Case Study on "Program Evaluation of a Proposed Violence Prevention"
Case Study 11 pages (2946 words) Sources: 12 Style: APA
[EXCERPT] . . . .
Program Evaluation of a Proposed Violence Prevention ProgramHigh school seniors are more likely to take weapons to school than to take calculus in school. - President George Bush, 1997
Targeted promotion and prevention issues.
Students who enroll in biology quickly realize that the world is not a sterile place, but no classroom is required at all to introduce them to the high incidence of violence in the nation's schools today. Indeed, many students encounter violence at home, in their schools, as well as in their places of recreation, and some become victims of such abusive behaviors early on in their lives. These episodes of violence may well affect many of these young people for the rest of their lives in adverse ways, ranging from fear of school to full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition, other young people may encounter violence in their homes or schools in the form of sexual abuse.
Taken together, these issues are some of the most important problems facing the country today, and despite efforts to reduce the incidence of such behaviors, the problem persists and remains as complicated as ever. According to Rozalski and Yell (2000), "Violence in American society has reached epidemic proportions. Especially troubling is the increasing violence among young people, with the predictable spillover of effects into the public schools. In fact, violence has become a significant aspect of the public school experience in America" (p. 187). The highly publicized recent school shootings in Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Colorado have riveted the country's attention on these issues; however, the
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Another authority adds that, "Problems of violence caused by our school age children (in and out of schools) are worse now than they have ever been. Youth violence is on the rise and permeates every segment of our society" (Hoffman, 1996, p. 8). Unfortunately, in many ways, the problem has even gotten worse in recent years with the ready availability of weapons. For instance, reflecting the epigraph by President Bush above, Hoffman (1996) emphasizes that, "Today the possibility that a disagreement among students will be settled with some type of weapon rather than an old-fashioned fistfight has increased significantly. A major difference between violence in the schools in the 1950s and the 1990s is the presence and use of weapons, especially guns. Also, students seem to hold a grudge much longer. Some students wait until the last day of school to settle an incident that occurred weeks or even months earlier" (p. 8). In this environment, it is little wonder that many students drop out or turn to substance abuse or other self-destructive behaviors rather than face another day in a school where their safety is not guaranteed (Gabor, 1999).
II. Project vision.
While there are a number of positive outcomes that can be reasonably anticipated that would result from any reduction of violence against children, the project vision for this initiative will focus on the following four areas:
1. Promote pro-social behavior and conflict resolution skills in students;
2. Augment parent and staff conflict resolution strategies and skills;
3. Improve parental affiliation with schools; and, 4. Increase awareness in child sexual abuse issues.
III. Population to be served and rationale for selection.
While many observers might believe that targeting "just the troublemakers" will solve the problem of violence in the schools and elsewhere, the problem is far too complex to benefit from this approach. According to Weinstein (1999):
Decent students struggle to remain decent while warding off their peers who are not. To do so, decent, usually nonviolent students who think adults cannot protect them devise ways to protect themselves. These students may carry weapons for protection, and use posturing, threat displays, and other behavior to appear dangerous and unmanageable. Their hope is that intimidation will ward off predators over whom adults have relinquished control. Students use toughness and bravado as self-protective behavior, and these have become dominant indicators for social evaluation in the peer group. This is the process through which decent students become transformed into proactive instruments of violence. (p. 40)
Moreover, another ingredient in this mix is teacher complacency or apathy concerning violence in the schools. In this regard, Shidler (2001) reports that, "Violence occurs each day within earshot of teachers, ranging from verbal taunts to pushing, shoving, and other types of physical contact. Often, teachers do nothing. This teacher-sanctioned violence is indicative of destructive conflict management. Students' violent behaviors go unchallenged by teachers and administrators, and may result in significant damage to students' self-esteem and sense of dignity" (p. 167). Researchers have found that 80% of children enter their 1st grade year with a high self-esteem and a high sense of dignity; however, by the time children reach 5th grade, just 20% have maintained the same sense of self-esteem, and only 5% carry a high sense of dignity into high school (Shidler, 2000). Therefore, because the entire school's population, including professional staff, is involved in some fashion or another by the incidence of violence, the population to be served by this initiative is a school's entire student body, teachers, support staff, administrators and parents or caregivers. This approach is congruent with Furlong and Morrison (2000) who advise, "When violence occurs in the community, and especially on a school campus, whether by the hands of another student or by an outsider, actions must be taken to ensure the safety of all students and the staff who serve them" (p. 71).
IV. Scope of preventative efforts.
The scope of the preventative efforts envisioned herein are broad and are based on other school-based violence prevention programs that use Elliott et al.'s (1998) definition in developing and implementing intervention strategies that attempt to prevent violence in school settings. Other violence preventive intervention initiatives, though, have also used broader definitions of violence that include delinquent and antisocial behavior such as verbal abuse, the threat of the use of weapons, vandalism, and property crimes (D'Andrea, 2004). Still other prevention programs have expanded this definition by defining six categories of violence as shown in Table 1 below.
Table 1.
Six Categories of Violence to be Addressed.
Category
Definition/Description
Physical violence
Included in this category are fistfights that occur in public schools, various forms of physical violence committed by youth gangs, and frequent though underpublicized incidents of domestic violence.
Sexual and gender violence
This category includes hostile and aggressive behaviors that devalue gays, lesbians, and women in our society. Although a tremendous amount of media attention is directed to the problem of violence in our schools, the same amount of attention is not devoted to examining violence against women, which occurs with much greater frequency. The magnitude of this latter problem is highlighted by the National Health and Education Consortium, which reports that one woman is battered every 12 seconds in the United States, usually by a family member, husband, boyfriend, or other acquaintance.
Media violence
Experts have noted that the average child in the United States has viewed more than 10,000 hours of violence on television by the time she or he is 12 years old (Hughes & Hasbrouk, 1996). Investigative reports that emerged from the deadly killings that took place in 1999, at Columbine High School in Colorado, suggested that the repeated viewing of violent films, having access to various hate sites on the Internet, and playing violent video games were all factors that are thought to have contributed to the deliberate manner in which Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold planned for and conducted the shooting at their Colorado high school.
Cultural-racial violence
As the nation continues its transformation into an increasingly multicultural society from a nation that has historically been comprised of a majority of persons from white European ancestry to a nation in which most of its citizens will come from non-White, non-European backgrounds, the racial tensions that characterize the country are likely to become exacerbated in the future unless time, effort, and resources are directed toward dealing with this problem. Without directing appropriate resources to deal with the heightening tensions that will predictably accompany the cultural-racial transformation of the United States, several multicultural counseling theorists have argued that these tensions are likely to lead to the… READ MORE
Quoted Instructions for "Program Evaluation of a Proposed Violence Prevention" Assignment:
Organize this case study as follows:
I. Targeted Promotion and Prevention Issues
II. Project Vision
III. Population to be served and rationale for selection
IV. Scope of preventative efforts
V. Coalition service activities
VI. Expected results
This paper must address 4 goals:
1. Promote pro social behavior and conflict reslolution skills in students
2. Augment parent and staff conflict resolution strategies and skills
3. Improve parental affiliation with schools
4. Increase awareness in child sexual abuse issues
The paper should also address the following questions:
1. Provide a comprehensive explanation of the program evaluation model you have chosen. Why would it be the most effect in providing both formative and summative feedback to the coalition managers and staff as well as other stakeholders? Provide a clear and well developed explanation as to why you chose this evaluation model.
2. Discuss your strategy to assess salient process variable in your program evaluation.
3. Indicate how you plan to operationalize the outcome variables that are targeted in teh proposed program plan. Do you intend to create assessment instruments and or utilize instruments that are already developed.
4. Indicate the research methodology you plan to employ as part of your evaluation plan.
5. Discuss the data analytic strategy as it relates to determining the effectiveness of the program and implementation integrity.
6. Relate in detail your plan for providing feedback to program leaders and staff in order to assist them in monitoring and improving program activities.
7. Discuss your approach for addressing the substainability of the project with coalation stakeholders.
Again, be specific in the development of this case study so it can be read and applied.
How to Reference "Program Evaluation of a Proposed Violence Prevention" Case Study in a Bibliography
“Program Evaluation of a Proposed Violence Prevention.” A1-TermPaper.com, 2007, https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/program-evaluation-proposed/61594. Accessed 5 Oct 2024.
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