2005 Volume 30 Pages 72-88
This paper presents a brisk history of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program, America's most popular school-based drug prevention strategy. After a brief description of the program, the paper outlines the history of D.A.R.E. from its beginnings in 1983 to the 21^<st> Century, with particular attention paid to research evidence relevant to D.A.R.E. The paper highlights the mid- to late-1990s, a period that saw D.A.R.E. remain resilient and even expand in light of negative research findings. Drawing on results from a study of D.A.R.E. and the uses of evaluation findings, the author offers five common themes to explain this irony. By the late 1990s, however, D.A.R.E. was seemingly in decline. Research-particularly in the form of large government reviews and best practice lists-played an influential role, and ultimately led to a meeting between D.A.R.E. leadership and evaluators to ascertain how the program could be improved. A new D.A.R.E. curriculum targeting a more age-appropriate group of students was introduced and is now being evaluated in a randomized experiment in the U.S. that includes over 100 schools.
