My Take: Building Comprehensive School Health
By Jamie Sparks | August 28, 2013
I’m the Coordinated School Health Project Director with the Kentucky Department of Education. When it comes to program, policies and curricula, Kentucky is a local control state—the state sets up the standards, and the local districts determine how to meet them.
We’re a CDC-funded project, and we think very highly of comprehensive school health education. We’re taking active steps to foster more buy-in for this approach in districts throughout Kentucky. We’re building the foundations for an ongoing discussion with our districts on how to make comprehensive school health education work.
Supporting Greater Capacities
We provide schools, districts and community partners with training, technical assistance and resources that support greater skills and capacities. We help set up collaboration opportunities that make these experiences richer and more successful for schools and districts.
Kentucky’s new accountability document, Program Review, clearly spells out the expectation that schools will implement a written health curriculum that meets the state and national standards.
Using the HECAT
We’ve designated the HECAT—the Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool—as the guide local districts will use to conduct an analysis of any curriculum they’re considering. The HECAT helps us demonstrate what the distinguished practice of health education looks like.
We help local districts take a look at the curricula that are out there and see how well they do or don’t meet the HECAT guidelines. We really like ETR’sHealthSmart curriculum because it aligns very well with HECAT, and we do encourage our schools to take a look at this resource.
Getting the Entire School Involved
We’re also working to equip teachers and schools to think about health in a truly comprehensive way. We don’t see this as a subject that’s only taught by a health teacher. We want the entire school involved in building positive attitudes and supporting student health.
As I say, this is an ongoing process. The state sets the expectations, and the schools and districts determine how they will meet those expectations. But, as teachers and district staff become more familiar with the HECAT and see the power of a strong analysis tool, we find they’re also more persuaded of the value of comprehensive school health education. And that’s a real success story for us.
Jamie Sparks is Project Director, Coordinated School Health, Kentucky Department of Education. Find him on LinkedIn, or contact him at Jamie.sparks@education.ky.gov.
