Comprehensive School-Based Violence Prevention

Training: A Developmental-Ecological Training Model

Michael DAndrea

Counselors have a professional and ethical responsibility to deal with the complex and pervasive forms of violence that are
manifested in our society. This article provides a description of a theoretical training model that was used to build comprehensive
violence prevention programs in 4 elementary schools in Hawaii. Data generated from an evaluation of this project suggest that
the training model outlined in this article is a useful way for counselors to foster the development and implementation of
comprehensive violence prevention programs in school settings.

A
lthough it may not be a popular perspective to
articulate, the history of the United States
clearly suggests that we are a violent nation.
There is much evidence to support this dis-
concerting claim. Historically speaking, the
roots of this violence can be traced to the genocide-like
treatment imposed on the indigenous peoples of America
by White, European settlers and the establishment of sla-
very that incurred horrific forms of physical and psycho-
logical violence among millions of persons from African
descent. Today, new forms of violence surround us. This in-
cludes but is not limited to domestic and sexual violence
that women and children in all segments of our society ex-
perience, violent images that are portrayed in the media and
video games, and violence that is manifested in a variety of
ways in school settings (e.g., teasing, bullying, fistfighting,
shootings). Commenting on the extent to which these and
other forms of violence are deeply embedded in our society,
Walker and Gresham (1997) pointed out that
Violence in America is a social toxin that is pervasive in every
aspect of our society that has lowered the quality of life for every-
one. For the first time since 1970 violent acts against strangers
account for a higher proportion of violent acts than those commit-
ted against acquaintances (Hughes & Hasbrouk, 1996). This devel-
opment among others, means that our public safety has declined
precipitously and that no one has complete immunity from the
possibility of physical victimization by violent acts. (p. 199)
The pervasive problem of violence continues to be mani-
fested in many different ways in contemporary American
society. However, during the past several years, national at-
tention has been focused on several well-publicized acts of
violence that have caused serious injury to or the death of
students in this countrys public schools. Students, par-
ents, teachers, and school administrators commonly turn
to counselors for assistance when violence erupts in our
communities, in general, and when it occurs within the con-
text of the school setting, in particular. Although these prac-
titioners are expected to provide counseling services for both
the victims and the perpetrators of violent acts, they are be-
ing called upon increasingly to provide the sort of profes-
sional leadership that is necessary to develop and implement
comprehensive violence prevention initiatives in schools.
To provide the kind of leadership that is necessary to suc-
cessfully develop and implement violence prevention pro-
grams in the school setting, counselors need to be able to
answer four important questions that are relevant for such
an undertaking.
1. What does the term violence mean in the context of
planning school-based violence prevention programs?
2. Why is it important to support violence prevention
programs in the schools?
3. What types of service components are included in a
comprehensive school-based approach to violence
prevention?
4. What training models have been effective in foster-
ing the development and implementation of com-
prehensive violence prevention programs in school
settings?
Although the following sections of this article address
each of these questions, particular attention is directed to
describing a developmental-ecological violence prevention
training model that was used at four elementary schools in
Hawaii. This section of the article discusses the results of
an evaluation of that training model. The data that were
generated from this evaluation component suggest that the
training model used in the Hawaii study is a useful train-
ing approach that other counseling practitioners can use to
assist school personnel in acquiring the knowledge and skills
that are necessary to develop and implement a broad range
of violence prevention strategies in their schools.

Michael DAndrea, Department of Counselor Education, University of Hawaii. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Michael
DAndrea, Department of Counselor Education, 1776 University Avenue, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822 (e-mail: michael@hawaii.edu).

JOURNAL OF COUNSELING & DEVELOPMENT SUMMER 2004 VOLUME 82 277

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DEFINING VIOLENCE
The term violence has been defined differently by various
violence prevention theorists and researchers. For instance,
Elliott, Hamburg, and Williams (1998) defined violence as
the threat or use of physical force with the intention of
causing physical injury, damage, or intimidation of another
person (p. 5). Hamburg (1998) pointed out that inten-
tionality is at the heart of this definition and distinguishes
injuries inflicted with the intent to harm from injuries
that are truly unintentional and result from accidents such
as motor vehicle mishaps, falls, poisoning, drownings, fires,
and burns (p. 3). The distinction between intentional and
unintentional violence is an important one for these theo-
rists. The importance of this distinction is illustrated by
the fact that each year, for children and adolescents in this
country, intentional violence accounts for one third of all
deaths that result from injuries.
Many school-based violence prevention programs use
Elliott et al.s definition in developing and implementing
intervention strategies that attempt to prevent violence in
school settings. However, other preventive intervention ef-
forts use broader definitions of violence, which include de-
linquent and antisocial behavior such as verbal abuse, the
threat of the use of weapons, vandalism, and property crimes
(Futrell, 1996; Howard, Flora, & Griffin, 1999). Daniels,
Arredondo, and DAndrea (1999) presented yet another
broad definition of this important construct by describing
six categories of violence:
1. Physical violence. Included in this category are fistfights
that occur in public schools, various forms of physical vio-
lence committed by youth gangs, and frequent though
underpublicized incidents of domestic violence (National
Health and Education Consortium, 1999) and abuse of older
individuals (Hart, 2002).
2. Sexual and gender violence. This category includes hos-
tile and aggressive behaviors that devalue gays, lesbians, and
women in our society. Although a tremendous amount of
media attention is directed to the problem of violence in
our schools, the same amount of attention is not devoted to
examining violence against women, which occurs with much
greater frequency. The magnitude of this latter problem is
highlighted by the National Health and Education Consor-
tium, which reports that one woman is battered every 12
seconds in the United States, usually by a family member,
husband, boyfriend, or other acquaintance (National Health
and Education Consortium, 1999).
3. Media violence. Experts have noted that the average child
in the United States has viewed more than 10,000 hours of
violence on television by the time she or he is 12 years old
(Hughes & Hasbrouk, 1996). Investigative reports that
emerged from the deadly killings that took place in 1999, at
Columbine High School in Colorado, suggested that the re-
peated viewing of violent films, having access to various
hate sites on the Internet, and playing violent video games
278 JOURNAL OF COUNSELING & DEVELOPMENT SUMMER 2004 VOLUME 82
were all factors that are thought to have contributed to the
deliberate manner in which Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
planned for and conducted the shooting at their Colorado
high school.
4. Cultural-racial violence. As the United States shifts from
becoming a nation that has historically been composed of
a majority of persons from White European ancestry to a
nation in which most of its citizens will come from non-
White, non-European backgrounds, the racial tensions that
characterize our country are likely to become exacerbated
in the future unless time, effort, and resources are directed
toward dealing with this problem (DAndrea & Daniels,
2001). Without directing appropriate resources to deal with
the heightening tensions that will predictably accompany
the cultural-racial transformation of the United States, sev-
eral multicultural counseling theorists have argued that
these tensions are likely to lead to the increased manifes-
tation of culturally and racially based acts of hatred and
violence in the coming years (DAndrea & Daniels, 1999;
Jones, 1997; Sue & Sue, 2002).
It is distressing to note, therefore, that there has been a steady
increase over the past several years in the number of hate groups
in this country. In a report that was issued by the Southern
Poverty Law Center in 1999, 537 hate groups (an increase of
20% since 1990) had reportedly been engaged in various forms
of racial violence during 1998. This report further noted
that hate sites on the Internet, a primary recruiting tool for
the white supremist movement, also increased dramatically
during 1998, jumping almost 60% from the preceding year
(Southern Poverty Law Center, 1999, p. 72).
5. Political-economic violence. Despite the economic pros-
perity that many persons in the United States reportedly
experienced during the 1990s, statistics provided by the U.S.
Bureau of the Census regarding the population count during
the year 2000, indicated that approximately 18 million
Americans continue to live in poverty. The rise in the num-
ber of homeless school-aged children during the past decade
has become an issue of particular concern for many school
administrators, teachers, and counselors who are confronted
with the difficult challenge of trying to help these students
realize their academic potential while they routinely come
to school hungry and tired as a result of sleeping in their
parents car or in an overcrowded homeless shelter. In short,
poverty not only makes individuals more vulnerable to a
host of economic, educational, physical, psychological, and
social problems, it also fosters insidious forms of violence
that affect cognitive and emotional factors that undermine
a persons sense of dignity and sense of self-worth (DAndrea
& Daniels, 1998; Luthar, 1999).
6. The violence of our silence. Not calling attention to the
prevalent role of violence throughout our society contributes
to the perpetuation of various cycles of violence. That is, fail-
ing to openly address the issue of violence in our world can
be viewed as tacit condoning of violence. Simply stated, if we
are silent about violence, we contribute to the occurrence of
violent acts through our quiet complicity.
 Comprehensive
By presenting a very broad definition of violence, it is
hoped that counseling practitioners and graduate students
will become more knowledgeable and sensitive to the mul-
tidimensional nature of this complex problem. Daniels et
al. (1999) stressed that
if counselors are to make a significant contribution in helping
prevent the escalating level of violence that is occurring in many of
our schools and communities, they must (a) demonstrate a broad-
based understanding of the different ways that violence is perpetu-
ated in our nation, (b) make a commitment to discuss controver-
sial issues that are related to this problem, (c) advocate for the
development of humane economic, educational, and social policies
that ultimately lead to a more equal distribution of this nations
wealth and resources, and (d) implement comprehensive programs
and services that are intentionally designed to prevent future acts
of violence in our schools and communities. (p. 17)
Daniels et al. (1999) further emphasized that professional
counselors cannot afford to remain silent regarding this na-
tional problem nor can we avoid dealing with the ethical
responsibility we have to search for solutions that will help
to ameliorate the various ways that violence continues to
be manifested in our schools and communities. As these au-
thors pointed out,
One might say that there is violence in our silence in the sense
that by remaining quiet about the sort of controversial issues
that are associated with a broad definition of violence, counselors
may inadvertently become guilty of passively complying with
the various types of psychical, sexual/gender, media, cultural-
racial, and political-economic violence that continue to nega-
tively impact the psychological health and spiritual well-being of
millions of persons in our country. (p. 17)
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO SUPPORT VIOLENCE PREVENTION
PROGRAMS IN THE SCHOOLS?
There are two important reasons to support the develop-
ment and implementation of comprehensive violence pre-
vention programs in our nations schools. First, the public
school setting represents an ideal setting to implement pre-
ventive counseling services. Preventive counseling services
are fundamentally designed to lower the incidence of spe-
cific problems that are commonly manifested among a given
population, such as youth who attend elementary, interme-
diate, and secondary schools. Mental health professionals
have borrowed terminology from the field of public health to
differentiate three types of preventive counseling interven-
tions: primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention strategies.
In describing these different forms of preventive counseling,
Lewis and her colleagues noted that
Primary prevention focuses on lowering the incidence of various
psychosocial problems and on promoting positive mental health
among people not identified as having any special psychological
difficulties at the present time. Primary prevention is distinguished
from secondary prevention, which aims at the early identification
and treatment of problems, and from tertiary prevention which
attempts to decrease the long-term effects of more serious psy-
JOURNAL OF COUNSELING & DEVELOPMENT SUMMER 2004 VOLUME 82
School-Based Violence Prevention Tr a i n i n g
chological problems. In essence, primary prevention involves ac-
tivities that are designed to reduce environmental stressors and
build peoples competencies and life skills. (Lewis, Lewis, Daniels,
& DAndrea, 2003, p. 14)
School counselors periodically encounter students who
are experiencing serious psychological problems. Because
it is not usually appropriate for these practitioners to
provide the sort of intensive and long-term care that such
students need, they are typically referred to other com-
munity service agencies for psychological assistance. Thus,
other than facilitating appropriate referrals, counselors
do not usually provide tertiary prevention services in the
school setting. They do, however, routinely provide a broad
range of secondary (e.g., individual, small group, and family
counseling services) and primary (e.g., psychoeducational
programs, life skills training programs, consultation, ad-
vocacy services) prevention services at the schools where
they work.
An increasing number of school counselors have found
primary and secondary preventive counseling strategies to
be excellent ways to promote the mental health and psy-
chological well-being of large numbers of youths in cost
effective ways (Lewis et al., 2003; Swisher, 2001). As a
result of the growing recognition of the tremendous psy-
chological benefits that can be derived from these services,
there has been a noticeable escalation in the number of
preventive counseling interventions being used in this
nations public schools over the past 30 years (Baker, 1999).
Conyne (1994) outlined several qualities of primary and
secondary preventive counseling interventions. It is useful
for counselors to keep these qualities in mind when they
consider the feasibility of using helping strategies to reduce
the level of violence that is occurring in our society, in gen-
eral, and in school settings, in particular.
1. Preventive counseling efforts can be implemented within
the school setting before students exhibit violent tenden-
cies (primary prevention) or after some students have mani-
fested aggressive behaviors such as bullying, verbal abuse,
fistfighting, and so on (secondary prevention).
2. Primary and secondary preventive counseling interven-
tions focus on psychologically healthy persons who have
been identified as being at risk for violent behaviors and
may have begun to manifest some difficulties in leading suc-
cessful and productive lives. From a violence prevention
perspective, such persons might include students and adults
who are victimized by or help to perpetuate the types of
physical, sexual-gender, media, cultural-racial, and political-
economic violence previously described in this article.
3. Preventive counseling interventions are implemented
to stop or reduce the incidence of new problems among
specific groups of people (e.g., students in elementary, in-
termediate, and secondary school settings).
4. Preventive counseling efforts are designed to reduce
specific risk factors while simultaneously increasing protec-
tive factors. Risk factors may include destructive family
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DAndrea
dynamics, emotional difficulties, low self-esteem, academic
difficulties, and delays in interpersonal skill development.
School counseling interventions that are commonly used to
counteract these risk factors include parent consultation and
education, individual and small group counseling, tutorials
and mentoring, and a host of other classroom-based life skills
training programs and services.
5. Preventive counseling strategies are ecologically and
systemically based because they occur within a complex
context of interacting levels of influence. Thus, when imple-
menting preventive counseling programs in school settings,
counselors not only provide direct counseling services to
students who are in need. In addition, they use a variety of
consultation, advocacy, and coalition/community-building
services to foster positive changes in students classrooms
and families, in the entire school, and in the community.
6. Preventive counseling is concerned with social jus-
tice. Consequently, when demonstrating a commitment
to promote comprehensive school-based violence preven-
tion programs, counselors are well positioned to promote the
notion that every person in our society should be granted the
right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without
being subjected to various forms of violence that frequently
undermine these fundamental democratic rights.
The latter point leads to the second important reason that
the development and implementation of comprehensive vio-
lence programs need to be supported in our schools. This re-
lates to one of the most vital reasons that our schools exist. It
is clear that many people think of schools primarily as places
where youngsters go to acquire the knowledge and skills nec-
essary to become gainfully employed in the future. Others
view these institutions as important socialization entities that
reinforce our social mores. Although it is agreed that schools
serve both of these purposes, it is argued that a more impor-
tant purpose of schools is to guarantee that each ensuing gen-
eration will gain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are
necessary to foster the ongoing development of the demo-
cratic way of life associated with living in the United States.
The tremendous level of violence that is manifested in
various forms in our nation not only causes undue pain
and suffering to millions of persons each year but also holds
the potential of undermining our democratic way of life by
compromising our belief in each persons fundamental right
to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happinessfundamental
rights that contribute to full development of each
individuals inherent human potentialities. Fostering hu-
man development to its highest level is consistent with
what has been the aim of counseling for approximately 100
years (Ginter, 2002). Thus, by demonstrating a commit-
ment for comprehensive school-based violence prevention
programs, individuals express their support for a broad range
of interventions that help to (a) remedy a serious social
problem that affects millions of persons and (b) guarantee
the perpetuation of the democratic rights that many per-
sons who live in the United States enjoy (DAndrea &
Daniels, 1999).
280 JOURNAL OF COUNSELING & DEVELOPMENT SUMMER 2004 VOLUME 82
WHAT SERVICE COMPONENTS COMPOSE A COMPREHENSIVE
SCHOOL-BASED APPROACH TO
VIOLENCE PREVENTION?
The tremendous interest and support for school-based vio-
lence prevention programs has led numerous counseling and
educational experts to offer different ideas about the vari-
ous service components that they believe need to be in-
cluded in such programs. For example, in a publication de-
veloped by the U.S. Department of Education (1998) titled
Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools,
six factors were identified as being indispensable compo-
nents of a comprehensive approach to school-based vio-
lence prevention programming. This approach includes an
early start and long-term commitment to preventing vio-
lence in the schools, strong leadership and disciplinary poli-
cies, a staff development component, parental involvement,
interagency partnerships and linkages, and the availability
of culturally and developmentally appropriate education
and counseling services.
In presenting another comprehensive violence prevention
model for the schools, Walker and Gresham (1997) outlined
seven service components, some of which overlap with the
factors that were presented in the U.S. Department of Educa-
tion report. The seven components that Walker and Gresham
discussed in their theoretical framework for school-based vio-
lence prevention programs relate to (a) the importance of
building a positive school climate, (b) the articulation of clear
and high performance expectations for all students, (c)
inclusionary educational values and practices, (d) services that
promote strong student bonding to the school environment
and process, (e) outlets that foster high levels of student
participation and parent involvement, (f) provision of op-
portunities for social skill development, and (g) school-wide
conflict resolution services.
Several counseling theorists have presented another frame-
work for comprehensive school-based violence programming
that consists of four major service components (e.g., direct
student, direct school, indirect student, and indirect school
services; DAndrea & Daniels, 1999; Daniels et al., 1999). This
theoretical model represents a developmental-ecological
approach to violence prevention that is based on Lewis
et al.s (2003) community counseling framework. What
distinguishes this framework from others is that it is spe-
cifically designed to be used by counselors who work in
educational settings. The four components of this violence
prevention model are described in the following sections
of this article.
Direct Student Services
Counselors are often called upon to provide direct student
services to individuals who are referred for counseling be-
cause these individuals manifest heightened levels of anger
and inappropriate expressions of aggression at school. These
inappropriate outbursts of anger and aggression often lead
students to become involved in physical violence by engag-
 Comprehensive
ing in fights and other types of bullying behaviors. Based on
the theories reviewed earlier, a comprehensive approach to
school-based violence prevention requires school counse-
lors to (a) identify students who are at risk for expressing
heightened anger and inappropriate aggression and (b) work
with these students in individual and small group counsel-
ing settings to help them learn new and more effective ways
of dealing with their anger, hostility, and aggression. This
includes helping students develop new anger management
skills, interpersonal problem-solving abilities, coping strat-
egies that they can use to more effectively deal with stress-
ful life events, and increasing their sense of respect for hu-
man diversity (Daniels et al., 1999).
Direct student services fall under the heading of secondary
preventive counseling because providing these services in-
cludes helping students who have already begun to manifest
developmental limitations (e.g., failure to develop effective
anger management, interpersonal problem solving, and cop-
ing skills) that, if left unaddressed, can lead to the manifes-
tation of more explicit and heightened forms of violence.
Although such services are indeed an important part of com-
prehensive school-based violence prevention programs, they
need to be complemented by direct school services.
Direct School Services
According to Lewis at al. (2003), direct school services con-
sist of preventive education efforts that are aimed at pro-
moting the development of all students. To accomplish this
task, counselors implement a broad range of life skills train-
ing and psychoeducational- and classroom-based develop-
mental guidance programs that are designed to foster the
psychological and personal development of every student,
and not just those individuals who are manifesting problems.
These classroom-based intervention strategies have proven
to be an effective way to stimulate the psychological devel-
opment and personal competence of large numbers of stu-
dents (Baker, 1999; Lewis et al., 2003) in a cost-efficient
manner (Swisher, 2001).
DAndrea and Daniels (1999) pointed out that a compre-
hensive approach to violence prevention needs to include a
host of direct school services that are intentionally designed
to help all students develop the kind of life skills that are
necessary to successfully negotiate interpersonal conflicts that
will predictably occur during their lives. This includes pro-
viding opportunities within the regular school curriculum so
that every student has multiple opportunities to develop ef-
fective problem-solving, conflict resolution, and coping skills
so that they have constructive alternatives to violence.
Chun (2001) recently reported on the effectiveness of imple-
menting a broad range of such services in a variety of school
settings. Other investigators have focused on the impact that
multicultural guidance programs have in promoting the types
of proactive social skills that enable elementary school-age
students to effectively, respectfully, and peacefully negotiate
interpersonal challenges and conflicts that commonly arise in
culturally and racially diverse settings (DAndrea & Daniels,
1995; Salzman & DAndrea, 2001).
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School-Based Violence Prevention Tr a i n i n g
Indirect Student Services
Although many school counselors are currently using differ-
ent types of direct school services to cover these topics,
other practitioners are using a variety of other strategies to
indirectly address these areas. Some of the indirect helping
strategies that school counselors often use in this regard
involves consulting with teachers who are interested in learn-
ing new ways to infuse life skills training lessons throughout
the regular curriculum. These consultation efforts constitute
vital parts of DAndrea and Danielss (1999) developmental-
ecological theory of comprehensive school-based violence pre-
vention programming and fall under the heading of indirect
student services.
In discussing the importance of these services, Daniels et
al. (1999) emphasized that successful, school-based violence
prevention interventions require the support and involve-
ment of administrators and teachers. Most school adminis-
trators and teachers are keenly aware of the importance of
working to prevent violence within the school setting as
well as in the communities where they live and work. How-
ever, because they are often not knowledgeable of the spe-
cific types of services that need to be included in a compre-
hensive approach to violence prevention, administrators and
teachers do not know where to begin or how they can help
to sustain the such programs (DAndrea & Daniels, 1998).
Counselors are well positioned to provide the types of
indirect student services that help administrators and teachers
become more knowledgeable of the roles they can play to
support the development and implementation of compre-
hensive school-based violence prevention programs. School
counselors can do this by offering workshops and providing
individual consultation services that are aimed at expand-
ing administrators and teachers knowledge of some of the
practical things they can do to help implement different
violence prevention strategies in their schools. Daniels et
al. (1999) noted that these training and consultation ser-
vices need to assist administrators and teachers to
1. learn how to identify the early warning signs of violence;
2. gain an increased awareness of the specific things they
can do to help children and adolescents refrain from
using violence as a way to solve problems or vent
anger and hostilities;
3. acquire new skills that can be used to successfully
implement interpersonal problem-solving strategies
in the classroom; and
4. increase their knowledge of other community re-
sources (e.g., law enforcement agencies, sexual abuse
counseling centers, domestic violence programs,
homeless shelters, antiracist educational programs)
that can be incorporated into a comprehensive school-
based violence prevention program.
Indirect School Services
The final component of Lewis et al.s (2003) model relates
to importance of including indirect school services in compre-
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DAndrea
hensive school-based violence prevention programs. The pri-
mary purpose of these services is to secure the support of
law enforcement personnel, policy makers, elected officials,
and other key community members for school-based vio-
lence prevention programs that are preventive and develop-
mental in nature (Daniels et al., 1999). Some of the things
that counselors can do to gain the support of these persons
include (a) consulting with school administrators about the
need to make policy changes, including the modification of
student disciplinary policies and the development of a com-
prehensive plan for creating a safe school environment (U.S.
Department of Education, 1998); (b) meeting with law en-
forcement and juvenile justice officials to identify the resources
they would be willing to share; (c) supporting lawmakers who
are working to pass hate crime bills in state legislatures and
city councils; and (d) submitting grant proposals to private
foundations and government agencies to secure funding for
the continued operation of existing school-based violence pre-
vention programs and services (Daniels et al., 1999).
WHAT EFFECTIVE TRAINING MODELS HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED FOR
DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING COMPREHENSIVE VIOLENCE
PREVENTION PROGRAMS IN SCHOOL SETTINGS?
DAndrea and Daniels (1998) stressed that, regardless of
the particular violence prevention framework that one
chooses to use in the school setting, the overall effectiveness
of the intervention strategy largely depends on the degree to
which counselors are able to gain initial support among all
of the stakeholders who will be directly and indirectly
affected by the development and implementation of school-
based violence prevention programs. Among the major stake-
holders who need to be included in the development of
comprehensive school-based violence prevention programs
are school administrators, counselors, teachers, parents, and
community members.
To garner the support of these persons, it is useful to pro-
vide professional training services that are designed to in-
crease all of the stakeholders understanding of the various
service components that need to be included in comprehen-
sive school-based violence prevention programs. Because the
training of administrators, counselors, teachers, parents, and
community members is viewed as a necessary first step in
developing violence prevention programs in the schools, it
is important to understand what types of training models
have been tested and found to be effective in this endeavor
(i.e., training outcome).
Having conducted an extensive review of the professional
counseling and education literature, I found no publications
that reported on the effectiveness of these types of training
initiatives (i.e., evaluation of comprehensive school-based
violence prevention training programs for administrators
and teachers). Recognizing the importance of providing coun-
seling practitioners with information regarding the types of
violence prevention training frameworks that have proven
to be effective in promoting the knowledge and skills of
282 JOURNAL OF COUNSELING & DEVELOPMENT SUMMER 2004 VOLUME 82
administrators and teachers in this area, I decided to test
the overall effectiveness of one of the theoretical models
that was discussed earlier. By using the developmental-
ecological prevention model that was derived from the com-
munity counseling model (Daniels et al., 1999) as a guide-
line for training administrators, counselors, and teachers who
worked in four different elementary schools in Hawaii, I
was able to generate data to evaluate this particular train-
ing framework. The following section provides a brief de-
scription of these efforts and the evaluation results.
THE HAWAII SCHOOL-BASED VIOLENCE PREVENTION
TRAINING PROJECT
I secured a grant from a private community-based organiza-
tion, called the Hawaii Violence Prevention Consortium, to
provide training for school administrators, counselors, and
teachers who were interested in developing and implement-
ing comprehensive violence prevention programs at their
schools. As a professor at the University of Hawaii, I was
able to develop a new 3-credit, graduate-level course titled,
School-based Violence Prevention Strategies, which was
offered to the administrators, counselors, and teachers at
four elementary schools that the Hawaii Violence Preven-
tion Consortium agreed to assist by providing fiscal sup-
port that would help them develop and implement compre-
hensive school-based violence prevention programs. The
grant not only paid for my services as the instructor of the
new violence prevention course that was offered through
the University of Hawaii, but it also enabled any adminis-
trator, teacher, and counselor who was interested in taking
the new course to do so by paying a nominal registration fee
of $64. The fact that the persons who were interested in
taking the new 3-credit graduate-level course were able to
save more than $1,500 in normal tuition costs served as an
incentive for many of the persons who took advantage of
this unique professional development training activity. An-
other important incentive that was built into this training
opportunity was that all of the class meetings were held at
the four elementary schools targeted by the Hawaii Vio-
lence Prevention Consortium.
The requirements for this course were similar to those for
other graduate-level counseling and education courses of-
fered at the University of Hawaii. These requirements in-
cluded having participants (a) attend 3-hour class meetings
once a week for 16 weeks, (b) complete all assigned reading
materials on time, (c) participate in class discussions, (d)
complete three reaction papers that reflected the partici-
pants reactions to their reading assignments and classroom
discussions, (e) submit an action plan that described what
the participants planned to do to support the implementa-
tion of a comprehensive violence prevention program at their
school, and (f) complete an evaluation report that described
the impact of implementing their action plans.
The participants action plans and evaluation reports were
key instructional activities that were intentionally designed

to have administrators, teachers, and counselors actually
implement a comprehensive violence prevention program
in their schools and assess the impact of their efforts. Re-
quiring these persons to develop school-based violence pre-
vention actions plans and assessment strategies resulted in
several positive training outcomes, which included
encouraging participants to move from theory (learn-
ing about various violence prevention models) to
practice, that is, using their expanded theoretical un-
derstanding of violence prevention programming to
develop and implement various interventions in the
schools where they worked;
having all participants learn about the various inter-
vention strategies that other persons at their schools
were committed to implementing (by allowing the
participants to discuss their action plans midway
through the training program, everyone was able to
learn about the multiple approaches that their col-
leagues were undertaking to ameliorate the problem
of violence in the school and in the communities in
which they worked and lived); and
generating assessment data that were included in the
participants evaluation reports. This course require-
ment provided useful information regarding the over-
all impact that the administrators, counselors, and
teachers action plans had in their schools. It also
resulted in the development of a new database, which
counselors and administrators could use when pre-
paring grant proposals for future violence prevention
funding. Several participants in this professional de-
velopment training program did, in fact, use this new
database when writing grants to secure additional
fiscal support for ongoing violence prevention pro-
gramming at their schools after they had completed
the course.
The curriculum for this course followed the comprehen-
sive school-based violence prevention model that was de-
veloped by DAndrea and Daniels (1999). In addition to
providing information and facilitating class discussions that
were designed to have the administrators, counselors, and
teachers acquire the knowledge and skills that are necessary
to implement the types of direct student, direct school, in-
direct student, and indirect school services that were de-
scribed in this theoretical model (see previous text), I used
two of the regularly scheduled class meetings to discuss a
broad range of research and evaluation strategies. This was
done to assist the participants in evaluating the impact of
implementing their action plan.
The administrators, counselors, and teachers who partici-
pated in this course were free to select whatever violence
prevention strategy they wanted to implement; by the eighth
class meeting, they were required to submit an action plan
that described their strategy. The course syllabus indicated
that the persons who participated in this professional train-
ing project could complete an individual action plan or work
JOURNAL OF COUNSELING & DEVELOPMENT SUMMER 2004 VOLUME 82
Comprehensive School-Based Violence Prevention Tr a i n i n g
with other members of the class to complete a written plan
that described the specific violence prevention strategy they
agreed to implement together during the semester. Individuals
or groups of persons, who worked together to implement
the various actions plans that were developed during this
training project, were required to submit a final evaluation
report at the end of the course. The final assignment (i.e.,
the evaluation report) was due at the final class meeting.
By allowing the participants to freely decide to develop
whatever violence prevention intervention they were genu-
inely interested in trying out at their schools, I hoped to
enhance their buy in for various school-based violence
prevention intervention strategies. However, in doing so,
I realized that the action plans that were submitted might
reflect an inordinate number of strategies that fell into
one or two of the components that constituted DAndrea
and Danielss (1998) comprehensive school-based vio-
lence prevention framework and fail to address one or
more of the other components that make up this four-
component model.
From a training perspective, it was apparent that the goal
of helping the administrators, teachers, and counselors de-
velop and implement comprehensive violence prevention
programs at their schools could be achieved better by re-
quiring the participants to develop action plans that matched
their own interests and skills. However, to ensure that the
participants clearly understood (a) that they had much lee-
way in terms of selecting the type of action plan they were
most interested in implementing and (b) the importance of
developing a broad range of services that collectively re-
flected a comprehensive approach to violence prevention,
I repeatedly emphasized the need to implement action
strategies that could be classified into all four service com-
ponents of DAndrea and Danielss (1998) school-based
violence prevention model.
EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE HAWAII SCHOOL-BASED
VIOLENCE PREVENTION TRAINING PROJECT
Seventy-seven persons registered for the Hawaii School-
Based Violence Prevention Training Project. Three persons
withdrew from the project shortly after the training began.
All of these persons cited lack of time to fulfill the course
requirements as the primary reason for withdrawing from
the course. Table 1 provides a breakdown of the 74 indi-
viduals who actually completed this training project.
A total of 38 action plans were generated by the 74 per-
sons who worked at the four elementary schools that were
targeted by the Hawaii Violence Prevention Consortium
and who participated in the Hawaii School-based Violence
Prevention Training Project. The Appendix provides a brief
description of the different violence prevention interven-
tions that the participants implemented at their schools as
reported in their action plans. As noted in the Appendix,
all of the action plans that were submitted by the training
participants could be classified into the four service com-
283
DAndrea
TABLE 1
Breakdown of the 74 Individuals Who
Completed the Hawaii School-Based Violence
Prevention Training Project
School Administrators Counselors Teachers
School 1 2 2 18
School 2 2 4 17
School 3 1 1 15
School 4 0 1 11
ponents (i.e., direct student, indirect student, direct school,
indirect school services) of DAndrea and Danielss (1998)
comprehensive violence prevention framework.
CONCLUSIONS
There are several conclusions that can be drawn from my evalu-
ation of the Hawaii School-Based Violence Prevention Train-
ing Project. The first conclusion is that this project involved
the need to operate from a clear violence-prevention theory
base. In doing so, trainers not only help to clarify what is actu-
ally meant by a comprehensive approach to violence preven-
tion programming but they also provide a road map that ad-
ministrators, counselors, and teachers can use to see how their
efforts can be linked together to develop an integrated and
cohesive system of services that are designed to deal with the
problem of violence in our schools, communities, and nation.
The theoretical framework that was initially developed by
DAndrea and Daniels (1998) and refined by Daniels et al.
(1999) was found to be a particularly useful tool that counse-
lors might consider using to help develop and implement an
integrated and comprehensive approach to violence preven-
tion programming in the schools.
Second, by using multiple sources of data to evaluate the
overall effectiveness of the Hawaii School-Based Violence Pre-
vention Training model, I concluded that this professional de-
velopment project represents an effective way to help develop
and implement comprehensive school-based violence preven-
tion programs in elementary school settings. The overall effec-
tiveness of this professional development training project was
reflected in
a low attrition rate (74 of the 77 persons who ini-
tially registered for this training project completed
all of the required assignments for the course);
the high course evaluation scores that the trainer re-
ceived from the administrators, counselors, and teach-
ers who completed this training project (an overall
course evaluation of 4.45 out of a 5-point scale was
generated by all of the persons who participated in
this professional development training initiative); and
the fact that 74 of the administrators, counselors, and
teachers who participated in this professional devel-
opment training project developed, implemented, and
284 JOURNAL OF COUNSELING & DEVELOPMENT SUMMER 2004 VOLUME 82
evaluated violence prevention strategies that fell into
all four of the major service components that
DAndrea and Daniels (1998) stated are necessary
to establish a comprehensive approach to school-
based violence prevention.
It is important to note that the majority of the projects
that the participants developed and implemented at their
schools represented new types of classroom-based services
(a total of 21 direct school services were implemented by
the participants). This finding was not entirely surprising
given that most of the persons who took part in this train-
ing project were classroom teachers. However, this finding
further underscores the importance of emphasizing the need
for school personnel to commit themselves to developing
and implementing projects in the other three service com-
ponents (direct student, indirect student, and indirect school
service components) if their schools are to successfully fol-
low the comprehensive school-based violence prevention
framework outlined by DAndrea and Daniels (1998).
The results of the evaluation of the Hawaii School-Based
Violence Prevention Training Project also suggest that the
theoretical framework used in the training is a useful tool
for other counselors as they plan training services that are
designed to assist administrators, teachers, and other school
counselors acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to
develop and implement comprehensive violence prevention
programs in educational settings.
In addition to the strengths of the professional training
framework described, there are also two major limitations
associated with the Hawaii School-Based Violence Preven-
tion Training Project. First, the action plans and evaluation
reports that were generated by this project were all devel-
oped by persons working in elementary school settings. Re-
searchers are encouraged to test the effectiveness of the de-
velopmental-ecological training model that was used in the
Hawaii project among persons who work in other educa-
tional settings (e.g., intermediate school, secondary school,
and university settings) to see whether this training model
is effective across other school settings.
Second, it is also important to acknowledge that the evalu-
ation efforts reported in this article focused on the overall
effectiveness of the training model to assist school adminis-
trators, counselors, and teachers to develop and implement a
broad range of new school-based services that represented a
comprehensive approach to violence prevention. These evalu-
ation efforts did not, however, assess the actual impact that
these new services had on students in terms of increasing
their ability to avoid using violent behaviors to resolve inter-
personal conflicts and lowering the overall level of violence
that reportedly occurred previously in the schools. Such out-
come measures represent additional challenges that need to
be addressed by researchers in the future.
Despite the acknowledged limitations that are associated
with the evaluation of the Hawaii School-Based Violence
Prevention Training Project, this model seems to be a useful
strategy that other counselors can use to promote compre-
 Comprehensive School-Based Violence Prevention Tr a i n i n g

hensive violence prevention programs in the schools in
which they work. In doing so, perhaps they will be able to
more effectively address the epidemic of violence that has
become apparent in our nation. By assisting school admin-
istrators, teachers, and other counselors to learn new ways
to implement practical strategies that focus on enabling
students to live more peaceful and respectful lives, these
professionals can help to create safer schools and commu-
nities and strengthen the fundamental principles of life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness concepts on which
our country was founded.
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APPENDIX
A Description of the Different Violence Prevention Services That the Participants Agreed to Implement
at Their Schools

Direct Student Services

1. The establishment of three new anger management counseling groups at three different schools that were targeted by this project.
2. The establishment of four new small counseling groups that were designed to foster the development of students social skills, interper-
sonal problem-solving abilities, and coping strategies. (Note. At least one new counseling group was initiated at all four schools that were
included in this project.)
Direct School Services
1. Twenty-one new classroom-based interventions. ( Note. Five new classroom interventions were initiated at three of the targeted schools,
and six new class-based interventions were implemented at the fourth school included in this project.)

(Appendix continued on next page)

JOURNAL OF COUNSELING & DEVELOPMENT SUMMER 2004 VOLUME 82 285

DAndrea

APPENDIX (Continued)
A Description of the Different Violence Prevention Services That the Participants Agreed to Implement
at Their Schools

Indirect Student Services

1. One parent outreach and consultation project was initiated at all of the schools included in this project.
2. Two community outreach and consultation projects were initiated at two of the schools included in this project.
Indirect School Services
1. Three projects involved ongoing consultation efforts with three principals (none of whom participated in the training) to discuss the impor-
tance of reviewing and modifying existing student disciplinary policies and practices.
2. One project that included persons who worked at all four of the targeted schools involved working with local elected officials and law
enforcement personnel in organizing a community-wide Peace Day. This project resulted in more than 3,000 elementary school students
attending a Peace Day celebration that was held on April 26, 1999, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

286 JOURNAL OF COUNSELING & DEVELOPMENT SUMMER 2004 VOLUME 82