• "Dr. Maurice Elias and his colleagues at CASEL conducted a study of why some schools succeed or fail to "scale up" or expand and sustain their SEL efforts. Based on both their own project experience and reviews of literature, the CASEL team found several challenges that often prevent programs that are successful at one place from taking hold at another. These include:

• Structural features in school settings. Problems such as high staff turnover can affect whether a prevention effort succeeds. Unless a school has good systems for collecting and sharing information, staff turnover can impair the ability to transfer knowledge about how a program operates.

• A narrow "programs and packages" perspective. In a complex school environment, there can be many programs going on at a school at the same time and interacting with each other in unknown ways. If schools take a narrow "programs and packages" approach (i.e. "this prevention package can be opened up from the box and plunked down here with success") without understanding how different programs fit together with one another and with the rest of the school day, they might actually be unwittingly working against themselves. Schools need to do more than choose an effective prevention program; they need to link effective programs to an overall prevention strategy.

• Poor management of time and other resources. Not every site is ready for change just because a starting date is reached. Detailed planning is essential, and program organizers must be prepared to deal with inevitable changes or delays. Programs often fail if implementers have not engaged in adequate planning, or do not have the flexibility to take another path if necessary.

• Characteristics of adults who carry out the programs. School-based programs depend on human operators whose levels of commitment may vary, or do not always feel supported or motivated to go through the difficult process of implementing change."

Source: Prevention Programs with Staying Power: What Makes Good Prevention Programs Take Hold and Last? (Spring 2005) The Challenge (newsletter of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.