3: Comprehensive School Health Education

The purpose of Comprehensive School Health Education is to motivate students to maintain and improve their health, prevent disease, and avoid or reduce health-related risk behavior. It teaches students to become health literate, which in return will improve the quality of their overall well-being. A major issue with most education departments is the lack of health educators, or qualified health educators. Health education often is not taught in every grade, and more than likely is taught by teachers who have not been professionally trained in health education. Even though it is still a battle to implement a more appropriate health class within a curriculum, health education has come a long way. Thanks to an improved curriculum, the focus has moved from health facts to functional health information that leads to the practice of healthy behaviors. This change took place in 1995 when curriculum added National Health Education Standards, which included performance indicators as sub-headings. The standards were designed to create universal health literacy; including preparation of students to be critical thinkers and problem solvers; responsible citizens; self-directed learners; and effective communication. Each standard has its own performance indicator that defines what students should know and be able to do at grades 4, 8, and 11. To implement a successful curriculum there should be several factors that include: leadership, stable environment, and appropriate health education activities. Included in a successful Comprehensive School Health Education is that of multiple assessment strategies. Assessments should be graded by rubrics that are consistent with that of the national standards.
No knowledge is more crucial than knowledge about health. Without it, no other life goal can be successfully achieved. This quote by Ernest L. Boyer is the opening line for the chapter. I think these two sentences are the best way to describe the importance of health education in the school system. Unfortunately many districts and individuals do not seem to understand this concept. This stats proves that: 80% of health education teachers had been teaching for five of more years, less than 5% majored in health education(Boyer). This is very disturbing to me. Health education is crucial in the development of students. Having that many educators not qualified to teach the subject is not good for the profession or society. Health education is slowly getting better, but I feel that if there was a true health education coordinator in every district, then it would only increase the improvement of the curriculum that is discussed. Some districts do have them, but not nearly enough districts do. I would like to compare districts health programs in the state of Maine that have certified health coordinators, to those districts that do not. I feel it would be an interesting comparison.

2. Implementing School Coordinated Health Programs

This chapter discusses the steps it takes to establish and strengthen CSHP, and build district level support for a CSHP. Most schools have a few elements of a CSHP, but few have all of them. One way of implementing a successful program is by following these characteristics; finding a purpose and potential outcomes, value of identified needs, clarity of purpose, adaptability, replicability, consistency with schools mission, ease of implementation, credibility with school and community, capacity of broadening school and staff knowledge base, and potential ehance or support existing programs. The more these characteristics are used in an innovation, the more likely a school will adopt the program. Along with these characteristics, Rogers has five characteristics that a school can use to create a step by step process for promoting and successfully implementing the program. The process includes; relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability. Each process has questions that should be answered within the program to insure that it meets all the needs of a CSHP.
CSHP’s can not survive in a school system without support. It’s not only important for members and families of the school to have its back, but also for the district. Having a district level CSHP only makes both programs stronger as they each support the other. Leaders within the school and community can increase the successfulness of a CSHP by working together to meet the needs of the students and community members. Not all CSHP’s are the same, it is important that members of the program understand what issues at the time need to be focused on. This is important in establishing a healthy school team and identifying “key players” to represent the team. Key players should include staff within the school, health care specialists/professionals, parents, members of the community and health educators. The team should understand the importance of assessing student, family and staff needs; mapping existing school and community resources; identifying gaps and duplications; developing action plans; and monitoring implementation.
Other key informants that a team should do are: get the rest of the school staff to buy into the program. Make their needs a top priority so that they are willing to support you. Set up a safety net. Always have a back up in case a strategy causes conflict or falls through. Create a resource map of CSHP. This will help the team understand where they are, where the gaps are, and what is being duplicated. Identify student, family, and staff needs. Understanding their needs is the most important aspect when creating goals and objectives for the program. Identify an implementation and coordination plan. This can take some time, and will call for many resources as well as support to find the needs of the program. Find potential source of funding. Depending on the program, funding is often a major road block. Understand the federal and state funding requirements, as well as look for support locally. The last thing is to look for support from the district. If a district level CSHP is not built, then look to leaders within the district to help out.

1: Linking Health and Learning: An Overview of Coordinated School Health Programs

This chapter is an introduction of a Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP). It discusses how students need’s will be met only when they are healthy, and that their overall well-being should be at the heart of a school program. Most serious injuries in school include; tobacco use, poor eating habits, abuse of alcohol and other drugs, behaviors that result in intentional or unintentional injury, physical inactivity, and sexual behaviors. When these problems emerge, they can disrupt student’s life, which in return affects their learning in school. A CSHP has eight components that will be effective towards students’ health, which will create a much better environment and behaviors for learning. At the moment a CSHP is more of a discussion, then actually movement. With concerns of students needs coming to the forefront, a CSHP seems to be a solution to the improvement of not only the learning capabilities of students, but to all individuals well-being throughout the world.
I found the expected outcome statistics of CSHP the most fascinating aspect of this chapter. I realized their would be a holistic affect in terms of health benefits to everyone throughout their lives, but I had never thought about the money it would save not only the individual, but the nation and all the programs and companies in the health field. Every dollar invested in tobacco, alcohol, and sexual behaviors education saves society a lot more then I would have ever expected.