Program Profile: Wyman’s Teen Outreach Program® (TOP®)

This is a school-based youth development program for adolescents ages 12–19 that aims to prevent school failure and suspension through curriculum-guided discussion and community service. The program is rated Promising. Treatment group youth had lower rates of course failure and school suspension, compared with comparison group youth. These were statistically significant differences.

A Promising rating implies that implementing the program may result in the intended outcome(s).

This program's rating is based on evidence that includes at least one high-quality randomized controlled trial.

This program's rating is based on evidence that includes either 1) one study conducted in multiple sites; or 2) two or three studies, each conducted at a different site. Learn about how we make the multisite determination.

Program Goals

Wyman’s Teen Outreach Program® (TOP®) is a national youth development program designed to prevent adolescent problem behaviors by helping youth ages 12–19 develop healthy behaviors, life skills, and a sense of purpose.

Target Population

TOP® serves adolescents in grades 6–12. In 2012, TOP® served nearly 30,000 teens from more than 350 low-resource communities across the country. TOP® can be integrated into the curriculum of schools but is also implemented as an out-of-school program through community-based youth organizations, local health departments, and social service agencies.

Program Activities

TOP® consists of three interrelated elements: community service learning, adult support and guidance, and curriculum-based group activities.

• Community service learning: Participants engage in a minimum of 20 hours of community service learning per academic year. TOP® staff guide the youth in choosing, planning, implementing, reflecting on, and celebrating their service learning project. Service projects may include direct service, indirect service, or civic actions.  
• Adult support and guidance: Each TOP® club is led by at least one consistent and trained facilitator over the 9-month cycle. Group facilitators include teachers, guidance personnel, or youth workers who have been trained to facilitate the discussions outlined in the curriculum.
• Curriculum-based group activities: TOP® groups meet at least once a week throughout the school year (9 months) to discuss topics from the Changing Scenes© curriculum, including communication skills/assertiveness, understanding and clarifying values, relationships, goal-setting, influences, decision-making, and adolescent health and sexual development. 

The curriculum uses a variety of experiential methods to engage youth, including small-group discussions and role-playing. A community service learning guide aids discussions about volunteer experiences, tying together the classroom and community service learning aspects of the program, and allowing youth to process and reflect on their service activities. To make TOP® appropriate for a range of grades and ages, the curriculum has four levels. Each level contains material that is developmentally appropriate for the age group involved (Level I: 12- to 13-year olds; Level II: 14-year-olds; Level III: 15- to 16-year olds; and Level IV: 17- to 19-year olds). Facilitators choose which Changing Scenes© lessons to implement with their TOP® group, allowing the group’s weekly meetings to be responsive to the needs of the group.

Key Personnel

Each TOP® club is led by at least one consistent and trained facilitator over the 9-month program. Facilitators include teachers, guidance personnel, or youth workers who have been trained to facilitate the discussions outlined in the curriculum (see the Implementation Information section to learn more).

Study 1

Allen and colleagues (1994) conducted an evaluation of Wyman’s Teen Outreach Program® (TOP®) using a pre–post design and a well-matched comparison group. Characteristics of TOP® were evaluated at 66 different sites nationwide from 1987 through 1992. Participants consisted of 1,020 students who participated in TOP® and 1,013 comparison students. Students ranged from 11 to 19 years old and from 7th to 12th grades.  The majority of the TOP® group was female (71.2 percent). The race/ethnicity of students included Black (40.3 percent), white (40.6 percent), Hispanic (15.2 percent), and other (3.9 percent). The majority of the comparison group was also female (65.3 percent). The race/ethnicity of comparison students was Black (38.0 percent), white (43.3 percent), Hispanic (14.2 percent), and other (4.5 percent). There were no significant differences between the two groups on demographic characteristics.

Self-report questionnaires were used to assess students’ problem behaviors, containing items asking students a) whether they had ever been pregnant (females) or caused a pregnancy (males), b) whether they had failed any courses during the previous year at school, and, c) whether they had been suspended at any time during the previous year at school. The incidence of each of these three problem behaviors was summed to yield a problem behavior score for each student, and the scores were used to measure the program’s effectiveness in reducing problem behaviors. The authors also conducted subgroup analyses to examine the impact the program made on pregnancy outcomes for female participants.

Study 2

Allen and colleagues (1997) conducted a randomized controlled trial of TOP® across 25 sites nationwide from 1991 through 1995, concentrating on the program’s impact on teenage pregnancy, course failure, and school suspension. The sample consisted of 695 high school students, who were randomly assigned to either TOP® or to a control group. The majority of the TOP® group was female (86.0 percent). The race/ethnicity of students included Black (67.7 percent), white (17.0 percent), Hispanic (12.9 percent), and other (2.4 percent). The vast majority of the comparison group was also female (83.3 percent). The race/ethnicity of comparison students was Black (66.6 percent), white (20.4 percent), Hispanic (9.6 percent), and other (3.4 percent). There were no significant differences between the two groups on demographic characteristics.

Self-report questionnaires were used to assess students’ problem behaviors, containing items asking students a) whether they had ever been pregnant (females) or caused a pregnancy (males), b) whether they had failed any courses during the previous year at school, and c) whether they had been suspended at any time during the previous year at school. Students were told that the information they provided would be kept confidential, and they were specifically reassured that none of their answers would be available to school officials. Participants were assessed at program entry, to provide baseline data, and were then assessed at program exit 9 months later. Students’ scores in both the treatment and comparison groups were compared between the two time periods to provide indicators of the program’s effectiveness in reducing problem behaviors. The authors conducted subgroup analyses to examine the impact the program made on pregnancy outcomes for female participants.

Study 3

Allen and Philliber (2001) conducted a randomized controlled trial of TOP® with the intention of examining how well the program addresses the needs of those students within the program who are at the highest risk of problematic behavior. Data was collected over a 4-year period across more than 60 sites nationwide. For a subset of about 20 percent of students (n = 660), random assignment to treatment and control groups was used. Participants in this evaluation of TOP® consisted of 1,673 students who participated in TOP® and 1,604 comparison students; all students were in the 9th through 12th grades. The majority of the TOP® group was male (75.4 percent). The race/ethnicity of students included Black (44.3 percent), white (38.1 percent), Hispanic (12.6 percent), and other (5.0 percent). The majority of the comparison group was also male (70.9 percent). The race/ethnicity of comparison students was Black (46.1 percent), white (35.4 percent), Hispanic (12.9 percent), and other (5.6 percent). There were significantly more female students and Black students in the comparison group. This difference was controlled for in the analysis.

The same self-report questionnaires used in the Allen and colleagues (1997) study were used to assess students’ problem behaviors. At entry, students were asked a) whether they had ever been pregnant (females) or caused a pregnancy (males), b) whether they had failed any courses during the previous year at school, and, c) whether they had been suspended at any time during the previous year at school. At exit, the same questions were asked of students (except that the pregnancy question was modified to refer only to the academic year of the program). Final analyses concentrated on whether this broad-based competence-enhancing intervention was most efficacious when serving higher-risk adolescents, and was assessed in terms of both familial risk factors and behavioral risk factors. The authors conducted subgroup analyses to examine the impact the program made on pregnancy outcomes for female participants.

Wyman’s Teen Outreach Program® (TOP®) is made available in communities through organizations or schools that contract with and are trained by Wyman to replicate the program in their city, state, or sector. These entities are Certified TOP® Replication Partners, who take responsibility for the training, fidelity monitoring, and technical assistance of local providers of the program. To become a Certified Replication Partner requires an application process, a contract with Wyman, and a first-year fee for training, program materials, data management, and the first year’s site visit. There is an annual fee for Certified Replication Partners. These fees allow for partners to serve up to 50 clubs or 1,000 teens in their network of providers. Partners may serve more than 1,000 teens, and annual fees are adjusted to allow for greater support for larger networks.

The Wyman Center also provides Certified Replication Partners and those in their networks access to TOPnet Online as part of the partner’s fees. This site allows for teen and facilitator surveys to be conducted online and for survey reports to be generated online. The site also provides networking across TOP® clubs, providers, and partners and gives users access to program materials, question-and-answer sites, and grant announcements.

TOP® partners and providers ensure a minimum of one session per week for 9 months, with no fewer than 25 sessions. Each session lasts 1–2 hours. Providers place at least one trained facilitator for each group of teens and a minimum of 20 hours a year of service for each participant. Service learning activities are intended to respond to the needs and capacities of both students and local communities. In 2010, Wyman launched a robust set of supports and accountabilities to ensure that TOP® is delivered with fidelity. This system is Wyman’s National Network and includes (as of September 2012) 46 Certified TOP® Replication Partners with more than 500 provider organizations, serving tens of thousands of teens throughout the United States.

Subgroup Analysis

All three studies (Allen et al. [1994]; Allen et al. [1997]; Allen and Philliber [2001]) conducted subgroup analyses to examine the impact Wyman’s Teen Outreach Program® (TOP®) made on pregnancy outcomes for female participants. Female treatment group participants had lower levels of pregnancies, compared with female control group participants, at the program exit posttest, in all three studies. These differences were statistically significant.

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

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Why might a practice's outcome ratings differ from the ratings of specific programs encompassed by that practice?