Too Good for Drugs & Violence High School

The evidence-based Too Good for Drugs & Violence High School prepares students with the skills they need for academic, social, and life success. Interactive games and activities provide practical guidance on dating and relationships, building healthy friendships, and refusing negative peer influence.

Lessons foster analysis and discussion of the effects of ATOD use as well as prescription and OTC drug use and various nicotine delivery devices. Students also analyze the impact of social media on decision making, reaching goals, and self identity.

Students learn how to navigate the challenges of social and academic pressures like making responsible decisions, managing stress and anger, reflecting on personal relationships, and resolving conflicts. The lessons use collaborative and experiential learning strategies to help students practice the skills proven to prevent violence and other risky behaviors.

Discontinued - No Longer Available

Curriculum Kit - Item# HS4090

$625.95


The Too Good toolkit includes everything you need to teach the lessons:

  • Teacher's Manual
  • 30 Student Workbooks
  • High School Digital Media Disc
  • Trial Run Game Board, Game Cards, and Tiles, 4 sets
  • Level Up! Card Game, 4 sets
  • I'll Pass Card Game, 1 set
  • Quality Assurance Card Game, 4 sets
  • Roll Call Card Game, 4 Sets
  • Remain Calm Card Game, 1 set
  • Bit Review Card Game, 6 sets
  • Deciding Factor Card Game, 1 set
  • My Yearbook Picture: A Horror Story - Role Play Script
  • Who Wore It Worst? Session Files
  • The Dating Game Role Play Script
  • Fact Check Cards, 4 sets
  • Smoke Screen Game Cards, 1 set
  • 10 Alcohol Consequence Balls
  • Forensic Files Activity, 1 set
  • Game Pieces with Die, 4 sets

Curriculum Features include:

  • Fifteen 50-minute fully scripted, research-based lessons conveniently presented in a tabbed three-ring binder, making them easy to use and enjoyable to teach.
  • Comprehensive planner for each lesson with clearly-stated, measurable objectives, topic rationale, and allotted activity times.
  • A parent component, "Bring it Home Newsletter for Parents and Teens," to extend prevention skills and messages into the home. Home Workout activities for additional practice with parents, siblings, and caregivers at home.
  • Looking for More? Each lesson includes cross-curricular lesson extenders with suggestions for infusion, recommended reading, and additional activities for reinforcing important concepts and skills.
  • 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 introduces Character Education and Normative Education concepts as well as provides guidance for facilitating discussions about various substance use, conflict, and peer influence topics in the classroom.
  • Program logic model including the its theory of change and the proven strategies incorporated into the lessons.
  • Strategies and methods to build family and school connections to reinforce the healthy social and emotional development of the students.

How does Too Good work?

Too Good for Drugs and Violence Social Perspectives High School is part of the comprehensive K-12 prevention education program.  This dynamic course immerses students in the core social skill development they need to navigate the world they will enter after high school. The experiential learning design applies interactive games and activities to let the students try on and apply the skills and strategies that are best learned through first hand application.  

Fifteen developmentally appropriate lessons feature topics of great interest to high school students including managing complex social situations, understanding the characteristics and norms related to dating relationships including the indicators of unhealthy and unsafe relationships, and safe use and appreciation of social media. A comprehensive set of lessons introduce and explore the negative health effects of the misuse and abuse of alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, opioids, stimulants, and prescription and OTC drugs.

Students also explore these skills to help them face the challenges they can foresee and the obstacles they can't as they work to reaching their goals.

  • Respect for Self and for Others
  • Problem Solving
  • Anger Management
  • Healthy Dating Relationships

Too Good prepares students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to make responsible decisions and resolve conflicts peacefully and build healthy relationships now and in the future.

Substance Use Prevention

Topics include:

  • THC and Marijuana
  • Nicotine and Tobacco
  • Prescription and OTC drugs
  • Stimulants
  • Opioids
  • Alcohol and Underage Drinking

Develops Core Character Traits

Too Good for Violence - Social Perspectives High School focuses on and mitigates the risk factors that can be positively affected in the classroom: favorable attitudes toward aggression and other problem behaviors and friends who engage in problem behavior.

Too Good builds protection within the student by:

  • Establishing Positive Norms Including Healthy Beliefs and Clear Standards
  • Promoting Bonding to Pro-Social Peers
  • Increasing Personal and Social Skills

Builds core social emotional learning skills

These social and emotional learning skills enhance success in the classroom and at home. These SEL skills promote self-awareness and social awareness and have been linked with school success and positive development:

  • Setting Reachable Goals
  • Responsible Decision Making
  • Bonding with pro-social others
  • Identifying and Managing Anger and other Emotions
  • Effective Communication

Understanding the Logic Model

The Mendez Foundation developed Logic Models for Too Good to map out the Theory of Change and demonstrate graphically the assumptions that drive Too Good. 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.

Logic Model

Research Design

Each 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). The Researchers examined 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.

The 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.

Evaluation Studies

2001 Summary 2001 Full Report

Organization/AgencyTGFD K-8TGFV K-8TGFD&V High School
What Works Clearinghouse: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education SciencePositive effects on behavior
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Positive effect on behavior & knowledge, attitudes & values
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Positive effect on behavior & knowledge, attitudes & values
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CASEL: Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional LearningNot Yet RatedElementary SELect Program
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Not Yet Rated
NREPP: National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs & PracticesReviewed evaluation
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Reviewed evaluation
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Reviewed evaluation
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CEBC: California Evidence Based Clearinghouse for Child WelfareTGFD Grade 6 
Scientific Rating 2 - Supported by Evidence
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Not Yet RatedNot Yet Rated
OJJDP: Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency PreventionPromising program
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Exemplary program
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Exemplary program
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Promising Practices Network: Programs that WorkScreened program
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Screened program
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Screened program
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SAMHSA: Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration Model programModel programModel program

Awards

Too Good programs have earned recognition and acclaim for their impact in promoting safer and healthy youth and communities. 

  • Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association's (FADAA) Best Practices Award
  • The American Medical Association's National Congress on Adolescent Health
  • The President's Child Safety Partnership
  • Southeast Regional Center for Drug-Free Schools and Communities Shining Star Award
  • Our programs received a high rating in "Drug Strategies"

Other Recognition

Recognition for Too Good for Drugs™ in Drug Strategies "Making the Grade": "Some very strong elements in this very detailed, 10 session per year curriculum. Provides developmentally appropriate information about alcohol, tobacco and marijuana. Normative education activities creative and compelling, new ideas for games. Includes no-use pledge."

Recognition for Too Good for Violence in Drug Strategies "Safe Schools, Safe Students": "A delightful package of materials (that) complements this highly interactive 4-9 session program. Strongly focused on critical skill areas. Extremely detailed instructions for teachers. Very complete."