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The ResearchSchool-based researchSchools have been the subject of much continuing controversy about their purposes, responsibilities and effects on young people. It has been estimated that young people spend close to half their waking hours in school and inevitably their experience of school has the potential for positive and negative impact on later life. Schools are probably the only point of close to universal access to young people at a time during which both emotional problems and behaviours with long-lasting harmful effects on health are emerging. Major early research raised doubts about whether education even made a difference. It was argued that the differences found between schools academic achievements were due to differences in the social class, family and other social conditions of the students. In a landmark study in 1979, Sir Michael Rutter and colleagues, identified substantial differences between secondary schools in a range of student academic and behavioural outcomesi. Most importantly, they concluded that these differences were largely a result of schools' characteristics, their organisation and climate, not differences in the intake of students. Furthermore, they confirmed the importance of the quality of the social relationships and the school as a social institution. Subsequent work on school effectiveness and school improvement has continued to explore the impact of more specific factors in school and classroom characteristics that influence student progress, engagement in learning and social development. Relationships between teachers and students in classrooms, opportunities for student participation and responsibility, and support structures for teachers consistently emerge as associated with student progress and development. Research designThe Gatehouse Project commenced in 1997 as a randomised controlled trial to determine whether the implementation of a school-based intervention, that included both individual and environment-focused components, could improve students' emotional well-being. A randomised controlled design is an experimental design whereby individuals or, as in this case, schools, are randomly allocated into groups to receive (study group) or not receive (control group) an experimental procedure, intervention or program. This design is the best way to establish whether the groups, who are initially similar, differ systematically after one receives the intervention. This design is considered to provide the most rigorous level of evaluation of an intervention. There is a large literature on study design and evaluation. Hawe and colleagues provide an overview of health promotion evaluationii. Because the Gatehouse Project is a whole-school intervention, schools, rather than individual students, were randomly allocated to receive the intervention or to be control schools. To minimise the possibility that control schools might also, through shared professional development with intervention schools, be exposed to the program, sampling was undertaken at the education district level. In metropolitan Melbourne, 12 districts were sampled with a probability proportional to the overall number of secondary schools (government, independent and Catholic) and were randomly allocated to either intervention or control status. We used simple random sampling to select 12 schools from the intervention districts, and 12 from the control districts. Six country schools were randomly drawn from two regional districts. Of the original 32 schools sampled, 26 (12 intervention, 14 control) schools agreed to participate. All 26 schools, which included government, independent and Catholic schools, have worked with the Gatehouse Project team from 1997 to 2000. The Project liaison team worked intensively with the 12 intervention schools over this time. Both intervention and control schools were involved in the collection of data from students and information about school policies and programs on a regular basis. Ethics approval for the trial and the student surveys was granted by the Royal Children's Hospital Ethics in Human Research Committee, the Victorian Department of Education, Employment and Training and the Catholic Education Office. Student participation was voluntary and written parent consent was required for students to be able to participate in the surveys. The aims of the trial were to determine if the impact of the implementation of both the whole-school and individual-focused components on individuals (students) and on the whole-school climate. Specifically, we wanted to test whether the intervention reduced the number of students reporting depressive symptoms, other common emotional problems and reduced the used of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana in the intervention schools compared with those in the control schools. Furthermore, we wanted to assess the impact of the project on the whole school environment. This was achieved through the documentation of the implementation in schools and through assessment of student perceptions in subsequent years. Outcome evaluation: The student surveyTo determine the effects of the intervention on the schools' social environment, and students' emotional well-being, surveys were conducted over a number of years and year levels. In 1997, we surveyed all Year 8 students (average age 13 years) in the intervention and control schools whose parents provided written consent. As shown in Figure 1, these 2,782 students were surveyed at the beginning and the end of the school year, and thereafter at the end of subsequent years when they were in Year 9 and 10. These students from both the 12 intervention and 14 control schools whom we have followed during the majority of their time in secondary school we refer to as the Gatehouse cohort. We are surveying the Gatehouse cohort in 2002, which for many will be their first year after secondary school. We also surveyed subsequent Year 8 and Year 10 students, shown in Figure 5, to determine if changes that have occurred in schools have had an effect on students other than those in the Gatehouse cohort.
Administration of the survey for the Gatehouse cohort used lap-top computers during class time. Computer administration provides a greater level of confidentiality as it is difficult for students to read others' screens, and provides the capacity to ask about activities in greater detail where it is appropriate. The administration of the questionnaire was supervised by the research team. Absent students were surveyed at school at a later date or by telephone. These surveys asked students questions about school, friends and other people in their lives, as well as emotional well-being and questions on the use of alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana and behaviours that impact on health and well-being. The subsequent Year 8s and Year 10s were surveyed using a brief pen and paper version of the questionnaire. Again these were self-completed questionnaires administered by the Gatehouse research team.
Outcome research findingsThe student survey provides data on students’ perceptions of the school environment and their emotional well-being. These data give us a picture of a representative cohort of young people, as well as information on changes in attitudes, perceptions and behaviour over time. Comparing data from the intervention and comparison schools enables us to see the effect that the Gatehouse Project has had on the students in the schools. From the initial collection of data in 1997 prior to the intervention, we found that:
From the data collected from the same students in Year 9, we found that:
In terms of intervention effects, we have found:
Please note the discussion here presents an overview of the project. For formal details of the project methodology and findings see the Publications section. Evaluating the implementation of the Gatehouse ProjectAn important aspect in the evaluation of the effectiveness of a program is documenting and understanding how the program was implemented; to what extent was the material used and what were factors barriers affecting implementation? In order to obtain a detailed picture of all aspects of the Gatehouse Project data were collected using many different methods and from different individuals at several points in time, as described below. Field notesField Notes were maintained by each of the Centre for Adolescent Health school liaison personnel. Each liaison person worked with 2-5 interventions schools and kept detailed records of meetings with each school team, documented the changes that occurred over time, and noted the professional development provided to the school. The data provided information on the work of the adolescent health teams in the schools, the teams' composition, functions and the support and resources they required. School background auditAt the end of each year school background information was obtained on all schools via a structured interview with senior personnel. These audits related to school structures, policies, programs in place, and strategies used to promote emotional well-being of students, as well as school-level demographic information. These data were able to capture whole-school level changes as they related to policies and programs. Key informant interviewsSemi-structured interviews were conducted annually with a key informant from each of the intervention schools by the Centre for Adolescent Health liaison person. The key informants held co-ordinating positions in curriculum, student welfare or administration. The interviews covered a range of topics including the perceptions of the barriers or tensions within the development of the project, how various school personnel came to be involved, what support or resources were helpful, and what changes were occurring in the school. From the Key Informant Interviews, themes relating to engaging schools in the work of promoting students' emotional well-being have been identified. Issues identified by school staff as influencing their willingness to be involved in the project fell into five major groups:
From ongoing analysis of these data we believe we have identified some key elements for the successful implementation of whole-school change. These include the use of local data (students' perceptions of their social environment), auditing current practices, and using both to determine strategic directions for change. In addition, it has been important for schools to establish a team that involves representatives from all areas of the organisation, and to monitor progress through the ongoing collection of data. For detailed information about the research methods and findings see the Publications section.
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