Source: Newsweek Web

DARE-ING TO BE DIFFERENT

A Popular Anti-Drug Program Has Decided It's Time To Make Some Changes

Feb. 17 - For a while, critics have said that the program's methods
needed an upgrade. And DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) appears
to agree. Last week, the group said it will try new ways of teaching
its anti-drug message.

DARE, IN PLACE in 80 percent of schools nationwide, had focused on
elementary-school students. In the program, police officers teach
kids how to cope with the dangers of drugs, alcohol and tobacco. The
new program, which will begin its trial phase this fall, will be
aimed at middle- and high-school students. About 50,000 children will
try out the new curriculum. For more details, NEWSWEEK's Laura
Fording spoke with Richard Clayton, a professor at the School of
Public Health at the University of Kentucky who has studied the
effectiveness of the DARE program, and Zili Sloboda, an adjunct
research professor at University of Akron and a senior research
associate in the Institute for Health and Social Policy, who is
helping to develop the new program. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: What is your involvement with DARE?

Richard Clayton: I did one of the first studies of DARE. It started
in 1987 and the results were published in 1996.

Can you describe how DARE works?

[The program has] a lesson on safety, a lesson on self-esteem, a
lesson on peer-pressure resistance, a lesson on advertising
influences, a lesson on various drugs and so on. [Police officers]
might be encouraged to spend time at school-for instance, if they
have a class from 11 a.m. to noon, they might stay for lunch-or be
encouraged to attend sporting events and PTA meetings. The goal is to
get to know the kids better, not just in the classroom, but in the
school setting itself.... At the elementary level, the police
officers are seen as authoritative with regard to drugs. The kids
enjoy having someone like that in a uniform.

DARE Checks Into Rehab

What did you find in your study?

The rigorous evaluations of DARE at the elementary level have found
that DARE has no sustained effect on drug use.

Is that because elementary-school kids don't retain what they've
learned by the time they've reached high-school?

That's one hypothesis. Another is that the theory behind the
curriculum is inadequate. And another is that it's hard to know the
best time to intervene. Elementary school seems like a reasonable
time, right before kids make the transition to middle school. The
thought being that middle school is the time when kids are the most
vulnerable to their first use of drugs and if you wait until the
middle school years to try, it might be a problem. The longer you
wait, the higher percentage of kids who have already started. The
message becomes irrelevant for them.

Why the change with DARE now?

DARE for a long time has been really hostile toward the negative
findings that I and others have come up with. At a meeting in May,
1998, we had blood on the floor by lunch. Then we got through that
experience and started talking to one another instead of talking at
one another. ...We set up a second meeting and actually made major
progress. DARE was much more open to thinking about change, and the
scientists at the meeting were engaged enough to say, "Well, let us
see how we can help you." And that's how this new approach came about.

The Department of Education no longer funds DARE. Is that one reason
for the change?

That's the external political pressure. ... The elementary program of
DARE has not been proven effective at all. And you can't get safe and
drug-free schools and community dollars from the Department of
Education unless, at the local level, you're funding programs that
have been proven effective. DARE doesn't meet that criterion. So I'm
sure DARE was exceedingly under pressure to come up with a new
program that still needs to be tested.

Why do you think some kids start using drugs after participating in
DARE programs?

It may be that we don't have strong enough programs to have lasting
effects or to make lasting impressions. It could be that we need to
change environmental pressures on these kids. All of the programs
that I know of, including DARE, look for all of the causes of drug
use inside the kid. They teach them social skills and resistance
skills and about drugs and their effect on the body, but there are
wide variations across schools in terms of the percentage of kids who
use drugs. There are wide variations in neighborhoods and levels of
drug use. I know that's true in bigger cities. So we haven't
attempted to change those things, we're just attempting to change
things inside the kid. And that may just be inadequate.

Questions For Zili Sloboda

NEWSWEEK: Do you think the current DARE program is ineffective?

Zili Sloboda: I don't know if the current DARE is ineffective. The
middle school program was never evaluated.... I think the
prevention-research field realized in the '80s that elementary school
programs, in and of themselves, were certainly not going to have as
strong an effect. You get short-term results from the DARE
elementary-school core program, but not long-term effects. And that
shouldn't be surprising. [There needs] to be more proximity to the
at-risk times.

In what grades are you starting up the new programs?

We have found that the greatest increase in substance abuse goes on
between the 8th and the 10th grades. We felt that if we were going to
be working with DARE to have an impact, we wanted to target the 7th
grade and the 9th grade. The 9th grade is particularly important
because it is a transition year, when many students transfer to a new
school.

Are you making any changes to the elementary-school level?

We just received a grant to work on the elementary-school program, so
we are just starting to do that. Before now, the elementary school
program was the core program for DARE. We're changing it so that the
7th grade program becomes the core. We want to design the elementary
school program so it prepares children for the 7th grade, and the 7th
grade program lays a foundation for doing much more in-depth and more
sophisticated work in the 9th grade.

In what ways will the curriculum change?

In the current program, the DARE officer stands up in front of the
class and lectures. What the research has shown, particularly for
adolescents, is that they really need to be involved in the learning
process. We are changing it so that rather than DARE officers
standing in front of the class lecturing in a very structured way,
they will be facilitators or coaches. They will start off by giving
children tools to work with, then break them up into work groups
where each group gets an assignment which varies depending on the
lesson. The children have to work together. For instance, we have
them come up with public-service announcements on substance use, we
give them different real scenarios. And they have to develop a
variety of approaches that they feel comfortable in using to resist
or say no or refuse the offer of tobacco or alcohol or other drugs.
This is quite different than the standard program that they have now.

So the new program will emphasize teaching kids to think for themselves?

That's right. That's the whole purpose of the new program. To say to
kids, "This is your choice. We're going to give you the information
you need to make a good choice." We're providing them with a good
deal of information about the short- and long-term effects of
substances. Through neuroscience imaging we can show them what
happens to the brain. We haven't had these tools before. We ask them
how many children their age do they think use alcohol tobacco and
other drugs and then show them what the studies show. They are amazed
that not everybody is smoking, not everybody is using alcohol. So is
alters misconceptions. And that establishes that it is okay not to
use drugs.
Because most kids don't.

The Department of Education no longer funds DARE because it isn't
proven to reduce drug use. Is this the reason DARE is rethinking
strategy?

I think DARE decided to make this change for a number of reasons. I
think that one of the reasons is that they had a conversation with
drug abuse researchers and prevention researchers just prior to the
beginning of this project, in 1998. I think they realized that if
they were really going to have a major impact, it was time to revamp
their program. They have, in the past, revised the program and have
tried to update it periodically. I think everything seemed to come
together at the same time.... DARE has a very extensive delivery
system. This is a terrific opportunity to bring to most communities
an improved, evidence-based prevention program.