Title: Safe Schools/Healthy Students 2005 Report to New Hanover County School Youth Risk Behavior Survey and School Security Assessments 2005 Prepared by the UNCW Evaluation Team August 2005
1 Safe Schools/Healthy Students 2005Report to
New Hanover County School Youth Risk Behavior
Surveyand School Security Assessments2005Prep
ared by the UNCW Evaluation Team August 2005
2What is Safe Schools/Healthy Students?
- Federal partnership
- School and community partnership
- University partnership
3SSHS
- 6081 students participated in Second Step Social
Skills/Violence Prevention curriculum - Including 573 three to five year olds in
childcare centers - 236 received Anger Management therapy
- 708 participated in substance abuse prevention
classes - 722 received conflict resolution training in
their schools - 351 received alternative to out of school
suspension services - 91 received mental health therapy in their schools
4 - Youth Risk Behavior Survey
5What is the YRBS?
- Youth risk behavior surveys were conducted by the
CDC and UNCW evaluators over a two week period in
April of 2005 - UNCW evaluators surveyed eight schools not
already surveyed by the CDC - 5 classrooms in 3 high schools
- 5 classrooms in 5 middle schools
- Surveys examined health risk behaviors including
violence, tobacco and alcohol use, sexual
behavior, drug use, and psychological health
6Materials Used
- YRBS Survey
- Middle School Questionnaire (49 items)
- High School Questionnaire (87 items)
- Scantron forms
- Directions for questionnaire completion
- Completely confidentialstudents put form into
envelope
7Procedure
- Classes were randomly selected- five from middle
and high schools not selected by the CDC - Schools selected times and dates for
administration (within a two-week period) - Classroom packets were assembled
8Procedure
- Survey Administration
- Six Safe Schools/UNCW evaluators administered
surveys in assigned classes, and monitored by
SSHS staff - Evaluators read standardized directions to each
class and monitored completion of the surveys by
students - Administration of surveys took approximately one
hour
9 - Middle School Results by Category
10Violence Related Behavior
11Alcohol Use
12Other Drug Use
13Sexual Behavior
14High School Results by Category
15Violence Related Behavior
16Alcohol Use
17Other Drug Use
18Sexual Behavior
19School Security Assessment
20(No Transcript)
21What were the School Security Observations?
- Authorization procedures
- All New Hanover County public schools visited
twice by two different evaluators - Assessed security and school climate
22Materials Used
- Pocket PCs
- Hand held computers with Noldus behavioral
observation software allowing evaluators to enter
times and descriptions of observations
23Procedure
- All evaluators received approximately eleven
weeks of training prior to observations - All constructs were operationally defined
precisely in order for evaluators to become
reliable
24Procedure
- Evaluators were instructed to enter schools by
the front door and continue walking until stopped
and escorted to the office - If stopped but not escorted, evaluators continued
walking - Those not stopped left school grounds without
going to the office - Time to contact with school personnel, total time
in school, and quality of contacts were assessed
25School Observations by Level
26Elementary School Observations
Category Not Stopped at all Stopped but not escorted Escorted Total time spent in school
Number of Evaluators 3 5 36 44 Observations
Average Length of Time 45 minutes 23 minutes 9 minutes 14 minutes (average)
27Middle School Observations
Category Not Stopped at all Stopped but not escorted Escorted Total time spent in school
Number of Evaluators 3 3 8 14 Observations
Average Length of Time 45 minutes 11 minutes 10 minutes 21 minutes (average)
28High School Observations
Category Not Stopped at all Stopped but not escorted Escorted Total time spent in school
Number of Evaluators 4 4 2 10 Observations
Average Length of Time 41 minutes 15 minutes 12 minutes 25 minutes (average)
29Summary and conclusions
- New Hanover County students are engaging in
violent behavior, sexual activity and drug use in
alarming numbers - While consistent with North Carolina data the
magnitude of the numbers clearly demonstrate the
need for early sustained interventions targeting
such behavior - The health and societal consequences of not
addressing these issues are lifelong
30The good news
- The Safe Schools/Healthy students federal grant
initiative has programs targeting these specific
issues. - The challenge is to build and sustain these
partnerships.