A path model of teacher expectancy effects was evaluated in a sample of 376 first- through fifth-grade urban elementary school children. The roles of two moderators (classroom perceived differential treatment environment and developmental differences) and one mediator (children's self-expectations) of teacher expectancy effects on children's year-end achievement were examined. Significant differences in effects and effect sizes are presented. Both classroom environment (high versus low in differential treatment, as seen through children's eyes) and developmental differences moderated the strength of teacher expectancy effects. Generally, stronger effects were found in classrooms in which expectancy-related cues were more salient to children, but developmental differences moderated which effect was most pronounced. A significant age-related decline in direct effects on ending achievement was interpreted as evidence that teacher expectations may tend to magnify achievement differences in the early grades, but serve to sustain them in later grades. Support for indirect effects (teacher expectations --> children's self-expectations --> ending achievement) was limited to upper elementary grade classrooms perceived as high in differential treatment. In contrast to prior research that emphasized small effect sizes, the present analyses document several instances of moderate effects, primarily in classrooms in which expectancy-related messages were most salient to children. These results underscore the importance of explicit attention to the inclusion of moderators, mediators, and multiple outcomes in efforts to understand teacher expectancy effects.
This paper presents a cost-benefit analysis of the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system, a public health approach to reducing risk, enhancing protection, and reducing the prevalence of adolescent health and behavior problems community wide. The analysis is based on outcomes from a panel of students followed from Grade 5 through Grade 8 in a randomized controlled trial involving 24 communities in 7 states. Previous analyses have shown that CTC prevented the initiation of cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and delinquency by the end of 8th grade in CTC communities compared to controls. This paper estimates long-term monetary benefits associated with significant intervention effects on cigarette smoking and delinquency as compared to the cost of conducting the intervention. Under conservative cost assumptions, the net present benefit is $5,250 per youth, including $812 from the prevention of cigarette smoking and $4,438 from the prevention of delinquency. The benefit-cost ratio indicates a return of $5.30 per $1.00 invested. Under less conservative but still viable cost assumptions, the benefit-cost ratio due to prevention of cigarette smoking and delinquency increases to $10.23 per $1.00 invested. Benefits from CTC’s reduction in alcohol initiation as well as broader inclusion of quality-of-life gains would further increase CTC’s benefit-cost ratio. Results provide evidence that CTC is a cost-beneficial preventive intervention and a good investment of public dollars, even under very conservative cost and benefit assumptions.
Implementation of the CTC prevention system in adolescence reduced lifetime incidence of health-risking behaviors into young adulthood. Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT01088542.
Over a decade ago, the Society for Prevention Research endorsed the first standards of evidence for research in preventive interventions. The growing recognition of the need to use limited resources to make sound investments in prevention led the Board of Directors to charge a new task force to set standards for research in analysis of the economic impact of preventive interventions. This article reports the findings of this group’s deliberations, proposes standards for economic analyses, and identifies opportunities for future prevention science. Through examples, policymakers’ need and use of economic analysis are described. Standards are proposed for framing economic analysis, estimating costs of prevention programs, estimating benefits of prevention programs, implementing summary metrics, handling uncertainty in estimates, and reporting findings. Topics for research in economic analysis are identified. The SPR Board of Directors endorses the “Standards of Evidence for Conducting and Reporting Economic Evaluations in Prevention Science.”Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s11121-017-0858-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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