Alcohol education resource for teachers
NSW Department of Education and Communities, 2012 in progress
Drug Prevention Programs has developed a new alcohol education website for teachers of students in Stages 4 and 5, and is piloting it in 17 schools across NSW. The evaluation will provide information about how the website could be improved and test whether the website does what it is designed to do i.e. enhance teachers’ provision of alcohol education and subsequently increase students’ knowledge about alcohol. Research methods include focus groups with teachers and students, interviews with principals and pre and post student knowledge surveys. 

Drug Prevention Learning Through Action
Student Welfare Directorate, Department of Education and Training, 2011
ARTD conducted a process evaluation of a DET action learning project in eleven pilot schools. Key data collection methods were focus groups and interviews with teachers and regional consultants. 

Regional drug education consultants’ workshop
NSW Department of Education and Communities, 2011
ARTD evaluated the Department’s professional development conference for regional drug education consultants: ‘Plan, Pitch and Promote’. The conference aimed to provide the regional drug education consultants with information on current research and with skills to market themselves to schools. We interviewed the eight regional drug education consultants who attended the conference, using a semi-structured interview guide and conducted a focus group with the four State Office staff involved in organising the conference. We then presented the results to the regional drug education consultants. 

Sober Driver Program
Corrective Services NSW, 2010
In 2006, ARTD was engaged to evaluate the NSW Sober Driver Program, an education program for repeat drink drivers. The evaluation included a quasi-experimental design to assess recidivism. In 2009, ARTD was engaged to revisit the 2006 analysis with longer follow-up periods and a new cohort of 2007 program participants. Survival analysis was used to assess recidivism. 

Drug Early Intervention Program
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2010
The NSW DET has developed four strategies to increase teacher capacity and whole-of-school responses to students at risk of drug-related harm. The evaluation of the pilot was both formative and summative. Data included a total of 1,253 surveys from general teaching staff and 80 from trained teachers pre- and post-implementation, as well as 37 focus groups involving 184 teachers. 

Ted Noffs Foundation Schools Alcohol and Other Drugs Counselling Service
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2009, 2006, 2001, 1999
The Ted Noffs Foundation (TNF) service provides counselling to secondary students at risk of drug-related harm at eighteen schools in Sydney and the Central Coast. ARTD built on, and extended, two previous reviews conducted in 2006 and 2001 to assess progress and outcomes of the service. Review methods included interviews with management, counsellors and schools and a student survey (informed by Prochaska and DiClemente’s stages of behaviour change theory). The review demonstrated the service was viewed as a welcome additional resource by schools and students, the success of which depended to a large extent on the abilities of individual counsellors.