Beyond teacher training: the critical role of professional development in maintaining curriculum fidelity.

PURPOSE: To examine how teacher characteristics affected program fidelity in an impact evaluation study of the Positive Prevention PLUS program, and to propose a comprehensive teacher training and professional development structure to increase program fidelity. METHODS: Curriculum fidelity logs, lesson observations, and teacher surveys were used to measure teacher characteristics and implementation fidelity including adherence, adaptation, and lesson quality. RESULTS: Compared with non-health credentialed teachers, credential health education teachers had greater comfort and self-efficacy regarding sex-related instruction. Teacher self-efficacy and comfort were significant predictors of adherence. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation fidelity may be linked to teacher characteristics that can be enhanced during curriculum training. A 2-day teacher training may not adequately address teacher facilitation skills or the maintenance of institutional supports for implementing a program with fidelity and quality. A new model of comprehensive teacher training and support is offered. This new training infrastructure is intended to contribute to the school district's institutionalization of higher-quality comprehensive sexual health education and increase program fidelity.

Strong, smart and bold strategies for improving attendance and retention in an after-school intervention.

The Volunteers of America Greater Los Angeles (VOALA) Girls Inc. program is implementing and rigorously evaluating its Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy curriculum as part of a demonstration grant to identify effective teen pregnancy prevention programs sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Adolescent Health (OAH). A total of 517 participants from Title I urban middle and high schools were randomly assigned to either Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy (treatment) or Economic Literacy (control) in two cohorts. Programming occurred after school weekly at middle and high schools. Low attendance and loss of sample (attrition) are common challenges in after-school programming, negatively affecting both the ability of a program to be successful and the integrity of a randomized controlled trial. The current article discusses challenges encountered with recruitment, incentives, and school factors during a first cohort of youth and innovative implementation changes during a second cohort that resulted in increased attendance rates and decreased attrition rates. Commentary is provided by the OAH Project Officer as well as lessons learned after 2 years of implementing the program.