

Teaching Practices
Effect size Cohens d.45 Cohens
d.34 Fleming, nd.
Plt.05
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Proactive School and Classroom Management- Law of
Least Intervention

• Least amount of time
• Least amount of teacher effort
• Least amount of negative attention on student
• Least unpleasant feeling
• Least disruption to the learning environment

• Eye contact
• Proximity
• Pause
• First/Then
• Encouraging desirable behavior
• Cueing
• Humor
• Empathy
• Modify instruction

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Seattle Social Development Project Effects at Age
21 Work