Very few teachers believe that the alcohol and other drug prevention programs delivered in school have an impact on student behavior or knowledge, and they want more training and support in order to speak effectively to kids about substance abuse, according to preliminary results from a Join Together survey.

The Join Together Alcohol and Drug Prevention Educators Survey, part of a project designed to improve the capacity of schools to provide effective prevention education, was recently sent to thousands of K-12 teachers, guidance counselors, and school administrators across the U.S. More than 3,700 responses were received.

An initial look at the replies finds that teachers are skeptical of the prevention education programs they deliver, with just 2 percent of respondents saying that the programs are "highly effective." Teachers -- especially at the middle- and high-school levels -- said they have little time to spend teaching alcohol and other drug prevention. And while most felt comfortable discussing these subjects in class, a majority said they had received little or no training to do so.

To be more effective prevention educators, teachers cited a need for: 

• more relevant study materials
• more time
• incorporating drug prevention into the school's core curriculum
• more support
• more training

The survey also found that the DARE program continues to be widely used in middle schools and high schools, despite many reports criticizing the program as ineffective. Far fewer teachers reported using evidence-based prevention curricula such as Project Alert or Project Northland.

The survey data are currently being analyzed by researchers and the project's advisory committee, and the complete findings are slated to be released later this fall.

The survey focused on four key areas:

• What are teachers doing in drug prevention?
• What do they think is effective?
• What are the characteristics of effective schools?
• What do teachers want?

Survey participants were queried about their job responsibilities regarding alcohol and other drug prevention, the extent of prevention programming in their schools, how much time they spent educating students about addiction-related problems, and what interventions they used.

Other questions sought information on barriers to effective prevention, local support for drug education, program focus, and educators' perspectives on the extent of the alcohol and other drug problems in their community.

"We have found that teachers in middle and high schools can help prevent underage drinking by providing students with information and skills that reinforce parental messages and community prevention policies," said David Rosenbloom, Join Together's director. "There are lots of materials available, but it is hard for us to know how much reaches the teachers. That's why we need to hear from the teachers and local administrators directly."

Jeff Barber, a member of the survey advisory board and a consultant for the Safe and Drug Free Communities (SDFS) program in the Indiana Department of Education, said the prevention Principles of Effectiveness developed by the SDFS office in the U.S. Department of Education have school-based prevention "on the right path ... by providing an opportunity to develop the broad infrastructure for prevention at its best and getting it to the school level."

But Barber noted that political considerations have frequently outweighed science in the implementation of school-based prevention; he cited DARE and the current push for student drug testing as examples. "The science of prevention, from a political perspective, does not have a lot of pizzaz," he said; unfortunately, that often leaves teachers and administrators at the local school level on the hook when programs pushed by politicians proved ineffective.

With No Child Left Behind testing and standards on the mind of almost every school administrator and teacher, "buy-in" for new prevention curricula also will require proponents to focus on the impact of drug use on academic achievement, Barber said.

Barber stressed that school-based prevention needs to go beyond "programs," noting that keeping students engaged and active in school has been shown to be a powerful protective factor against alcohol and other drug use. "The curricular piece should be considered, but it's not the whole thing," he said.

The Join Together Educators Survey was conducted by Communitas Online in Spring 2006.