The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will provide the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) with expert discussion and a commissioned review of existing literature relevant to K-12 threat assessment program evaluation and implementation. The National Academies will commission a literature review to explore (a) methods and findings of prior studies of K-12 threat assessment program outcomes, implementation/program fidelity, and program impact; (b) methods and findings of other relevant studies of the evaluation and implementation of threat assessment and intervention programs outside the school context, explicitly seeking out information relevant to informing K-12 assessment planning; and (c) other literatures as relevant that address the evaluation of programs intended to prevent rare instances of school violence. This effort will draw on any available previous efforts to develop metrics for success for violence prevention, evaluation rubrics, or other resources to inform framing of the scope of the research agenda.
The commissioned literature review will inform discussions at a workshop that will be organized and convened by a planning committee of the National Academies. The workshop will explore key findings and contentions in the behavioral threat assessment literature and best practices for program evaluation and implementation. The workshop discussions will also explore unmet evaluation needs and potential solutions to methodological challenges suggested from the literature, and future research directions.
A proceedings in brief of the workshop will be prepared by a rapporteur in accordance with institutional guidelines.