Project Activities
Research question
- What was the impact of the program on the level of student aggressive and violent behaviors in schools that implemented the combined violence-prevention program compared to the schools that did not implement the program?
- Was there a difference in the level of aggressive and violent behaviors for high-risk students in schools that implemented the combined violence-prevention program compared to high-risk students in schools that did not implement the program?
Structured Abstract
Design
Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways (RiPP), the curriculum component, consisted of 16 one-hour lessons delivered at each grade level. Best Behavior, the whole-school component, created clear school rules and helped personnel consistently enforce them. Forty middle schools were recruited for the evaluation with half of them randomly assigned to receive the violence-prevention program. School violence and student aggression was measured through student and teacher surveys. The quality of program implementation was measured in treatment schools through interviews with school administrators and teachers, and through on-site observations.
Key findings
- There were no statistically significant differences between intervention and control schools on self-reported student violence or victimization after three years of program implementation.
- There were no statistically significant impacts on self-reported violence and victimization between high-risk youth at treatment schools and high-risk youth at control schools after three years of program implementation.
- In a majority of intervention schools, students were exposed to the full set of 16 RiPP lessons in each of the 3 years of implementation, although the curriculum was not fully delivered with fidelity.
- By the end of the third year, 83 percent of intervention schools instituted behavioral rules and 78 percent instituted a reward system. In addition, 87 percent of teachers agreed that the rules were well defined and 64 percent agreed that the consequences of breaking school rules were clear.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
The final report, titled Impacts of a Violence Prevention Program for Middle Schools: Findings After 3 Years of Implementation, was released in May 2011.
Other publications from this study are listed below.
- Impacts of a Violence Prevention Program for Middle Schools: Findings From the First Year of Implementation (April 2010)
A restricted-use file containing de-identified data is available for the purposes of replicating study findings and secondary analysis.
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
