Author: Bret Orton

The program is an intensive one-to-one tutoring intervention program for the poorest readers (lowest 20%) in first-grade classrooms. During daily 30-minute lessons, teachers who are specifically trained in Reading Recovery techniques individually tutor up to eight faltering readers to help them develop the kinds of strategies that good readers use. For the first 10 days, the teacher does not teach, but rather, explores reading and writing with the child to determine specific needs. During the following days, Reading Recovery lessons evolve around reading small story books (the teacher chooses from 500 books organized into 20 reading levels), manipulating letters and words, and composing and writing a story. Specific skills taught include problem-solving strategies based on self-monitoring, cross-checking, predicting, and confirming, as well as the use of multiple sources of information while reading and writing. Children typically leave the program within 12 to 20 weeks (60 sessions), as soon as they have reached about the average level of text reading for their class.

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Child First is a two-generation, home-based intervention that works with very vulnerable young children, prenatal through age 5 years, and their families in order to decrease serious mental health concerns in child and parent, child development and learning problems, and abuse and neglect. It has two core components: (a) a system of care approach to stabilize and provide comprehensive, integrated services and supports to the child and his/her family (e.g., early education, housing, substance abuse treatment), while enhancing adult executive capacity and (b) a relationship-based, psychotherapeutic approach to enhance nurturing, responsive parent-child relationships and promote positive social-emotional and cognitive development. The program is implemented by a team of a master’s level mental health clinician and a bachelor’s level care coordinator. Duration is adjusted based on families’ needs with an average length of 6 to 12 months. Mental health consultation to early care and education is included. All staff receive intensive reflective clinical supervision.

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KiVa includes both universal actions to prevent the occurrence of bullying and indicated actions to intervene in individual bullying cases. The program has three different developmentally appropriate versions for Grades 1–3 (Unit 1), 4–6 (Unit 2), and 7–9 (Unit 3). Blueprints has certified the evaluation evidence for grades 2-6 only, as there was no consistent pattern of results in grades 8-9 with more non-significant findings than significant findings and bystander behavior was in the wrong direction.

Indicated actions. In each school, a team of three teachers (or other school personnel), along with the classroom teacher, addresses each case of bullying that is witnessed or revealed. Cases are handled through a set of individual and small group discussions with the victims and with the bullies, and systematic follow-up meetings. In addition, the classroom teacher meets with two to four prosocial and high-status classmates, encouraging them to support the victimized child.

Universal actions. The KiVa program includes 20 hours of student lessons (10 double lessons) given by classroom teachers during a school year. The central aims of the lessons are to: (a) raise awareness of the role that the group plays in maintaining bullying, (b) increase empathy toward victims, and (c) promote children’s strategies of supporting the victim and thus their self-efficacy to do so. The lessons involve discussion, group work, role-play exercises, and short films about bullying. As the lessons proceed, class rules based on the central themes of the lessons are successively adopted one at a time.

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The Head Start REDI program is designed as an enrichment intervention that can be integrated into the existing framework of Head Start programs that are already using the High/Scope or Creative Curriculum. The intervention is delivered by classroom teachers and integrated into their ongoing classroom programs. It includes curriculum-based lessons, center-based extension activities, and training and weekly classroom coaching in “teaching strategies” to use throughout the day. It is focused primarily on social-emotional skill enrichment using the PATHS Preschool curriculum and language/emergent literacy skill enrichment. Parents also receive take-home materials describing the importance of positive support, emotion coaching, and interactive reading, with parenting tips and learning activities to use at home. In addition, REDI-P (Bierman et al., 2015) adds parent training intended to extend benefits to children for a longer period through parental support.

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Teaching Kids to Cope (TKC) is a 10-session psychoeducational group intervention designed to reduce depressive symptomatology and stress by enhancing the coping skills of adolescents. Each session lasts 45 minutes. Participants are guided through a process to discover their distorted thinking patterns and to test their thinking against reality using suggested approaches. They also explore and practice problem identification, alternate ways of viewing a situation, and alternate ways of reacting. The TKC program focuses on behavioral techniques but also incorporates cognitive components. The behavioral techniques aim to improve coping skills, which include activity planning, social skills training, assertiveness training, bibliotherapy, role-playing, conflict resolution, and relaxation training. The TKC incorporates experiential exercises such as trust-fall, buddy assignments, and role-playing situations from school and home. Art is incorporated into the sessions through drawing exercises. The cognitive components employ techniques such as externalization of negative voices, reframing, establishing idiosyncratic meaning, and cognitive rehearsal.

To improve access to the treatment for high school students seeking help, this intervention is offered during regular school days. Eligible students should score in the mid-range (at least 60) on the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS). The intervention is implemented by a psychiatric nurse in collaboration with the school nurse or guidance counselor.

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The Family Check-Up (Toddler version) is a strengths-based, family-centered intervention that motivates parents to use parenting practices in support of child competence, mental health, and reducing risks for substance use. The intervention has two phases: 1) initial interview, assessment, and feedback; and 2) Everyday Parenting as a follow-up service that builds parents’ skills in positive behavior support, healthy limit-setting, and relationship-building. Phase 1 involves three 1-hour sessions (interview, assessment, and feedback). As a health promotion and prevention strategy, Phase 2 of the FCU can be limited to 1 to 3 Everyday Parenting sessions; as a treatment approach, Phase 2 can range from 3 to 15 Everyday Parenting sessions. The FCU is appropriate for families with toddlers 17 months through 2 years of age and has been evaluated with samples including people of African American, White, Latino or Hispanic, and other race/ethnicities. FCU providers should have a master’s degree in education, social work, counseling, or related areas.

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Body Project is a prevention program designed for high school and college-age girls using four weekly one-hour group sessions. Groups consist of 5-10 young women. Through a series of verbal, written and behavioral exercises, the program attempts to create dissonance in participants by engaging them in a critique of the thin ideal. Participants are also engaged in body acceptance exercises and role-plays to counter thin-ideal statements and resist peer pressure. Facilitators (group leaders with Masters-level training in a clinical mental health discipline or supervised college peer educators), use activities that are counter-attitudinal to the thin ideal and use motivational enhancement, skill acquisition, social support and group cohesion to create dissonance within the participants. The Body Project is not sufficient as a stand-alone treatment for individuals meeting current criteria for an eating disorder, so attempts should be made to exclude such individuals.

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Career Academies are school-based programs that seek to reduce dropout rates and improve school performance and career readiness among high-school youth. A Career Academy (CA) is organized as a school-within-a-school, where students work in “small learning communities.” Each small learning community involves a small number of students working with the same group of teachers for three or four years of high school with the aim being to create a more personalized and supportive learning environment for students. CAs offer students a combination of academic and career-technical curricula and use a career theme to integrate the two. In an effort to build connections between school and work and to provide students with a range of career development and work-based learning opportunities, CAs establish partnerships with local employers. To encourage post-graduate education they also build linkages to local colleges through curricular articulation, dual enrollment programs, and field trips to 2- and 4-year institutions.

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The Blues Program is a six-week group intervention focused on reducing negative cognitions and increasing engagement in pleasant activities in an effort to prevent the onset and persistence of depression in at-risk high school youth with depressive symptoms. 

The weekly sessions focus on building group rapport and increasing participant involvement in pleasant activities, learning and practicing cognitive restructuring techniques and developing response plans to future life stressors. In-session exercises require participants to apply skills taught in the program. Home practice assignments are intended to reinforce the skills taught in the sessions and help participants learn how to apply these skills in their daily life. 

All studies included students with depressive symptoms (but not a major depression diagnosis) when screened prior to conducting the study. Each study involved the random assignment of participants to groups participating in various interventions for depression. All studies included measures of depressive symptoms and major depression onset. 

The first qualifying study included 378 students from five high schools who completed self-reported surveys and diagnostic interviews at pre-test, post-test (upon program completion) and 6-, 12-, 18- and 24-month follow-ups. The second qualifying study included 341 students from six high schools in the greater Austin, Texas area who completed self-reported surveys and diagnostic interviews at pre-test, post-test (upon program completion), and six-month, one-year and two-year follow-ups. 

Compared to participants in one or more comparison groups, participants completing the cognitive behavioral depression prevention program had greater reductions in interviewer-rated depressive symptoms at post-test, six-month follow-up and one- and two-year follow-ups. According to the studies, they had greater reductions in self-rated depressive symptoms at post-test, six-month follow-up and two-year follow-up, as well as lower rates of major depression onset at six-month and two-year follow-up, as well as greater reductions in self-reported substance use at post-test and six-month follow-up. 

Participants in the intervention group also had greater improvements in social adjustment at six-month follow-up and reduced negative cognitions and increased reports of pleasant activities.

Read the Program Fact Sheet.

Return to Blueprints Bulletin Issue 1. February 2017.