The setting, population, and program Essay Example for Free

The setting, population, and program Essay Second Step is a violence prevention program has been implemented for Norman area 6th graders. This program focuses on such things as anger management, conflict negotiation, controlling emotions and not acting on impulse. It is designed to give students examples and topics of discussion that will promote thought provoking discussions and hopefully draw out some best behaviors as examples while exposing what should not be done The lessons are usually presented by teachers on a regular schedule and during the same class period when possible. They are designed so that teachers have to prepare very little. Scripts are provided for video programs and for scenario type role playing among the students. The videos attempt to show students reacting to violence or other negative influences as they might encounter them in their daily lives. For this age of student the lessons encourage modeling of the positive behavior that is shown in the videos and proper behavior from role playing and discussion. 2. What are the goals of the program and what are the problems/challenges in trying to meet them? (What is working and what is not working? ) The goal of this program is to ultimately reduce violence in schools. The curriculum is designed to obtain these results by getting the children to recognize their behaviors, beliefs and emotions and learn to deal with them in a positive manner. These activities would hopefully establish norms within the school community and allow the proper behavior to become the norm. These objectives are sometimes difficult to master and meet the standards of the program. Children that go through the Second Step program will generally engage in the curriculum if the instructor has prepared somewhat and is ready to lead the discussion. There are often very positive and mature comments from the students regarding the scenarios and video portions of the program. It really seems to help students who are on the right track reaffirm what they already believe to be the right thing to do. There are students who will always want to lead the discussion and have there answers heard. This is good for certain kids and it really helps the teachers who are leading the discussion. One downfall is that certain students will not engage in the discussion. Some are embarrassed or do not feel confident voicing their opinion in front of the group. The reasons for this vary from past experience with the group, fear of repercussion and lack of maturity on the part of the studen. Still others will loose face within their peer group if they show emotion or put down certain behaviors. These groups will often try to disrupt the flow of the conversation by belittling or not participating at all. They will blame the teacher or the program as being boring. The program may help a select few students develop a better sense of what it takes to prevent violence, but the lessons don’t seem to carry much further than the classroom. It is one thing to model good behavior in front of adults and quite another thing to stand up and do the right thing when no one is there to support their decision. Many students will turn their backs on violence in their area. 3. What evaluation strategies would you use and what type of data (e. g. , test scores, attendance records, referrals, etc. ) would you need to collect in order to substantiate the information stated in response to question #2? How would you evaluate future progress/change? How often does data need to be collected and analyzed? Evaluation of programs such as Second Step can be very difficult. With the end goal being less violence in the school, the number of principal office referrals would be the obvious first line in evaluating the progress of the program. A drop in the number of referrals due to violent acts would be a good indicator that the program is having some effect. Data would also need to be collected from past referrals and compare to the new data to see if which students were committing new act of violence. We would hope to see an overall drop in the number of violent acts among both past offenders and new offenders. Data should be collected on a quarterly basis to ensure that the needs of offending groups are being met. If data is collected on a longer scale (i. e. semester or yearly), it may not facilitate change quickly enough to the methods of delivery or it may not look for other factors within the school environment that may be effecting violent behaviors 4. What factors seem to be facilitating progress/change and which factors seem to be hindering progress/change? The ability of the teacher that is leading the course and who sees that group of students on a regular basis seems to be one factor in determining how successful the program is. If the material is simply presented and nor reinforced through repetition and school wide implementation, the lessons are quickly lost on many students. Staff that believe in the program will tend to follow up and ensure that the lessons are being used outside the context of the presentation time. The talent and motivation of the staff tends to be huge factor in success or failure of the program. It is very difficult to change perceptions and learned behaviors. Many students will participate in the program but will be taught different attitudes at home. This appears to be the largest factor in whether a student will accept the lessons of Second Step or not. When staff and family will follow through and continue the lessons outside of the context of the Second Step allotted time, there seems to be a much better chance of the students applying the lessons. Hindering change occurs when the lessons are left in the classroom and not made part of daily life at school. This will be the biggest obstacle that we face. 5. What recommendations would you make for change or improvement, based on the information that is available at this point? To fully implement such a program there has to be community wide acceptance. There needs to be an outreach effort to parents and other family members to allow them the opportunity to see the materials that are being presented. They should be a part of the effort. The message may not always be reaching home that students are working on violence prevention and reinforcement is needed from all areas of the community. By making family members part of the equation we will allow a better opportunity for success. 6. Who are your â€Å"stakeholders†? (Who has a â€Å"vested interest† in the outcome of your program? ) Who needs to receive a report on both progress and problems/challenges/needed changes? The stakeholders of the program in the end are all members of the community. The community benefits when there is less violence and when more productive citizens graduate from our schools. Families will see the most immediate effects when their children are in less trouble at school and see better results in their academic work. All educators, school families and the community in general including local police and government should receive the report of findings and have a voice in how to proceed. When the schools, police or family place themselves as the sole proprietors of the responsibility of the violence among our young student, we face more obstacles due to miscommunication, personal agendas and lack of understanding of the problem from on a human level in dealing with students who have violence issues.