Coordinators needed to take a systematic approach to their work incorporating proven strategies and a thoughtful plan. Through their core training and follow-up online courses, coordinators learned a step-by-step way to devise and implement a prevention plan for their schools and communities. Dr. Durlak has identified professional development as one of the steps to ensure effective implementation in schools. There are several others we will look at throughout this day.

Ingredients for Sustainable School Improvement

In "Safe, Supportive and Successful Schools: Step by Step" David Osher, Kevin Dwyer, and Stephanie Jackson state that research and practice suggest that sustainable school improvement requires at least 14 ingredients. We will take a closer look at each of these components:

All the schools with prevention coordinators had significant problems in the areas of drugs, alcohol, or violence. Those were the starting points. But coordinators had to gather evidence and go through a step-by-step process in deciding which initiatives to undertake. As part of that process, you will need to select evidence-based programs and practices that fit your school. Be an intelligent consumer. Make sure the programs and practices have produced results under conditions that suggest that they will work in your own school and community (Osher et. al., pp. 5-6). Here's a link to some of the excellent resources available to you online to help you select the right interventions for your community.

Form a School-Based Team

It is a good idea for schools to employ two teams: the school wide team that addresses overall performance and the student support team that addresses individual student problems, according to Safeguarding Our Children: An Action Guide. At least three people -- the principal, a teacher and mental health specialist -- should serve on both teams, according to the Action Guide.

Practitioners suggest first looking to work with an existing school wide team that addresses academic performance and family involvement. Team members should understand the school community. Some should have expertise in areas such as school safety, student support, mental health and school reform. The members should also represent a variety of perspectives.

The coordinator is responsible for leading the team and making sure it stays on track. Alison Adler, who oversaw the work of several coordinators in Palm Beach County, Florida, offered this advice for team leaders.

Lisa Pisciotta, a middle school coordinator in Denver, said that it is also critical to encourage team members to take ownership of programs or prevention efforts. That will make them more invested in the programs and the programs can live on even if the coordinator position ends.

Conduct a Needs Assessment

Day 3 has already discussed the importance of needs assessments. A good assessment is the key to developing your prevention program. The needs assessment is a way to take a systematic look at the issues facing a school and community. An assessment can include gathering existing data, such as school offenses and suspensions. It provides objective data to problems that people might sense but not have the evidence to back up. An assessment also may reveal issues that team members had not been aware of. Assessments also often include surveys of students, faculty and school administrators as well as focus groups. Many times, coordinators meet with community officials who may have access to key data or have conducted their own needs assessments. Police departments will have data on youth offenses and agencies such as the YMCA or Boys and Girls Clubs may have conducted their own youth needs assessments that could be relevant for this work.

Added Adler, "Look at what the school has already done and what the community has already decided on the needs for that school and try and mold a plan that works for both groups."

It is not enough to simply gather data, however, she said.

Develop Relationships with School Staff and Community Members

Relationship building is one of the most critical jobs of a prevention coordinator. Teachers need to know that the coordinators are there to make their lives easier, not to add work. Principals must support the coordinators for them to be effective. Community members, such as police chiefs, school board members, city council members and heads of nonprofits can become crucial allies in the work of a coordinator. Much of this relationship building involves being a steady, available presence and offering to help rather than asking for something -- at least in the beginning.

These relationships are not only good for the coordinator but good for the school as well.

Trisha Garwood, school coordinator at Portage High School in Portage, Wisc., had her office located right next to the copy room, where teachers came by every day. She stationed herself outside the room each day and talked to the teachers. She also administered a mini-survey to learn more about their needs and concerns. It quickly became clear that teachers felt that incoming junior high students needed some help in adjusting to high school life. They were often disoriented and unprepared to start school. In her first year, the incoming freshmen class was particularly seen as troublesome. With the needs of the teachers in hand, Garwood and school staff put together a plan for a freshman orientation. Under the plan the first day of school was solely for freshmen. They met with teachers, got their schedules, found their way around school, and signed up for extracurricular activities. They also learned how to do seemingly simple things that had caused other freshmen problems in the past. For example, everyone in high school had lockers with padlocks-a change from junior high. Trying to open those padlocks quickly in between classes was often difficult for new freshmen, who would get taunted by their upperclassmen. On the freshmen day, they got a chance to practice opening their locks.

Trisha Garwood also quickly learned that it was critical to reach out to her community. The high school building was relatively new and had been funded by a referendum. School administrators knew that later on, they might need to ask the community for more funding. So they did not always want to be seen as having their hand out. The area has a high elderly population who could make or break any future referendums. Garwood took a team of administrators to meet with seniors at a local residential facility. When asked for their ideas, they said that they wanted to spend time with kids in a positive way rather than just seeing them as hoodlums hanging out on the streets.

Garwood began organizing a regular euchre night that was attended by more than 100 people-half seniors and half seventh and eighth graders. The game nights have been such a success that the seniors have become some of the students'-and the schools-biggest advocates, Garwood said. Recently they supported the construction of a skateboard park that the students wanted.

Develop an Action Plan

An action plan is a blueprint for the work of the coordinator. It is based on the needs assessment and identifies the key priority areas for improvement. The plan will include goals with measurable objectives.

Coordinators and team members should build on and strengthen existing resources. While action plans are an important basis for work, they will doubtless change as coordinators get to know their schools better. Karen Smith, who worked in several schools in Alief, Texas, found that she had to modify her action plan to fit the needs of each school. Even though the demographics were similar across schools the needs were different. If the school was low performing on standardized tests, principals might be reluctant to introduce any prevention curriculum. Instead, Smith and her colleagues helped teachers find ways to connect with their students and manage their classrooms, which in turn could help them better teach material for the standardized tests. In another school with higher test scores, Smith might concentrate on building the strengths of the students to continue to do well. There might be more student led activities as well.

Select a Research-Based Prevention Program

At the heart of the coordinator program is the reliance on prevention programs that have been validated by research. Coordinators were required to use prevention programs that were on the U.S. Department of Education's list of exemplary or promising programs. All had been shown to be effective in research studies.

Among the key prevention strategies that have been favorably evaluated are:

• Enhancing students' personal and social skills.
• Connecting at-risk students and families with appropriate services.
• Providing safe and supervised alternatives.
• Restructuring classrooms to promote student engagement.
• Influencing school and community norms.
• Establishing and enforcing clear school policies.
• Establishing and enforcing clear community policies.
• Building school-family-community-partnerships

Implement the Program, Often Starting with a Pilot Program

Choosing a research-based prevention program is only the first step. The next step is to implement that program within the specific problems and population of a school and community.

Quality implementation refers to the degree to which an intervention is delivered as it was intended to be delivered. However, many researchers in the field assert that successful implementation actually depends on some degree of adaptation. Programs must be adapted to accommodate complex and often idiosyncratic school settings as well as to meet the needs of a variety of audiences. One group of researchers have proposed that program modification is acceptable as long as the program's active or core elements are delivered as planned.

Many coordinators began implementing their programs on a small scale. They would start in one classroom or one grade level.

And not every intervention should continue after a pilot run.

"We've had good luck in a few initiatives that had results that showed that these interventions worked and the schools made long-standing commitments to them," Adler said. "But if we find some that aren't making the grade, they're not showing enough improvement or they're difficult to implement, no matter how evidence based or research based our schools aren't going to really accept them."

Conduct Continual Staff Development

Choosing a research-based prevention program is only the first step. The next step is to implement that program within the specific problems and population of a school and community.

One of the most important jobs of a prevention coordinator is to conduct on-going professional development. In fact, teacher training is a critical component of a prevention plan. Teachers will be the main school staff implementing these programs, which often require an interactive, active-learning style that they may not be trained in. Because these programs are comprehensive and seek to involve the whole school, coordinators need to involve and train custodians, cafeteria staff, secretaries and paraprofessionals as well. Many schools have high turnover so new staff need to be trained in prevention.

Work with Community Members to Implement Programs

Community members are equally important partners in prevention programs. They can bring needed resources and expertise to schools. What's more, students are a product of their community as well as their family. Prevention coordinators need to have their finger on the pulse of the community and know what the key players are doing around prevention issues.

Fred Poteete, a middle school coordinator in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, needed the help of the community in combating a serious bullying problem. Many families attended church, which were a key part of the community. Poteete invited youth pastors from the area to school and presented a bible study curriculum about bullying. Poteete gave them the curriculum along with some ideas about how they could address bullying in their youth groups. He explained that bullying not only means hitting or calling someone names but excluding people from groups, which can happen as easily in church groups as in other groups.

Poteete also pointed out to the youth pastors that many youth groups are small, which increases the chance the someone in the group will be bullied.

Communicate Findings and Results

Marie Rogers, a middle school coordinator in Nassau County, Florida, made it a point to consistently communicate the results of her work to two main constituencies: school boards and the teachers implementing the prevention programs. For school boards, she did a power point presentation. For busy teachers she created a one-page information sheet with key findings. She put the one-pager in all the teachers' mail boxes to make sure they got them.

Evaluate and Refine the Programs

It is critical that coordinators undertake a systematic evaluation of the prevention programs that they have implemented. Evaluations are crucial in learning more about the results of a program and how to improve it. It is important for coordinators and their school team to agree on the outcomes they want to measures at the beginning so they can or an outside evaluator can collect the appropriate data and information.

All of this work is described in more depth in the coordinators manual and in online courses that is available for districts to use in training their own prevention specialists at http://www.k12coordinator.org

Resources for Day 4:

Cuervo, A. (January, 2005). Personal communication.

Durlak, J. (1998). "Why implementation is important," Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community. Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 5-18.

Elias, M., Zins, J.E., Graczyk, P.A. and Weissberg, R.P. (2003). Implementation, Sustainability, And Scaling Up of Social-Emotional and Academic Innovations in Public Schools. School Psychology Review, 32 (3), 303-319.

Garwood, T. (April, 2005). Personal communication.

Gottfredson, G. D., Gottfredson, D. C., Czeh, E. R., Cantor, D., Crosse, S. B., & Hantman, I. (2000). National study of delinquency prevention in schools: Summary. Ellicott City, MD: Gottfredson Associates. Available: http://www.gottfredson.com/national.htm

Mihalic S, Irwin, K, Fagan, A, Ballard, D. and Elliott, D. (July 2004 "Successful Program Implementation: Lessons from Blueprints." Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Office of Justice Programs, Washington, D.C.

Osher, D. (January, 2005). Personal communication.

Osher, D., Dwyer, K, and Jackson, J. (2004). Safe, Supportive and Successful Schools, Step by Step. Longmont, Colorado: Sopris West Educational Services.

Pisciotta, L. (January, 2005). Personal communication.

Rogers, M. (August, 2005). Personal communication.

Smith, K. (January, 2005). Personal communication.

Wilson, R. (January, 2005). Personal communication.