Implementing a Prevention Curriculum

Abstract
Researchers from social work, education, and communications worked with practicing teachers to create and implement a curriculum around four culturally grounded prevention strategies in urban southwestern schools. The project proposed to test the effectiveness of various degrees of ethnic sensitivity in school-based drug prevention curricula developed around three different models, including a Latino, a non-Latino (Euro-American), and a multicultural (Latino, Euro-American, and African American) model, based on the cultural norms of these dominant populations. Collaboration with schools to implement the curriculum and to administer pretest and posttest surveys to students was accomplished by developing a strong partnership with teachers. Significant trends in urban drug prevention education and at least four essential conclusions about conducting effective school-based research surfaced from the implementation of this study.