School Success Profile Team Receives National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant

The School Success Profile (SSP) project team at the School of Social Work and Flying Bridge Technologies Inc., a computer technology company in Charlotte, N.C., received phase two funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to continue the development of the Elementary School Success Profile (ESSP).

The two-year award of $500,000 follows previous NIDA awards totaling $200,000. Dr. Gary Bowen, Kenan distinguished professor, and Dr. Natasha Bowen, assistant professor, are the principal investigators of the School's component of the grant. Natasha Bowen has taken the lead in the design and implementation of the research project.

The ESSP is an elementary version of the School Success Profile (SSP), a self-report survey for middle and high school students that was developed by Gary Bowen and School of Social Work Dean Jack Richman. The ESSP is for children in the third through fifth grades. Few comprehensive assessment tools are available for this age group.

The ESSP assesses students' beliefs about themselves, their neighborhoods, schools, peer groups and families. Questions that are for children are answered via a colorful, engaging computer program, developed by Flying Bridge Technologies, Inc. The computerized format and audio capacity keeps young students' attention and overcomes reading difficulties.

Phase two goals are to develop Spanish and audio features of the ESSP and Web-based resources for school practitioners who use the survey. In addition, the program will collect data on 600 students in three states.

The ESSP will help school staff identify and address risk factors and school problems in young students. By catching problems early, school staff can hope to prevent their development into more serious problems in middle and high school.

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