This study investigated the impact of class-level variables on the effectiveness of a universal middle school social and emotional learning (SEL) program, as reported by students (7th to 9th grade) and their teachers. There were 746 participants (M age = 13.38; SD = 1.36), comprising 576 in the intervention groups and 170 in the control groups. Results from both self- and teacher reports identified positive intervention gains in social awareness and self-control. According to both types of informants, rural school students benefitted more in social awareness, whereas teacher reports attributed bigger gains in social awareness to 7th- and 8th-graders. These results highlight the importance of class-level variables when analysing the effectiveness of SEL programs.

The effectiveness of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program in achieving its goals at the national, regional, and state level is unknown. Using US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data from all states and territories for the years 2000-2006, the impact of program and participant characteristics and returns to scale on the three outcome indicators used by the USDA are estimated. Program and participant characteristics do not seem to be as important as the amount of money spent on the program. Generally speaking, there are constant and increasing returns to scale for two of the three federal outcome indices for most states but not all.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of the English National Horizon Scanning Centre (NHSC) in identifying and filtering pharmaceutical developments using end user and international collaborator databases of emerging technologies as proxies for new drugs of likely significance to health services and/or patients.

Methods: We used the NHSC information system and the list of National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) technology appraisals to estimate the false positive rate for NHSC identification, filtration, and reporting. We assessed the sensitivity of NHSC identification and filtration of pharmaceuticals for NICE technology appraisals from 1999 to the end of December 2010, and for pharmaceuticals entered into the EuroScan International Network database.

Results: We estimate that overall NHSC identification, filtration and reporting had a positive predictive value of 0.39 (95 percent CI, 0.36 to 0.43) and a false positive rate of 60 percent. Using NICE appraisals and EuroScan's database as proxies for pharmaceuticals of significance, we estimate the NHSC sensitivity over the 10-year period at 0.92 (95 percent CI, 0.89 to 0.95) and 0.89 (95 percent CI, 0.82 to 0.96) respectively.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that the NHSC has performed well in terms of sensitivity over the past decade, but that the false positive rate of 60 percent may indicate that the filtration criteria for pharmaceuticals could be tightened for increased efficiency. Future evaluations of EAA systems should include an element of external review and explore the level of accuracy acceptable to funders and customers of such systems.