Coordinators bring an expertise and depth that is critical for schools and districts. By assigning the right person the responsibility of overseeing prevention work, districts can be assured that they are getting well-tested programs that are right for their particular schools. They are giving students, teachers, other staff, parents and others the tools to not only be successful academically but to be successful in life.

School districts have many options in adding a dedicated prevention coordinator. They can re-assign someone who is already working as a counselor, school psychologist, social worker or teacher. That person would need to have the right combination of skills and personality for the job. Suyapa Silvia, the evaluator for the Middle School Coordinator program, pointed out findings from a 10-site case study she conducted.

"We heard from the administrators that what was key in the places that were perceived as successful were the coordinators themselves," she said. "What they brought, their enthusiasm, their skills, their leadership. They communicated better and more often [than the less successful coordinators], they anticipated the need for information and provided it in a way that was helpful. They gained the trust of the administrators and they were very good at connecting with community resources. They brought more community resources to the schools and more funding."

In the case study, all of the coordinators had at least a bachelor's degree and 60 percent had a master's degree, according to Silvia.

The Spring 2005 issue of The Challenge newsletter, which is a publication of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, contains an article in which Eric Schaps, president of Developmental Studies Center, describes key factors that make a difference in effective implementation and sustainability. He is the developer of the Child Development Project, a school improvement initiative that builds students' reading comprehension skills and fosters caring connections between students, teachers, and parents. The project has been recognized as a model program by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and as a promising program by the U.S. Department of Education's Expert Panel on Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free Schools. Schaps has had more than 20 years of experience in implementing prevention programs in schools across the country.

In the article, Schaps and his colleagues identified several factors that can mean the difference between successful and unsuccessful implementation and sustainability.

• Principal leadership and support. "You simply must have the support of the principal," Schaps said. "Teachers need ample professional development time and you need access to money, space and equipment. The principal is the one to make those things happen. The principal also needs to actively participate in all staff development sessions. That sends a clear signal that the program is important and that school culture change is a priority."

• District office leadership and support. School districts are increasingly determining priorities for their schools and deciding how staff development time and school budgets are to be used. Therefore, it is important that key district decision-makers find ways to support the adoption and institutionalization of any serious program. This includes district leaders signaling the importance of the program by allocating resources they control to it, and protecting the school from competing demands for change so that the principal and staff can properly attend to implementation issues.

• Whole faculty involvement. Change requires not only the investment of classroom teachers but also the involvement of lunchroom staff, playground aides, bus drivers, janitorial staff, and school secretaries. In order to build a cohesive school culture, all of the individuals who relate to students and families need to operate in synch.

• Professional development that "walks the walk." "Teachers need a complete understanding of every aspect of the program," Schaps explained. "Therefore, when you are training teachers, you need to provide opportunities for them to experience the exact same elements of the program that their students will."

• Clear program implementation materials. Schools require how-to manuals that clearly describe each program element and offer easy-to-follow activities.

Funding

Another important part of prevention work is securing funding to begin or continue the work after grant funding ends. While the National Coordinator funding ended in 2005, there are other options for funding for these positions. There are three main sources of grants for school-and community-based prevention work:

• The government, including federal, state and sometimes local sources.
• Foundations
• Private businesses and corporations

• Use the money efficiently.
• Show the relationship between student support and academic improvement.
• Focus on evidenced based practices.

Examples of funding possibilities are:

• Title 1 of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is the largest federally funded educational program. This program, authorized by Congress, provides supplemental funds to school districts to assist schools with the highest student concentrations of poverty to meet school educational goals.

• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is a federal program which provides funds to states and local education agencies (school districts) to support education for children with disabilities age 3 to 21.

• U.S. Department of Justice, Juvenile Justice funding at the state level.

• The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Amalia Cuervo, program officer for the National Coordinator program at the U.S. Department of Education, also urged schools to collaborate with other agencies in seeking funding. Among the possibilities for collaboration are:

• Aligning and coordinating the use of categorical funds to enhance their efficiency.

• Pooling funds across agencies or programs to create a less restrictive source of funding for local programs.

• Braiding funds so that each agency can track and retain its identity and requirements for its funding while the monies from different agencies are "braided" together to fund one Integrated Service Plan.

• Capturing and reinvesting funds save through programs that appropriately reduce costs (e.g., when fewer referrals for costly services are made.)

Free and Extensive On-line Training

Research has shown that people who work in prevention need intensive and on-going training. This training is available free of charge through several federal agencies. National Coordinators web site has its entire core training available as well as 15 on-line courses that provide additional training on planning and implementing programs as well as on specific topics such as crisis response, bullying, truancy, and gangs (www.k12coordinator.org).

The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is launching a substantial on-line training available for prevention programs (www.samhsa.org). Called the Prevention Platform, the training will have tools and resources for:

• Communities to assess their needs, readiness and resources.
• Strategic planning and infrastructure development (capacity building).
• Selection and implementation of evidence-based prevention approaches.
• Ongoing evaluations that measure progress, impact, and outcomes.

SAMHSA also has a National Registry of Effective Programs and Practices (www.modelprograms.samhsa.gov). The Registry is a system for identifying and promoting interventions that are:

• Well implemented.
• Thoroughly evaluated.
• Produce consistent, positive and replicable results.
• Able to assist in dissemination and training efforts.

Enshrining Prevention Work

The ultimate goal for these coordinator positions are to enshrine or their work into the school district. Districts have a variety of options to ensure that this work continues. Among the options are:

• Enshrine programs in law or school improvement plans.
• Put the coordinator's position as a line item in the school budget.
• Tie prevention positions into union-protected positions.
• Provide on-going staff development.
• Find champions for this work.
• Adapt programs to changing needs.

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References for Day 5:

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

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.

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.