From: Jim Rosenfield <[j n r] at [igc.apc.org]>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: How Effective is DARE?
Date: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 21:58:16 -0800 (PST)

The first page of this report is presented for discussion purposes
only.  I direct readers to the abstract for the main point.  The
opening paragraphs of the paper are provided for "flavor".

How Effective Is Drug Abuse Resistance Education? 
A Meta-Analysis of Project DARE Outcome Evaluations    

Susan T. Ennett PhD, Nancy S. Tobler, MS, PhD., Christopher L.
Ringwalt, DrPH and Robert L. Flewelling, PhD
American Journal of Public Health  September 1994, Vol.84. No.91394

 ABSTRACT
Objectives. Project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Fducation) is the
most widely used school-based drug use prevention program in the
United States, but the findings of rigorous evaluations of its
effectiveness have not been considered collectively.
  Methods. We used mets-analytic techniques to review eight
methodologically rigorous DARE evaluations. Weighted effect size
means for several short-term outcomes also were compared with means
reported for other drug use prevention programs.
  Results. The DARE effect size for drug use behavior ranged from
.00 to .11 across the eight studies; the weighted mean for drug use
across studies was .06. For all outcomes considered, the DARE
effect size means were substantially smaller than those of programs
emphasizing social and general competencies and using interactive
teaching strategies.
  Conclusions. DARE's short-term effectiveness for reducing or
preventing drug use behavior is small and is less than for
interactive prevention programs. (Am J Public Health 1994;84:1394-
1401)

Introduction
   School-based drug use prevention programs have been an integral
part of the US antidrug campaign for the past two decades. Although
programs have proliferated, none is more prevalent than Project
DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education).  Created in 1983 by the Los
Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School
District, DARE uses specially trained law enforcement officers to
teach a drug use prevention curriculum in elementary schools and,
more recently, in junior and senior high schools. Since its
inception, DARE has been adopted by approximately 30% of local
school districts nationwide, and it continues to spread rapidly.
DARE is the only drug use prevention program specifically named in
the 1986 Drug-Free School and Communities Act. Some 10% of the
Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act governors' funds, which are
30% of the funds available each fiscal year for state and local
programs, are set aside to programs "such as Project Drug Abuse
Resistance Education," amounting to much of the program's public
funding.
   Given its widespread use and the considerable investment of
government dollars, school time, and law enforcement effort, it is
important to know whether DARE is an effective drug use prevention
program. That is, to what extent does DARE meet its curriculum
objective most prorninently "to keep kids off drugs"
   DARE's core curriculum, offered to pupils in the last grades of
etementary school, is the heart of DARE's program and the focus of
this study. We evaluate here the core curriculum's short-term
effectiveness by using meta-analytic techniques to integrate the
evaluation findings of several studies.  We searched for all DARE
evaluations, both published and unpublished, conducted over the
past 10 years and selected for further review those studies that
met specified methodological criteria. We calculated effect sizes
as a method for establishing a comparable effectiveness measure
across studies. In addition, to put DARE in context of other
school-based drug use prevention programs, we compared the average
magnitude of the DARE effect sizes with those of other programs
that target young people of a similar age.

DARE's Core Curriculum
    The DARE core curriculum's 17 lessons, usually offered once a
week for 45 to 60 minutes, focus on teaching pupils the skills
needed to recognize and resist social pressures to use drugs.  In
addition, lessons focus on providing information about drugs,
teaching decision-making skills, building self-esteem, and choosing
healthy alternatives to drug use.