Dear Dr. E. Val:

About a year ago we moved to Springfield, a medium-sized city in the Midwest with growing alcohol, marijuana, and inhalant use among teens. Just before I arrived, a high-profile teen drunk driving incident opened the eyes of the community to these growing substance use issues.

I was hired to run an innovative prevention program to combat these evils among middle-school kids. Now, a year later, I am still reeling, after a week, from reading the evaluator's draft report. I still cannot believe my eyes.

The staff and I saw some miraculous results. The kids live in economically disadvantaged, high-crime neighborhoods and attend the poorest school. Many are from working single-parent families ("latchkey kids"). During the program, they were staying in school, trying hard, and doing well both in terms of grades and staying away from drugs.

Despite the success, when I read this report, all I see are the evaluator's negative conclusions. He writes that "the program has little evidence of effectiveness…participation appears to have made little difference in the lives of the children… To make matters worse, I used $50,000 that could have gone to improving the program to pay for the evaluation!

The grant is over and state and city funding depended on our showing that the program worked. That hope is now gone. My wife is fed up with all my do-gooding, low-paying jobs and the lifestyle they afford. She is heading back to New York City to her old job in advertising, and at this point she wants to go without me. She is even taking the dog.

While this is truly awful, the thing that gnaws at me is the self-doubt. How could I be so wrong? How could I know that we had made a real difference with these kids but not enough for the evaluation to pick up? And if I am wrong about this, what else do I only think I know? And what do I do now?

Sincerely,
Jack Dogood