A MULTIMODEL SCHOOL-BASED PREVENTION DEMONSTRATION

A school-bared, multicomponent drug prevention model operating in a mi ddle school in Charleston, South Carolina was evaluated. The project i ncluded schoolwide curricular changes, instructional changes, changes to school norms aimed at all staff and students in the school, and cha nges targeting the 10% of the students in the school judged to be at h ighest risk for drug involvement. The evaluation results to date indic ate a positive effect of the program on grade point average and a decr ease in peer drug influence for high-risk program students as compared with high-risk comparison students. Although some negative effects al so were observed during the 1992-1993 school year those were likely a result of the mix of services provided that year and the influence of variables outside the framework of the program. As the services were m odified, the negative effects disappeared. More fine-grained analyses are under way.