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Analysis
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Overview
In 2005, the state of Washington's Traffic Safety Commission obtained a grant to evaluate the Drive Program using qualitative analysis. This differs from the usual reports and statistical analyses generated by state and federal governments and academia - quantitative analysis - because in those studies, there is simply too much NOISE (too many factors) that often lead to erroneous or false conclusions.
Moreover, you cannot prove a negative. When it comes to driving, no one can say that a particular teen is alive because he or she took a class or read a book or saw a commercial or watched a video . . . for the simple, blunt reason that they are not dead. The best you can do is to determine if you influenced teen behavior in a way that made them "do something" they might not have done without that influencing experience.
If you can induce that modification, thousands of times with teen drivers nationwide, there will be a very large positive impact over time - not a perfect measurement, but an observation of safer driving among this at-risk group.
"Recognition" and "Recall"
A qualitative evaluation allows a means to both reduce the number of factors influencing a person and to get 'behind' the numbers to what human  beings are actually doing based on their own observations and behavior. For the Drive Program for School, this meant constructing a 2-page survey, proctored by a teacher, which would isolate two things:
(1)  Whether students remembered the scenarios from their group experiences long after using the Reality Checkmate™ Challenge Book ("recognition");
(2) Whether they then actually DID what they remembered while driving if they confronted a particular situation they discussed in their groups ("recall").
These results could be compared with the well-known Forgetting Curve.
The Forgetting Curve
The Forgetting Curve was first researched and developed by Professor Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909), who pioneered the field of experimental psychology. Variations of the curve based on subsequent studies have shown even deeper memory loss over short periods of time.
Although painful for a teacher or parent to view, it is a given that some 80% of the information imparted in a teaching experience is forgotten in just TWO WEEKS.
The Drive™ Program
Below are two charts generated from one of the Washington evaluations of the Drive for School Program. After using the program, both Recognition and Recall were found to be 167% to 233% higher than what would be expected from the Forgetting Curve (shown as the NORM). Other studies range from 150% to 400% above the norm.
To view this and subsequent evaluations of the Drive Program, click on the links below.
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