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Science and the Prevention of Violence:
Researchers' Reflections
by Dr. Jim Larson, Ph.D.

Where is School on a Child's Journey to Prison?

It is his very first day at his large, urban public school, and he is giggly and excited! He arrives dressed in the best clothes he owns, and he lines up outside the door with his fellow five year-olds. He and the others in this wiggly line of children are about to enter a strange new world, one which will rocket many of them to the stars of achievement and success – many of them, but not him. He doesn't know this yet, but instead of the stars, he is about to continue a trajectory begun at home that will take him straight to prison… if he is lucky enough to live that long.

Children from economically privileged homes typically start school already "pre-wired" for success. They have enjoyed many home hours learning colors, numbers, letters, and most importantly, how to get along with other children and the adults in their worlds. Their economically successful parents know well that pathway to the stars. However, the often complicated and demanding lives of families from poverty make this parent-to-child training for success much more difficult and unlikely. Time is spent less on letters and colors and more on the skills required for safety and survival in the home and neighborhood. As a consequence, too many children arrive at school that first day ill-prepared behaviorally and academically for what will greet them. How the public school subsequently responds to them will in large measure determine what fate lies down that path. Research indicates the following:

• Parents, even those rearing children under difficult financial and environmental circumstances, can acquire skills to help children learn the basic interpersonal skills, self-control, and problem solving skills necessary for success in school. ACT—Adults and Children Together—Against Violence is a nation-wide violence prevention project that trains both parents and teachers in research-supported skills for helping children ages 0 to 8 years. See: http://actagainstviolence.apa.org
• School-wide positive behavioral support (PBS) is a continuum of evidence-supported strategies that reflect the desired behavioral expectations of the school community. In a PBS system, the expected behaviors are systematically taught to all students and emphasis is placed upon acknowledging appropriate behavior rather than overemphasizing the disciplining of misbehavior. See: http://www.pbis.org/main.htm and http://flpbs.fmhi.usf.edu/index.asp
• Evidence-supported social and emotional learning (SEL) should be an integral element of the general curriculum. Children who arrive at school lacking an understanding of their own and others' feelings, who have learned to use aggression to solve problems, and who often defy the adults around them cannot merely be disciplined into success. Schools can effectively teach these skills. See: http://casel.org/downloads/Youth&Schools.pdf . Video: http://www.edutopia.org/video Click "Peace Helpers"
• Children whose aggressive behavior is generally unresponsive to classroom and school-wide PBS are often in need of intensified skills training. Suspensions, detentions, or stern lectures from the administrator will not teach a behaviorally unskilled child the skills needed for success in school. John Lochman, Ph.D. and colleagues have refined a research-supported small group skills training program for use in the school setting with angry, aggressive elementary-age students. See: http://www.guilford.com/...
• Research from the Urban Institute (http://www.urban.org/publications/411050.html) indicates that today that little more than one-half of students from historically disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups finish high school, and for students in the nation's largest high poverty urban districts only as few as one-third of all students graduate. One half of incarcerated youth are high school dropouts, and every high school dropout earns on average $290,000 less over his/her lifetime than a graduating student and pays $100,000 less in taxes. Current research indicates that cutting the dropout rate by only 50% would result in a 45 billion dollar savings to U.S. taxpayers. Dropout prevention starts on the first day of school and must be diligently maintained through the years. See: http://www.cbcse.org/ and http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/9/c017.html

Schools can be a major thoroughfare to dropout, prison, and worse, or they can be strategically and systematically responsive to the needs of the children they serve. This level of responsiveness is begun when dedicated individuals work to bring about evidence-supported change starting from the classroom level on up. The Melissa Institute is committed to support, collaboration, and partnership with these efforts.

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