Project ACHIEVE is a comprehensive school-wide reform strategy that emphasizes building-based prevention and early intervention programs specifically focused on underachieving and at-risk students, as well as students already placed in special education classes. ACHIEVE emphasizes increasing student performance in social skills and conflict resolution through school-wide positive behavioral support systems, improving student achievement and academic progress, facilitating a positive school climate, and increasing parental involvement. Other program goals include: enhancing teachers’ problem-solving skills with at-risk students; improving building- and classroom-management skills of teachers and other school personnel; helping students with potential problems receive early intervention services that reduce the need for later special education placements; and assisting children already receiving special education services to ultimately return to the regular classroom. ACHIEVE’s goal of improving services to under-achieving students is based in the assumption that youth who can succeed in an environment are less likely to act out against that environment. An underlying program theme is the creation of a school climate in which everyone -- teachers, administrators, parents -- believes that they are responsible for every student in the building and community. Project ACHIEVE has been implemented in schools in the states of Florida and Alaska, and in Baltimore City and Montgomery County, Maryland; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Ft. Knox, Kentucky; Dallas, Texas; and the Cleveland, Ohio suburbs. ACHIEVE has been designated as a Model Prevention Program by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). ACHIEVE has also received mention in the U.S. Department of Education’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools: An Action Guide; Safe, Drug-Free, and Effective Schools for All Children: What Works; and the 1998 Annual Report on School Safety; it was designated as the best student services program by the Florida Department of Education (1994-98). In addition, the program has been spotlighted at several federally-sponsored conferences and websites.

Target Population

- Grade Level: from  Preschool to  Fifth grade