CAN DRIVER EDUCATION BE SAVED?

Once a staple of high school curriculums, driver education has fallen on hard times. A 1978 study found that after 2 years, the safety record of driver-education graduates was no better than that of drivers who received no training at all. High schools began to wonder if teaching driver education was academically defensible. When the time came to cut budgets, it was one of the first things to go. Currently, less than half of all high schools offer driver education. Experts agree that if driver education is put back into schools, it must be redesigned to better help reduce teen crashes, but no one has ever demonstrated how to effectively do this. The main idea is to concentrate not just on driving basics but to emphasize how to make good safety decisions and reduce teen risk-taking behavior. It appears that new research, teaching decision making, increased parent involvement, and graduated licensing are ways to enhance and improve high school driver education. Other ideas in the works include research on providing improved instructor training, developing software for teaching and testing, interactive simulators using advanced technology, and driver education as a lifelong learning experience, with refresher courses available to everyone at regular intervals.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00410721
• Corporate Authors:

  National Safety Council

  1121 Spring Lake Drive
  Itasca, IL  United States  60143
• Authors:
  • SAUNDERS, C
• Publication Date: 1998-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 18-19
• Serial:
  • Traffic Safety (Chicago)
  • Volume: 98
  • Issue Number: 4
  • Publisher: National Safety Council
  • ISSN: 0041-0721

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Curricula; Decision making; Driver education; Driver licensing; Drivers; Driving simulators; Graduated licensing; High school driving courses; Instructors; Learning; Parents; Teenage drivers; Training
• Old TRIS Terms: High school drivers; Instructor training
• Subject Areas: Education and Training; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00751676
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 7 1998 12:00AM