The Oregon First Step to Success Replication Initiative

Abstract

First Step to Success is a collaborative home and school early intervention program designed to address secondary prevention goals and outcomes for behaviorally at-risk children in the K—2 age-grade range (see Walker, Kavanagh, Stiller, Golly, Severson, & Feil, 1998; Walker, Stiller, Golly, Kavanagh, Severson, & Feil, 1997). In 1999 the Oregon state legislature provided approximately $450,000 over a 2-year period to begin making the First Step program available to all school districts and individual schools in Oregon that wished to adopt it. The Human Services Research Institute (HSRI) of Salem was awarded a subcontract from the Oregon legislature to conduct a program evaluation of the First Step initiative. HSRI evaluation results closely replicated those obtained by the First Step program's authors in the initial trial testing and evaluation of its effects during the development process. As a rule, the HSRI evaluators found consistently positive consumer satisfaction levels from First Step program participants but reported that the fidelity and overall quality of First Step implementation varied widely from excellent to quite poor. The implications for First Step applications, implementation processes, and expected program benefits are presented.

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