Education

G.A.O. Examines Drug-Prevention Efforts for Youths

By Ellen Flax — March 11, 1992 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

It also recommends that the Congress allocate additional funds for long-term, national, independent evaluations of these community-based programs.--E.F.

Promising drug-abuse prevention programs offer adolescents comprehensive services and activities, the General Accounting Office concludes in a report.

But there is no sure way of knowing if these programs are effective, the report says, since evaluation efforts to date have been insufficient.

The report, which focuses on community-based drug-abuse prevention programs for youths ages 10 through 13, was done at the request of Representative Major R. Owens, the Democrat from New York who is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Select Education.

Common Features

The report, released last month, concludes that the most promising drug-abuse prevention programs for young adolescents share six features: a comprehensive strategy; an indirect approach to fighting drug abuse; activities that empower youths; a participatory approach; culturally sensitive programming; and highly structured activities.

These programs, the report says, do not make drug-abuse prevention their primary focus. Instead, the programs offer young adolescents, who are at the age at which many begin experimenting with drugs, drug-free activities and help them build skills that will allow them to make healthy choices, according to the report.

Since most organizers of these potentially promising programs have neither the money nor the technical expertise to evaluate their projects properly, one cannot safely say that they have proved effective, the report says.

“The challenge most threatening to the goal of finding solutions to the problem of drug abuse is the current lack of evaluation evidence to demonstrate the success of individual programs,” the report concludes.

To improve evaluation, the report recommends that the Education Department and the Department of Health and Human Services widely disseminate evaluation handbooks and manuals.

It also recommends that the Congress allocate additional funds for long-term, national, independent evaluations of these community-based programs.

A version of this article appeared in the March 11, 1992 edition of Education Week as G.A.O. Examines Drug-Prevention Efforts for Youths

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Student Achievement Webinar
How To Tackle The Biggest Hurdles To Effective Tutoring
Learn how districts overcome the three biggest challenges to implementing high-impact tutoring with fidelity: time, talent, and funding.
Content provided by Saga Education
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Student Well-Being Webinar
Reframing Behavior: Neuroscience-Based Practices for Positive Support
Reframing Behavior helps teachers see the “why” of behavior through a neuroscience lens and provides practices that fit into a school day.
Content provided by Crisis Prevention Institute
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Mathematics Webinar
Math for All: Strategies for Inclusive Instruction and Student Success
Looking for ways to make math matter for all your students? Gain strategies that help them make the connection as well as the grade.
Content provided by NMSI

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Briefly Stated: January 31, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education Briefly Stated: January 17, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education In Their Own Words The Stories That Stuck With Us, 2023 Edition
Our newsroom selected five stories as among the highlights of our work. Here's why.
4 min read
102523 IMSE Reading BS
Adria Malcolm for Education Week
Education Opinion The 10 Most-Read Opinions of 2023
Here are Education Week’s most-read Opinion blog posts and essays of 2023.
2 min read
Collage of lead images for various opinion stories.
F. Sheehan for Education Week / Getty