In 2001, students were victims of some 2 million crimes while at school (NCES, 2003). Although support services, intervention curricula, and discipline management strategies are commonly used in schools to promote social and character development and prevent problem behavior, evidence of the effectiveness of these strategies is limited. Thus, educators facing choices about adopting these programs have little scientifically sound information on which to base their decisions. The Social and Character Development (SACD) Research Program was created in response to the need for systematic evaluations of promising current school-based programs and to provide rigorous evidence of their efficacy.

Through the SACD Research Program, the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the Centers for Disease Control Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MPR), and seven research institutions funded by Institute grants, are collaborating in a multi-site evaluation of the efficacy of seven school-based programs. At each site, 10 to 18 schools have been randomized to either implement a school-wide program utilizing character education, violence prevention, social-emotional learning, and/or behavior management strategies, or continue with standard educational practice.

As each of the grant sites implement school-based programs and carry out complementary studies focused on answering program-specific research questions, the national evaluation team, including MPR and its subcontractors (Decision Information Resources, Inc., University of Missouri-St. Louis, and Friday Systems Services, Inc.) engage in consistent data collection across sites. A core set of common outcome measures is utilized to assess students' social and emotional competence, positive behavior, problem behavior, and academic achievement; school climate; and instructional practices implemented in intervention and control-group schools. Children are assessed longitudinally over three years with baseline child, parent, and teacher surveys conducted at the beginning of the 3 rd grade (Fall 2004). Impacts (intervention-control differences) will be analyzed at the end of 3 rd grade (Spring 2005), the end of 4 th grade (Spring 2006), and at the conclusion of the children's 5 th grade experience (Spring 2007). Analyses will also focus on fidelity to the program models, program exposure, and economic costs of program implementation.

Grantees:

Institution: Children's Institute
Program:Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies
Principal Investigators: Deborah Johnson, Hugh Crean

Program Description and Site-Specific Research:
The Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) program is designed to strengthen all kindergarten through 5th grade students' emotional literacy, positive peer relations, and social problem-solving. It consists of volumes of lessons on self-control, emotional understanding, self-esteem, healthy relationships, and interpersonal problem-solving skills. The program also includes training for all school staff on social and character development. The researchers are evaluating the effects of the randomly assigned PATHS program in schools already implementing an indicated K-2 program designed to enhance school adjustment and build social and emotional competencies (the Primary Mental Health Project; PMHP). The schools are located on the fringe of stressed urban communities in two states: New York and Minnesota.

In the complementary research study, the researchers are comparing changes in behavior for high-risk students who participated in the PMHP program in grades K-2 and later received the PATHS intervention with changes in behavior for high-risk students who participated in the PMHP program in grades K-2 but did not later receive the PATHS intervention. The researchers also are testing whether changes in social problem-solving abilities and hostile attribution biases relate to changes in problem behavior.

Institution: New York University
Program: The 4Rs: Reading, Writing, Respect, and Resolution
Principal Investigators: J. Lawrence Aber, Stephanie Jones, Joshua Brown

Program Description and Site-Specific Research:
The Reading, Writing, Respect, & Resolution (4Rs) Program uses the K-5 language arts curriculum to focus on language and social-emotional skills. Its three main components include a literacy-based curriculum focused on conflict resolution, intergroup understanding, and social-emotional learning; a peer mediation program; and 25 hours of teacher training followed by ongoing coaching. The researchers are evaluating this program in New York City, one of the largest, urban, ethnically diverse school districts in the U.S.

In their complementary study, the researchers are examining the effects of implementing the 4Rs program on students' perceptions of other people's behavior (specifically, "hostile attribution biases", the tendency to attribute others' behavior as being hostile toward them) and their ability to solve social problems without acting aggressively. There is also an interest in how the 4Rs program affects teachers' professional development, their own social-emotional skills, and their ability to engage students in social and emotional learning. The researchers are testing whether the effects on teachers in turn account for the improvement in children's social-emotional development and academic achievement.

Institution: University at Buffalo, State University of New York
Program: Academic and Behavioral Competencies Model
Principal Investigators: William Pelham, Jr., Greta Massetti

Program Description and Site-Specific Research:
The School-Wide Academic and Behavioral Competencies (ABC) Model employs a set of strategies designed to enhance students' social competencies and behavior. These strategies include school-wide discipline rules, social skills training, peer tutoring, peer mediation, and parent training, and include methods of working with children with impaired behavioral or social functioning (such as ADHD). The model is being evaluated in a large urban school district serving students from high risk, impoverished neighborhoods.

In their complementary study the researchers are focusing on two cohorts of students: One group of students is being followed from the 1st grade year to the 3rd grade year, and a second group of students is being followed from the 3rd grade year to the 5th grade year. With this design, the researchers hope to understand the effects of the ABC program on students in the third grade after one year of intervention compared to multiple years of intervention. Other aspects of the complementary study include an examination of teachers' classroom management strategies, the effects of the intervention on child psychopathology, and whether the intervention prevents the need for medication and other mental health services for children.

Institution: University of Illinois at Chicago
Program: Positive Action
Principal Investigators: Brian Flay, David DuBois, Carol Allred

Program Description and Site-Specific Research:
The Positive Action program seeks to promote students' social skills and self-concept, and reduce anti-social behavior, by providing a comprehensive approach that includes grade-specific curricula, school-wide climate change, and parental involvement. Classroom curricula for every grade, a principal's school climate kit, a family kit, teacher and staff training, and a community involvement program are integral components of the Positive Action program. Researchers are evaluating the program in Chicago public schools located in high poverty neighborhoods.

In their complementary study, the researchers are examining the process by which the Positive Action program impacts student outcomes. Opportunities provided by the program for children and adults to learn social and emotional skills and develop character at school, at home, and in the community are predicted to improve administrator-staff relations, school-wide reinforcement of positive behavior, parent-school relations, parent-child relations, family involvement, classroom management, teacher-student relations, students' peer relations, student engagement with the community, and the community's involvement with the school. These effects are predicted to, in turn, relate to improvements in students' self-efficacy, attitudes toward antisocial and prosocial behavior, problem behavior, and academic achievement. The researchers are also studying the impact of the Positive Action program on a second cohort of students starting in the 2nd grade at the beginning of the study.

Institution: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Program: Competence Support Program
Principal Investigators: Thomas Farmer, Mark Fraser

Program Description and Site-Specific Research:
The Competence Support Program is a multi-level program that includes social skills training, school-wide behavior management, and school-wide training in classroom social dynamics management. The researchers are evaluating the effects of this program in ethnically diverse, impoverished, rural schools - schools that are often neglected in intervention research.

In their complementary study, the researchers are examining how students' personal characteristics (such as risk status), social roles (such as bully or victim), and peer affiliations (either prosocial or antisocial) interact with the broader classroom and school social context. They are testing the ways in which the Competence Support Program trains teachers to identify student peer groups, the leaders of those groups, and the socially aggressive students in the classroom. It is hypothesized that along with direct instruction of students on making choices about how to behave in social situations, teacher training will in turn influence students' aggressive behavior and relationships with their peers in the classroom, school engagement, academic achievement, and bonding with school adults.

Institution: University of Maryland, College Park
Program: Second Step
Principal Investigator: Gary Gottfredson

Program Description and Site-Specific Research:
The Second Step curriculum, focused on developing students' social-emotional skills, is being evaluated in the Anne Arundel County Schools in Maryland. Through the use of lessons, discussions, role-play exercises, decision-making practice sessions, and behavioral skill rehearsal, the program targets the development of empathy, social problem solving, impulse control, and anger management. The curriculum is being evaluated in the context of schools in which Character Development Planning Teams are utilized to plan specific strategies or activities in the school, set implementation standards, review feedback on program implementation, and engage in group planning.

In additional to attending to how well the Second Step curriculum and Character Planning Teams are implemented, in their complementary study, the researchers are examining the effects of the program on school personnel's modeling of civility and social competence, rewards conferred for student displays of civility and social competence, and opportunities made available to display helping behavior and cooperation. In the primary grades, the researchers are also examining the reliability and validity of student, teacher, and parent surveys of social-emotional competence, and classroom observations.

Institution: Vanderbilt University
Program: Love in a Big World
Principal Investigators: Leonard Bickman, Katie Smith

Program Description and Site-Specific Research:
Love in a Big World (LBW) is a character education program that is designed to promote children's positive relationships with their teachers and peers, and enhance the classroom and school environment. The LBW program includes a curriculum that uses stories to teach students about positive character traits and their use, staff and principal training, a peer recognition program, school assemblies, service projects, motivational morning announcements, and newsletters. The effects of the program are being tested in suburban and rural schools in the mid-South. Children in these schools are predominantly Caucasian and African American and are from low-income to middle-class families.

In the complementary study, the research team is testing not only the impact of the LBW program on student outcomes, but also the effect of the program on teachers. Specifically, the researchers are testing whether teacher training affects teachers' character education knowledge, self-efficacy, and positive attitudes toward character education, and whether these outcomes influence the fidelity of program implementation. The researchers are also testing the program theory behind LBW. That is, they are examining how the program affects antisocial and prosocial behavior, and classroom and school climate, through changes in teacher/student interaction, acquisition of character education knowledge and social-emotional competence, and students' positive attitudes and beliefs about their control over their own actions.