How Teachers Were Evaluated
Sidebar to the article
Helping At-Risk Youth Say "No" to Gangs by Brian Higgins
The evaluation team conducted several tasks to determine whether the
Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) course was being
taught as designed. The team assessed fidelity by (1) watching
G.R.E.A.T. officers teach, (2) observing officer training, (3) surveying
and interviewing G.R.E.A.T.-trained officers and supervisors, and (4)
surveying school personnel.
All instructors — be they school
resource officers or law enforcement officers — must complete G.R.E.A.T.
officer training and be certified before being assigned to teach the
program. This training (one week for officers with teaching experience
and two weeks for others) introduces officers to the program and covers
gang trends, emphasizing prevention over enforcement; the developmental
stages of middle school students; and teaching and classroom management
techniques.
The Bureau of Justice Assistance, the agency
responsible for operational control of G.R.E.A.T., trained a group of
senior G.R.E.A.T. officers to observe classroom teaching. Evaluators
observed 33 officers teaching the G.R.E.A.T. program in the 31
participating schools from September 2006 through May 2007. Each
evaluator documented whether the instructor addressed each lesson
component, the time spent on each component, how well the instructor
engaged the students, whether activities were conducted as intended, and
the overall quality of the lesson.
Back to: Helping At-Risk Youth Say "No" to Gangs 