The Too Good toolkit includes everything you need to teach the lessons:
- Too Good OST Ages 5-7 Teacher Manual
- Too Good OST Ages 7-9 Teacher Manual
- Too Good OST Ages 9-11 Teacher Manual
- Carmen the Cool Cat Puppet
- Wagner the Peace-Able Pup Puppet
- Bean Bags - Set of 12 - Four Colors
- What's It Ball (2)
- Carmen & Wagner Make Friends Picture Book
- Peaceable Zoo Poster
- Make a Friend Poster
- Respect for You and Me Poster
- Stop and Think Poem Poster
- I Feel Poster
- How to Listen Cure Poster
- Stop and Paws Poster
- Carmen Emotion Signs - Ages 5-7
- Act the Part Activity Cards - Ages 5-7
- Move It Activity Cards - Ages 5-7
- Problem Solving Activity Cards - Ages 5-7
- Tally Cards - Ages 7-9
- Fetch Activity Cards - Ages 7-9
- Safety First Activity Cards - Ages 7-9
- Take Five Activity Cards - Ages 7-9
- Problems Aplenty Activity Cards - Ages 7-9
- Fast Track Activity Cards - Ages 9-11
- Clue Cue Activity Cards - Ages 9-11
- Got It! Activity Cards - Ages 9-11
- Strike a Pose Activity Cards - Ages 9-11
- Memory Match Activity Cards - Ages 9-11
- Rising Star Activity Cards - Ages 9-11
- Beat the Clock Activity Cards - Ages 9-11
- Respect Effect Activity Cards - Ages 9-11
- What on Earth Activity Cards - Ages 9-11
- Positively Charged Activity Cards - Ages 9-11
Curriculum Features include:
- Scripted Design - 180 20-minute fully scripted, research-based activities grouped by topic and age range and conveniently presented in three spiral-bound books, making them easy to use and enjoyable to teach.
- Comprehensive Activity Planner with clearly-stated, measurable objectives, topic rationale, and allotted activity times.
- Activity Resource Pack with Activity Visual Displays, Activity Instructions, Talk It Out Activities, and Evaluation Instruments in a downloadable for display or print format.
- Parent Component - Talk It Out activities extend prevention skills practice and messages into the home.
- Assessment Materials to measure student outcomes and process outcomes including implementation effectiveness and fidelity of implementation as well as student knowledge, attitudes, and behavior.
- Comprehensive Pre-Delivery Training Component covering Character Education and Normative Education concepts, Fidelity of Implementation, as well as guidance for facilitating discussions about various conflict and peer influence topics.
- Logic Model including the program’s theory of change and the proven strategies incorporated into the activities.
- Strategies and Methods to build family and school connections to reinforce the healthy social and emotional development of the students.
Activity Sample
Too Good OST Ages 5-7 Too Good OST Ages 7-9 Too Good OST Ages 9-11
Activities Overview
Comprehensive Prevention EducationToo Good OST is a universal prevention education and character education program that promotes the development of the skills, attitudes, and behaviors consistent with positive, pro-social living to encourage healthy emotions management and actions, respect between peers, and self-awareness and social awareness to foster supportive and respectful learning environments. | |
Flexible Implementation DesignToo Good OST is designed to meet the needs of the out of school space with small format activities that can be delivered as part of multiple learning tracks. Activities are grouped by Learning Focus and then by subtopics within the focus group. Instructors can choose which activities suit their instruction priorities. If particular outcomes are desired, learning tracks can be customized. Too Good OST offers developmentally appropriate activities for young learners ages 5-11 in three activity sets tailored to the readiness at each age group. Each age group builds on previous levels developing the skills sequentially with engaging, age-appropriate activities. | |
Kinesthetic LearningToo Good OST is designed to continue learning beyond the school day in an active environment that doesn't feel like more school. The learning activities get the students up and moving to engage their bodies and their imaginations. Cooperative activity designs bring the whole group together to share, solve problems, and explore new ideas as they practice and apply the prevention concepts in the course. | |
Sequential ReinforcementToo Good OST equips students with the tools to make informed choices, develop healthy behaviors, and navigate challenges effectively by sequentially layering knowledge and skills development. This approach ensures that the learning is not only comprehensive but also relevant and applicable to the evolving needs and experiences of the students over time. |
An Ongoing ProjectAssessing the efficacy of a complex prevention framework like Too Good requires rigorous data collection and analysis to capture the effective change elements and confirm its replication in real world education settings. The Mendez Foundation continues to collect performance data demonstrating the effects of the program framework and publishes the studies examining those data sets as they become available. The reports produced through these efforts are presented on these pages and updated as additional reports are completed. |
Research DesignEach of the Too Good evaluation studies were conducted by third-party researchers and used randomized treatment-control group designs (pre-test/post-test, 20-week post-test, or one-year follow-up). Researchers examine pre-test equivalence between treatment and control groups; potential bias of loss of student data over time; quality of program implementation; and estimates of reliability and validity of assessment tools among other performance measurement variables. |
Research ReportsThe award-winning Too Good programs have undergone rigorous, independent evaluation studies to measure their effects on students' skills, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. Studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national evaluation conferences. These studies demonstrate the effectiveness of Too Good. |
2000 Research Report | 2000 Summary | 2000 Full Report |
2001 Research Report | 2001 Summary | 2001 Full Report |
2003 Research Report | 2003 Summary | 2003 Full Report |
2003 Research Report | 2003 Summary | 2003 Full Report |
2005 Research Report | 2005 Summary | 2005 Full Report |
2007 Research Report | 2007 Summary | 2007 Full Report |
2013 Research Report | 2013 Summary | 2013 Full Report |
Strengths-Based Skills DevelopmentToo Good OST introduces and develops self-efficacy and interpersonal skills linked with healthy development and academic success to promote self-awareness and social awareness:
Additional skills development and application concepts built into the course to promote positive social development and pro-social peer bonding and practice for avoiding unhealthy behaviors and resisting negative influences include:
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Mitigates risk factors and builds protective factorsToo Good focuses on the risk factors and negative social norms that can be positively affected in the classroom: favorable attitudes toward substance use, violence, and other problem behaviors and friends who engage in problem behavior. Too Good builds protection within the student by:
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Develops Core Character TraitsToo Good OST promotes character development by strengthening ten character traits:
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Understanding the Logic ModelThe Logic Model for Too Good OST maps out the Theory of Change that underpins the activity design and method and demonstrates graphically the assumptions that drive Too Good OST. The logic model communicates an "if-then" message of what changes the program intends to produce. It helps to make the connections among the target group, goals, strategies, objectives and planned program results and lays out what the program is expected to achieve and how it is expected to work. |