With substantial federal, state, and local resources invested in schools in order to prevent violence and substance abuse among youth, it is important to have a sense that these investments “pay off.” However, research shows that all too often prevention programs that start off strong later lose their effectiveness or disappear altogether.

Exactly what makes the difference between lasting prevention programs that take hold in a school or community for the long term and those that lose their potency and fade away? Are there certain characteristics of effective programs that can ensure sustainability?

Achieving Culture Change at School

According to Dr. Eric Schaps, president of Developmental Studies Center, there are several key factors that can make a difference in effective prevention implementation and sustainability.

Dr. Schaps is the developer of the Child Development Project, a school improvement initiative that builds students’ reading comprehension skills and fosters caring connections between students, teachers, and parents. The project was recognized as both a model program by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and as a promising program by the U.S. Department of Education’s Expert Panel on Safe, Disciplined, and Drug-Free Schools.

The project includes a community-building component, the Caring School Community, that is focused on creating connectedness at school. The Caring School Community has four components: class meetings; cross-age buddies, a mentoring program; home activities for parents and children; and schoolwide activities such as family film nights that bring families together.

Dr. Schaps noted that over the 20 years of developing and evaluating the program in hundreds of schools, he and his colleagues identified several factors that can mean the difference between successful and unsuccessful implementation.

“These principles are not specific to our program,” he explained. “They apply to almost any ambitious schoolwide effort aimed at changing the culture of a school.”

According to Dr. Schaps, the keys to culture change at a school are:

• Principal leadership and support. “You simply must have the support of the principal,” Dr. Schaps emphasized. “Teachers need ample professional development time and you need access to money, space, and equipment. The principal is the one to make those things happen. The principal also needs to actively participate in all staff development sessions. That sends a clear signal that the program is important and that school culture change is a priority.”
• District office leadership and support. School districts are increasingly determining priorities for their schools and deciding how staff development time and school budgets are to be used. Therefore, it is important that key district decision-makers find ways to support the adoption and institutionalization of any serious program. This includes district leaders signaling the importance of the program by allocating resources they control to it, and protecting the school from competing demands for change so that the principal and staff can properly attend to implementation issues.
• Whole faculty involvement. Change requires not only the investment of classroom teachers, but also the involvement of the lunchroom staff, playground aides, bus drivers, janitorial staff, and school secretaries. In order to build a cohesive school culture, all of the individuals who relate to students and families need to operate in synch.
• Professional development that “walks the walk.” “Teachers need a complete understanding of every aspect of the program,” Dr. Schaps explained. “Therefore, when you are training teachers, you need to provide opportunities for them to experience the exact same elements of the program that their students will.”
• Clear program implementation materials. Schools require how-to manuals that clearly describe each program element and offer easy-to-follow activities.

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