Whitman-Walker Health: Making Proud Choices and Being a Responsible Teen

Making Proud Choices (MPC) and Becoming a Responsible Teen (BART) are student programs that provide education around HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STI), pregnancy, and substance abuse. MPC is for middle-school students, and BART is for African American high school students. Both programs were implemented in Washington DC Charter Schools from the 2011-2012 school year through the 2016-2017 school year.

Study Goals:

The evaluation determined how well the program was delivered and whether it was implemented appropriately. It explored student and teacher engagement and satisfaction as well. Finally, the evaluation also examined success, challenges, and areas for improving program delivery.

Research Questions:

The evaluation included both implementation and outcome questions. The research questions were:

• Implementation Questions:
  • What are the characteristics of the participants?
  • What are the attendance rates of the DC Charter School programs?
  • How well are MetroTeen AIDS (MTA) facilitators implementing the programs?
  • How well are MTA facilitators scoring during observations of the program?
  • What are the strengths and areas of improvement for the program?
  • How satisfied are students with their experiences with the programs?
  • How satisfied are DC Charter School teachers with their experiences with the programs?
  • Are MTA youth serving as peer educators in the DC Charter Schools?
• Outcome Questions:
  • Are students achieving the desired outcomes of the program (changes in knowledge, attitude, skills, behaviors)?
  • Have DC Charter School teachers/professionals experienced an increase in:
    • Access to information and resources related to adolescent health?
    • Capacity with respect to comprehensive health education?
    • Interaction and support system around sexual and reproductive health?
  • Are DC Charter Schools experiencing an increase in:
    • Compliance with the Healthy Schools Act regarding teaching comprehensive sexual health education?
    • Access to resources such as birth control, condoms, medical services, and STI testing?
    • Their comprehensiveness in providing information, referrals, and safe sex resource to youth?
  • How well are agencies and community-based organizations working to expand schools’ pregnancy prevention services?
  • Are the services of DC Charter School aligned with city-wide priorities?

Findings:

The evaluation found the following:

• For MPC programs, the majority of sessions were implemented as planned.
• For BART programs, there were more modifications than MPC programs.
• For both programs, modifications were largely due to time constraints, which led to shortening or skipping some of the session activities.
• Program facilitators rated students as engaged. The students grasped program objectives and were able to complete program activities “most of the time.”
• Students were generally satisfied with the program. They “agreed” to “strongly agreed” that they planned to use something learned in the program to make a healthy decision.
• Teachers were generally present and engaged “most” to “all” of the time.

For more information, download the full report, report brief, and appendices.