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Annual Report on School Safety--October 1998
Anti-bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children, for children ages 2-5, is a promising model to help children build the foundations for problem-solving and critical thinking about diversity and bias. The curriculum examines racial differences and similarities, disabilities, gender identity, cultural differences and similarities, and resistance to stereotyping and discrimination. The program also assists educational staff and parents in creating anti-bias environments. No evaluation data are available.
Contact: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1509 16th Street NW., Washington, DC 20036 1426, 202-232-8777, Web site: www.naeyc.org/default.htm or Louise Dermon-Sparks, Pacific Oaks College, Children's School, Research Center, 5 Westmoreland Place, Pasadena, CA 91103-3592, 626-397-1306, Fax: 626-397-1317, E-mail: rldsparks@aol.com
Healing the Hate: A National Hate Crime Prevention Curriculum, for middle and high schools, is a promising model. In ten units, youth learn that violence and prejudice are preventable and develop skills in empathy, critical thinking, perspective taking, and media literacy. Students engage in several cooperative learning activities and discuss factors that perpetuate hate crimes. This program has been pilot-tested in demographically and geographically diverse locations, but no evaluation data are available.
Contact: National Hate Crime Prevention Project, Education Development Center, Inc., 55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA 02158-1060, 800-225-4276
Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways (RIPP), for grade 6, is a demonstrated curriculum tested in ethnically mixed populations. Key elements include: working in small groups; problem-solving; identifying feelings; handling differences; peer mediation; clarifying values; dealing with prejudice; and avoiding, ignoring, defusing, and resolving conflicts. The problem-solving component includes several steps that students memorize and practice frequently. Students learn to stop, calm down, identify the problem and feelings about it, decide among nonviolent options (resolve, avoid, ignore, or defuse), do it, look back, and evaluate. An evaluation funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows RIPP significantly reduces fights and incidents of being threatened with a weapon.
Contact: Aleta Lynn Meyer, Life Skills Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, 800 West Franklin, P.O. Box 842018, Richmond, VA 23284-2018, 888-572-1572, Fax: 804-828-0239
Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP), for grades K-12, an initiative of Educators for Social Responsibility, is a demonstrated school-based program that cultivates the emotional, social, and ethical development of children through teaching concepts and skills in conflict resolution and intergroup relations. The RCCP model includes professional development for teachers, regular classroom instruction, peer mediation, and conflict resolution and bias awareness training for administrators and parents. Initial results from a rigorous evaluation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal a significant positive impact on children who receive a substantial amount of instruction in the curriculum. Currently, RCCP is being implemented in over 200 schools across the country.
Contact: RCCP National Center, 40 Exchange Place, Suite 1111, New York, NY 10005, 212-509-0022, Fax: 212-509- 1095, E-mail: esrrccp@aol.com
Student Problem Identification and Resolution (SPIR), for grades 1-12, is a promising model for responding to violent episodes that erupt in schools over racial bias among students. Because this program must be facilitated by a trained adult, regional centers maintain staff to respond quickly to ethnic conflicts and hate crimes with a variety of programs and services. Students, faculty, community leaders, and parents are brought together to identify and resolve problems. No evaluation data are available.
Contact: The U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service, 600 E Street NW., Suite 2000, Washington, DC 20530, 202-305-2935, Fax: 202-305-3009, Web site: www.usdoj.gov/crs
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Jesse Keen Elementary School
Demographic Information:
Contact Information: Joyce Bushey, Principal The Jesse Keen Elementary School has adopted Project ACHIEVE to address problems with academic achievement, student behavior, and staff satisfaction. Project ACHIEVE was developed by Howard Knoff and George Batsche at the University of South Florida. It is being implemented in more than 20 sites across the country. This comprehensive schoolwide prevention and early intervention program targets elementary school students who are academically and socially at risk. Project ACHIEVE's goals are to improve teachers' problem-solving and classroom-management skills, improve at-risk students' classroom behavior, improve the school's comprehensive services to students, increase parental involvement, and create a school climate in which everyone is responsible for each student. A key component is the Stop & Think Social Skills process, in which students are taught the steps for making good choices. The developers of Project ACHIEVE required acceptance by 80 percent of the school staff before the program was implemented. Once the project was accepted, a school climate team was formed, and grade-level leaders and a pupil personal support team were identified to implement the components of the project. Project ACHIEVE has accomplished a 28-percent decrease in disciplinary referrals to the principal's office, a significant decrease in suspensions (from 65 to 19); a decrease in student grade retention (from 61 to 1); an increase in the number of students scoring above the 50th percentile in standardized tests; academic improvement for students whose parents were trained in the parent drop-in center; and improvement in teachers' perceptions of school climate. |
[Sexual Harassment/Sexual Violence]