Drug-Testing Reduces Students' Drug Use, Study Says

Students involved in extracurricular activities and subject to in-school random drug testing reported less substance use than their peers in high schools that didn’t have drug-testing programs, according a federal evaluation of 4,700 students spread across seven states.

The study was funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, a branch of the U.S. Department of Education, and conducted by RMC Research Corporation in Portsmouth, N.H. and the Princeton, N.J.-based Mathematica Policy Research. The researchers said it’s the largest and most rigorous examination of drug-testing programs to date.

Sixteen percent of students subject to drug testing in the study reported using substances covered by their district’s testing program in the past 30 days, compared to 22 percent of comparable students in...