Syracuse University
The Syracuse University Violence Prevention Project designs, implements and evaluates violence prevention efforts within the Syracuse City School District; identifies and supports research-based violence prevention programming within school-family-community collaborations; and serves as a community resource, partnering with schools, local and regional agencies, to prevent and reduce violence and promote prosocial behaviors among our youth.
With support from the Hamilton Fish Institute, SUVPP is conducting an intervention and research project centered around a violence prevention program initiated by the New York State Department of Education. SUVPP plays an important role in supporting and strengthening implementation of the school intervention, and researching processes and outcomes. The current project examines the implementation of Positive Behavior Supports and Interventions (PBIS) in two elementary schools within the Syracuse City School District. These schools share geographic proximity and many demographic similarities. We are comparing implementation and outcomes across schools in order to identify elements of the PBIS program that help or hinder program effectiveness, and separate these from factors that are context or school specific. In doing this, stronger and better recommendations for school and program improvement can be made, and a deeper understanding of what works and why can be gained.
SUVPP is also involved with a third elementary school in the Syracuse City School District, providing training and consultation to strengthen programmatic efforts to develop and support prosocial skills among students.
In previous years, the SUVPP worked with an inner-city alternative school for
students caught possessing a weapon on school property. All students in the
intervention, therefore, had already become involved with violence, or were
among those most likely to become involved with violence. The students, who
ranged from sixth to twelfth grade, attended the school for varying lengths
of time -- from one marking period (10 weeks) to one calendar year.
A whole-school approach to violence prevention was introduced through the Syracuse
Social, Emotional, and Academic Success (SEAS) program. The Syracuse SEAS program
consisted of a course specially designed for urban students from nationally
validated curricula, workshops for school personnel on the program and ways
to integrate skills from the course into other academic subjects, and continuous
support for them and for students while they were at Garfield and as they made
the transition back to regular school.
The effectiveness of the intervention was researched through observations and
interviews with staff and students, as well as through the examination of school
reports of suspensions and student responses to a national survey. As many staff
as possible were interviewed in 1999, 2000 and 2001. A sample of students was
interviewed while attending the intervention class and again about a year later.
To assist further in ascertaining the long-term effects of the intervention,
some focus groups were held with students after they had made the transition
back to regular school.
Findings from the study confirm the effectiveness of a whole-school approach
to violence prevention. Staff at the school perceived a value that was both
social and academic to students taking a required course on prosocial skills
and anger management. Data from the school district on student suspensions and
infractions leading to suspension showed that the number of infractions per
student at the school was reduced by more than a half between 1999 and 2001.
Within the two years of the intervention, only a small percentage (approximately
10 percent) of the students in the program returned to an alternative school
or to a residential facility after leaving Garfield. On supplemental questions
to the National School Crime and Safety Survey, a majority of the students reported
using one or more of the skills they had learned either at home, in school or
with friends. Those who had taken a lab designed to reinforce the skills taught
in the intervention, were even more likely than their peers to report using
a skill they had learned.
Project Management
Principal Investigator
Sheila Clonan, Ph.D.
Project Manager
Sigrid Davison