Improving curriculum delivery: Using a results informed quality improvement model for teen behavioral health education.

Adolescence is a critical developmental stage to establish healthy decision-making processes and behavior patterns. Many interventions such as evidence-based curricula have been implemented to guide adolescents to avoid risk-taking behaviors and improve health and medical knowledge and outcomes. This study presents a participatory approach informed by the three-stage (3S) quality improvement process model to improve the quality of curriculum delivery, based on the results indicating outcomes achieved, needs for improvement, and quality assurance for maintaining the expected outcomes of an evidence-based curricula.

United States' teen dating violence policies: summary of policy element variation.

As teen dating violence (TDV) has gained attention as a public health concern across the United States (US), many efforts to mitigate TDV appear as policies in the 50 states in the form of for programming in K-12 schools. A keyword search identified 61 state-level school-based TDV policies. We developed an abstraction form to conduct a content analysis of these policies and generated descriptive statistics and graphic summaries.

Measuring change in disproportionality and disparities: three diagnostic tools.

At present there are few examples of sustained reductions in disproportionate minority contact with the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. This article describes the use of three instruments that have been used to measure levels of racial and ethnic disproportionality and disparities: The Disproportionality Diagnostic Tool, Ecomap and Racial Equity Scorecard. Using a combination of community and public agency data, these tools measure and track change over time on racial and ethnic disproportionality and disparities.

Comparative analysis of two community-based efforts designed to impact disproportionality.

Children of color are overrepresented in child welfare in Iowa at a rate double their percentage of the population. In 2005 the Iowa Department of Human Services implemented two pilot demonstration projects to address overrepresentation of Native American and African American children in the child welfare system. The projects, called the Minority Youth and Families Initiative (MYFI), included ongoing evaluation.

Outcomes of family-centered residential treatment.

This article describes a family-centered residential treatment model and presents results from a quasiexperimental study examining its effectiveness in achieving permanency outcomes for children. Greater postdischarge stability was achieved for participants in the family-centered program than in the agency's standard residential treatment service. Implications for child welfare policy and practice are highlighted.