Setting
The participating classrooms were in northeastern U.S. towns with varied socioeconomic characteristics: a suburban town with middle class and wealthy families, an urban
suburb with a mix of wealthy, middle class, and working class families, and two small cities with predominantly poor and working class families.
Study sample
The study included 346 eighth-grade public school students from 14 FHAO and 8 comparison classrooms in social studies and language arts. The sample was 62% white,
6% black, 3.5% Hispanic, and 23% mixed/other students, with 5.5% of the students not reporting their ethnicity
Intervention Group
Students in 14 eighth-grade classrooms taught by four teachers with experience implementing Facing History and Ourselves used the curriculum over a 10-week period.
Information on the specific FHAO curriculum they used was not provided in the study report, and the authors note that the curriculum generally varies in length and content.
The core components include readings from the Facing History and Ourselves resource book, guest speakers, films, and student writings around such themes as morality,
justice, and caring for others.
Comparison Group
Students in eight eighth-grade classrooms taught by five teachers in public schools in the same communities as the FHAO teachers but, with one exception, not in the same
schools as the FHAO teachers.
Outcome descriptions
The primary outcomes included self-reported fighting, relationship maturity, ethnic identity, civic attitudes and participation, racism, and moral reasoning. Self-reported fighting was measured with a questionnaire, but no other details were provided. Relationship maturity was measured with The Group for the Study of Interpersonal Development relationship questionnaire. The measure of ethnic identity was the Multi-group Ethnic Identity Measure. Civic attitudes and participations were assessed with scales adapted from the National Learning Through Service Survey. The Modern Racism Scale measured racism, and the Defining Issues Test, moral reasoning. (See Appendices A2.1 and A2.2.)
Support for implementation
Training was one of the selection criteria for intervention group teachers. Each teacher for the FHAO classes had attended the FHAO Institute and had taught the FHAO curriculum for at least three years before the study.