Wysong, Aniskiewicz, and Wright (19

Wysong, Aniskiewicz, and Wright (1994) evaluated the effectiveness of the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program found in 10,000 schools in the United States and 42 other countries. The authors note that the program is widely used, well funded, and very popular with police departments, school officials, parent groups, and others. By having police officers deliver talks in early grades, D.A.RjE. tries to reduce illicit drug use among teens by increasing knowledge of drugs, developing antidrug coping skills, and raising self-esteem. The authors examined two groups of students who were seniors in a high school in Indiana. One group had participated in the D.A.R.E. program in seventh grade and the other group had not. Consistent with past research, the authors found no lasting differences among the groups regarding age of first drug use, frequency of drug use, or self-esteem. The authors suggest that the program's popularity may be due to its political symbolic impact. The program may be effective for latent goals (i.e., helping politicians, school officials, and others feel morally good and involved in antidrug actions) but ineffective for official goals (i.e., reducing illegal drug use by teenagers).
Two types of evaluation research are formative and summative. Formative evaluation is built-in monitoring or continuous feedback on a program used for program management Summative evaluation looks at final program outcomes. Both are usually necessary.
Evaluation research is a part of the administra^ tion of many organizations (e.g., schools, government agencies, businesses, etc.). One example is the Flanning. Programming, and Budgeting System (PPBS), first used by the U.S. Department of Defense in the 1960s. PPBS is based on the idea that researchers can evaluate a program by measuring its accomplishments on the basis of its stated goals and objectives. An evaluator divides a program into components and analyzes each component with regard to its costs (staff, supplies, etc.) and accomplishments in achieving program objectives. For example, a women's health center offers pregnancy education. The program components are outreach, education, counseling, and referrals. The program objectives are to reach out to women who believe they are pregnant, provide education about pregnancy, counsel women about their health risks and concerns, and refer pregnant women to health care providers or family planning agencies. An evaluation researcher will examine the cost of each part of the program and measure how well the program meets its objectives. The researcher may ask how much staff time and how many supplies are used for outreach, how many calls or inquiries have resulted from those efforts, and whether the efforts increased the number of women from targeted groups coming to the center.7