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ERIC Number: EJ727379
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Mar
Pages: 19
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1098-2140
EISSN: N/A
An Alternate Route to Policy Influence: How Evaluations Affect D.A.R.E.
Weiss, Carol Hirschon; Murphy-Graham, Erin; Birkeland, Sarah
American Journal of Evaluation, v26 n1 p12-30 Mar 2005
Investigators of the influence of evaluations on policy decisions have noted three main routes to influence: instrumental, conceptual, and political/symbolic. This study, an inquiry into the effect of evaluations of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program, found a fourth main way that evaluations exert an influence: imposed use. The Safe and Drug Free Schools office of the U.S. Department of Education obliged districts to select a program that met its "Principles of Effectiveness," which most districts construed to mean that the program had to be on the department's approved list. Because results of D.A.R.E. evaluations repeatedly showed that D.A.R.E.'s effectiveness on knowledge and attitudes was neither sustained nor led to lower use of drugs, D.A.R.E. did not make the "lists." Hence, many districts dropped or scaled back D.A.R.E. This kind of imposed use is likely to become more common when government agencies make greater demands for accountability.
SAGE Publications, 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243 (Toll Free); Fax: 800-583-2665 (Toll Free).
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A