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Developmental and Randomized Evaluation of the Planned Parenthood Los Angeles Sexuality Education Initiative Funding Agency: Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, with support from multiple foundations and individual donors Dates: 2008-2013 Staff: Norm Constantine (principal investigator), Luanne Rohrbach (USC, co-principal investigator), Petra Jerman (research scientist), Nancy Berglas (research scientist), Francisca Olaiz (cultural anthropologist), Gaylene Gunning (data collection manager), Jessica Lin (research associate), Mona Desai (qualitative researcher) Advisors: John Elfers, Eva Goldfarb, Cynthia Gómez, Andrea Irvin, Doug Kirby, Carmen Nevarez, Emily Ozer Abstract: The Public Health Institute's (PHI) Center for Research on Adolescent Health and Development, in collaboration with the USC Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, is conducting a formative, developmental, and randomized evaluation of the Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles (PPLA) Sexuality Education Initiative Demonstration Project. This evaluation is part of an ongoing partnership between PPLA, PHI, and USC to develop, demonstrate, and rigorously evaluate an affordable multi-component school-based sexual health promotion program. The goals of this PPLA Sexuality Education Initiative Demonstration Project are to substantially improve and expand effective comprehensive sexual health education in the LAUSD and other school districts to help reduce the increasing number of teen births and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among youth and to improve other aspects of adolescent sexual health. The initiative takes a youth rights and responsibilities approach, and includes four primary components: classroom curriculum, a parent education component, a peer advocacy component, and a clinic integration component. This demonstration is intended to provide a replicable model to LAUSD, the 93 other school districts in Los Angeles County, and other school districts across the state and the country. The evaluation is designed to be highly collaborative, participatory, and incremental. It is collaborative in that PHI, USC, and PPLA will work closely together on all activities, continuing to demonstrate the level of teamwork that has been experienced in the activities that have taken place already. It is participatory in that PHI provides training and support to PPLA staff and peer educators to increase their understanding of and skills in community research methods and to allow for their direct participation in all aspects of the evaluation. It is incremental in that all phases are designed to provide a foundation for subsequent stages as the evaluation becomes more rigorous, powerful, and standardized, while at the same time producing information and guidance that are immediately useful in terms of program development support and feedback, as well as preliminary results about program effectiveness. PPLA SEI Randomized Design Plan
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