Institute Researchers Discuss Research Results
and Needs of the Future

The Hamilton Fish Institute (HFI) held
its annual meeting with investigation teams from its nine research partnership sites May 7–9 in Washington, D.C. Each team presented findings from their past six years of school violence prevention research, as well as their plans for testing a new round of interventions in the coming year.

Attended the first two days by HFI staff, research partners and a representative from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the meetings yielded important information regarding promising programs designed to reduce violence in America’s schools. One such program identified the importance of setting a safe tone for the students’ school day by training school bus drivers in positive discipline strategies (Eastern Kentucky University). An element of another site’s successful intervention created a strong partnership between law enforcement and school officials (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee). Many sites also tested successful violence prevention programs within alternative school settings.

The last day of the three-day session was an invitational meeting at the National Press Club for policymakers, practitioners and researchers that addressed linking research about “what works” to practice and establishing clear communication channels so that researchers and practitioners meet each other’s needs. As HFI’s research partners described their work to the guests, ideas were exchanged about how specific programs had been tested in urban, rural

and suburban schools across the country and which had been proven effective to reduce violence.

William Modzeleski, Associate Deputy Undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, discussed the history of school violence prevention in terms of B.C. and A.C. (Before Columbine and After Columbine) and the expected trajectory for future prevention research. He said the A.C. period began on September 11, 2001, and predicts that focus will now turn to terrorism and bio-terrorism prevention.

“We are now giving money to schools to develop school safety plans,” Modzeleski said. “This started with Columbine and now, after 9/11, we are asking schools to address school security/safety plans.”

What hasn’t changed since the earliest days of school violence prevention, Modzeleski said, is an emphasis on school accountability and the use of research-based programs. He added, however, that there is still much confusion about what research-based programming means and, he said, efforts are needed that set standards for these definitions.

Other guests who participated in the discussions, included representatives from the Department of Defense Education Activity, DC Public Schools, Richmond Public Schools, the Stokes-Phelps Fund and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

The Hamilton Fish Institute, housed in The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development, is a national resource for the research and development of school violence prevention strategies. Its research partners include teams from Eastern Kentucky University, Florida State University, The George Washington University, Morehouse School of Medicine, Shenandoah University, Syracuse University, The Trauma Center –Boston, University of Oregon and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.