STUDY QUESTIONS DARE PROGRAM

It's `Only Marginally Successful' In Steering Youth From Drug Abuse

An independent report released Wednesday found Houston's $3.7
million-a-year DARE program "only marginally successful" in steering
youngsters from substance abuse.

The study, by University of Houston social sciences professor Bruce Gay,
suggests the Drug Abuse Resistance Education curriculum in local schools
may not be working.

"There is very little compelling evidence to suggest that the primary goal
of the DARE program is being reached at a statistically significant level,"
Gay concludes.

The results track other U.S. studies that have similarly questioned the
effectiveness of DARE, an anti-drug and anti-alcohol program started in Los
Angeles in 1983 and currently taught in an estimated 10,000 cities
worldwide.

About 27,000 fifth-graders and 24,000 seventh-graders participate in DARE
programs in Houston.

The Houston Police Department's DARE program costs $3.7 million a year to
operate, including $3.3 million to pay the administrative cost of salaries
and benefits for the 63 involved officers.

Earlier this year, Mayor Lee Brown rebuffed highly skeptical City Council
members who sought to cut the DARE funding in the city budget.

Councilman Ray Driscoll, who led the attempt to reduce DARE funding by 50
percent, said Wednesday the UH report vindicates his sentiments about the
program's effectiveness.

"I would like to see at least half of that money go to assessing other
programs -- because there are other programs out there that work," Driscoll
said. "Regardless of what the powers that be are saying, this program looks
like it's not working."

Brown and Police Chief C.O. Bradford said they remain strongly behind DARE,
with Bradford saying he will use the study's results to fine-tune the
program to better serve children.

"Marginally successful doesn't mean woefully a failure to me," Bradford
said. "I'm pleased with the report in that it does not indicate the program
is a failure."

Brown noted the study found that four of DARE's 12 objectives were being
achieved through the program.

"DARE does work," said Brown, former national drug policy adviser to
President Clinton. "We are going to work toward finding better ways to make
DARE more effective."

The study is based on an analysis of 1,771 surveys distributed at 23
schools in the Houston Independent School District. The ethnic breakdown
was 54.6 percent Hispanic, 21 percent black, 18 percent Anglo and 6.5
percent other.

Survey-takers compared students' attitudes and opinions before and after
participating in DARE, with those of youngsters who did not participate in
DARE.

The report noted, however that DARE's primary objective -- "to prevent or
reduce drug abuse and violence among children and youth" -- may start off
with a major obstacle in the form of early drug use among kids.

Among students surveyed prior to participating in the DARE program --
generally, fifth-graders -- 15 percent had tried drugs, 18 percent had
tried tobacco and 32 percent had tried alcohol.

When survey-takers returned at the conclusion of the DARE program in May to
measure responses again, they found that drug usage was up 29 percent,
tobacco usage up 34 percent and alcohol increased 4 percent.

"While it is true that, even before participating in the DARE program, a
significant number of children were already experimenting with controlled
substances, some habitually," the report notes, "the DARE program was
unable to encourage its own participants, while in the program, to prevent
or reduce drug abuse."

Councilman Carroll Robinson, calling such "marginal success" insufficient,
questioned what DARE is providing the city for the money.

"I think there is going to be some support on council to look at the level
of funding," Robinson said. "It's good to rally kids, but if you want to
solve problems, you have to get beyond the rally and the rah-rah."

The report notes using police officers as DARE instructors did not have a
consistently positive effect on students in the program.

Prior to DARE, 22 percent of students in the schools offering DARE said
they thought officers were "mean." After taking part in DARE, 26.7 percent
of students said officers are "mean."

But, the report noted, in the control group of students not participating
in DARE, 48 percent said they thought police were mean during the first
round of surveys, while 33 percent said so in follow-up surveys.

"This type of response was unpredicted and makes the issue more, rather
than less, ambiguous," Gay noted.

The report did find some areas where DARE is effective. The four objectives
where DARE made a positive difference include changing beliefs about drug
use, learning ways to say no, managing stress and making decisions about
risky behaviors.

Less successful were: Considering consequences, understanding the effects
of drugs, building self-esteem, learning assertiveness, nonviolent ways to
deal with anger, handling media influences, positive alternatives and
resisting gangs.

Bradford said one strong possibility is starting DARE education in the
fourth grade, rather than fifth, and targeting specific schools for DARE
curriculum.

"Perhaps the children most at risk are not being helped early enough," he
said, adding "some need it more than others."

Councilman Rob Todd, who stopped short of withdrawing his longtime support
of DARE, questioned the survey's methodology, noting that Houston has many
other school districts not included in the report.

"I don't think that anyone has said DARE is perfect," Todd said. "I do
think the city needs to craft some approach to fight the drug problem in
this city, particularly when it comes to kids."