ISHN Commentary: Integration of Health/Social Programs Within Education Systems
Started: 22/5/2014 Completed:
Started: 22/5/2014 Completed:
This series of commentaries is being collated from the ISHN/Partners shared School Health Blog and other sources by the International School Health Network and its partners in knowledge exchange and development. These commentaries offer a listing of previously published items with key points noted at the top of the list. Comments on the individual items as well as the overall commentary are welcome. Readers may also be interested in our other ISHN/Partner Commentaries on different topics.
Key Points to Consider:
Background
Background
- The successful integration of health and social programs within education systems, especially if they are part of a multiple intervention approach, requires a significant shift in thinking and actions on the part of health, social service and other systems/sections seeking to work with schools. The challenge is multifaceted, with many aspects that have been identified in a knowledge development agenda being pursued by the ISHN International Discussion Group on IntEd through webinars, online discussions, extensive bibliography/toolbox, a background paper and other activities.
- Several educator organizations, including ASCD representing educational leaders and Education International (EI) representing teachers have joined ISHN in organizing a series of regional and global forums on IntEd, including the publication of a global Consensus Statement that captures the essence of the challenge.
- Education systems are faced with constant competition for attention to their academic, vocational and socialization roles. Consequently, non-educational systems should articulate how their programs help students and schools to achieve these goals, and then, commit to pursuing these goals as part of their own non-educational mandates. For example, the health sector can focus on students who are chronically absent or drop out of school as part of their health system mandates. Or, the health system can help schools to prepare students for careers in the health and other caring trades and professions.
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Just Being Mean to Somebody Isn’t a Police Matter: What about schools? 27/4/2015
A high profile case of cyber bullying in Canada led to a series of in-depth interviews with police officers about their views and professional norms regarding bullying. An article in Issue #2, 2015 of Journal of School Violence reports on this study. "Increasing public awareness of cyberbullying, coupled with several highly publicized youth suicides linked to electronic bullying, have led lawmakers and politicians to consider new criminal legislation specifically related to cyberbullying. However, little is known about how the police currently respond to cyberbullying, and it is not clear whether new laws are necessary. In this article, the authors draw upon in-depth interviews with Canadian street patrol officers and school resource officers to explore police perspectives on policing cyberbullying. In contrast to the reactive hard-line approach proposed in much legislation and public discussion, police officers prefer to take a preventative approach by educating youth and raising awareness about the dangers of digital communications. Although there are instances when criminal charges must be laid, these incidents transcend “bullying,” a term that has little legal meaning for police officers." If police officers have little role in preventing mean behaviour, to what extent are teachers responsible for policing this virtually invisible behaviour, especially if it is on line. SAnd how would they report this to parents? Read more>> Comments
A high profile case of cyber bullying in Canada led to a series of in-depth interviews with police officers about their views and professional norms regarding bullying. An article in Issue #2, 2015 of Journal of School Violence reports on this study. "Increasing public awareness of cyberbullying, coupled with several highly publicized youth suicides linked to electronic bullying, have led lawmakers and politicians to consider new criminal legislation specifically related to cyberbullying. However, little is known about how the police currently respond to cyberbullying, and it is not clear whether new laws are necessary. In this article, the authors draw upon in-depth interviews with Canadian street patrol officers and school resource officers to explore police perspectives on policing cyberbullying. In contrast to the reactive hard-line approach proposed in much legislation and public discussion, police officers prefer to take a preventative approach by educating youth and raising awareness about the dangers of digital communications. Although there are instances when criminal charges must be laid, these incidents transcend “bullying,” a term that has little legal meaning for police officers." If police officers have little role in preventing mean behaviour, to what extent are teachers responsible for policing this virtually invisible behaviour, especially if it is on line. SAnd how would they report this to parents? Read more>> Comments
New Zealand School Mission Statements, System Reports on Well-being 26/4/2015
An article in Issue #1, 2015 of Asia Pacific Education Review that analyzes the mission statements in New Zealand and Japan follows nicely on two two reports from the NZ Education Review Office on student well-being. The reports, Wellbeing for Children’s Success at Primary Schools and Wellbeing for Young People's Success at Secondary Schools highlight good practice in schools but also expose the gaps and the need for a more cohesive approach to student wellbeing. Eleven per cent of NZ primary schools have an extensive focus on well-being, 18% promoted health through curriculum and responding to individual problems, 48% did a reasonable job in promoting a positive school climate, 20% over-relied on behaviour management and 3% were overwhelmed by health issues. Sixteen per cent of NZ secondary schools surveyed had extensive, coordinated approaches, 57% had variable responses to well-being, 21% were challenged in their responses. These NZ reports reflect a strong international leadership status in reporting and monitoring progress in student health. Few countries have matched this. The journal article results will add some excellent, school-level analysis to the national reports. Read more>> Comments
An article in Issue #1, 2015 of Asia Pacific Education Review that analyzes the mission statements in New Zealand and Japan follows nicely on two two reports from the NZ Education Review Office on student well-being. The reports, Wellbeing for Children’s Success at Primary Schools and Wellbeing for Young People's Success at Secondary Schools highlight good practice in schools but also expose the gaps and the need for a more cohesive approach to student wellbeing. Eleven per cent of NZ primary schools have an extensive focus on well-being, 18% promoted health through curriculum and responding to individual problems, 48% did a reasonable job in promoting a positive school climate, 20% over-relied on behaviour management and 3% were overwhelmed by health issues. Sixteen per cent of NZ secondary schools surveyed had extensive, coordinated approaches, 57% had variable responses to well-being, 21% were challenged in their responses. These NZ reports reflect a strong international leadership status in reporting and monitoring progress in student health. Few countries have matched this. The journal article results will add some excellent, school-level analysis to the national reports. Read more>> Comments
Teacher Attitudes/Experiences Students with Long Term Health Needs 16/4/2015
Teachers' perspectives of supporting pupils with long-term health conditions in mainstream schools are reported in an articles in Issue #2, 2015 of Health & Social Care in the Community. The narrative review of the literature found that " teachers receive little formal training relevant to long-term condition management and are fearful of the risks involved in teaching children and young people with long-term conditions. Communication between families, school and health and social care services appears to be poor. Educational programmes developed in conjunction with and/or delivered by healthcare professionals seem to have the potential to increase teachers' knowledge and confidence. This review suggests that healthcare professionals have an important role to play in supporting teachers in identifying and meeting the needs of pupils with long-term conditions. It is vital that pupils with long-term conditions receive appropriate care and support in schools to ensure their safety and help them to integrate with their peers and achieve their academic potential. Limitations in the current evidence are highlighted and implications for future research are identified." Read more>>
Comments
Teachers' perspectives of supporting pupils with long-term health conditions in mainstream schools are reported in an articles in Issue #2, 2015 of Health & Social Care in the Community. The narrative review of the literature found that " teachers receive little formal training relevant to long-term condition management and are fearful of the risks involved in teaching children and young people with long-term conditions. Communication between families, school and health and social care services appears to be poor. Educational programmes developed in conjunction with and/or delivered by healthcare professionals seem to have the potential to increase teachers' knowledge and confidence. This review suggests that healthcare professionals have an important role to play in supporting teachers in identifying and meeting the needs of pupils with long-term conditions. It is vital that pupils with long-term conditions receive appropriate care and support in schools to ensure their safety and help them to integrate with their peers and achieve their academic potential. Limitations in the current evidence are highlighted and implications for future research are identified." Read more>>
Comments
Teacher Beliefs, Norms, Efficacy Affect their Response to Bullying 30/3/2015
An article in Issue #1, 2014 of Child Development Perspectives reviews the research and broadens our understanding of why and how teachers respond to bullying. The analysis shows how teacher beliefs about bullying (being normative or not), their own sense of self-efficacy in delving into complex, private lives of their students and parents, their perceptions about emotional vs physical abuse/bullying and many other factors suggest that the issue and process is very complex. The article "provides a conceptual framework for examining the role of the teacher in the life of a child victimized by peers and for reviewing research. Central to this model is the teacher, who comes to the classroom with beliefs and experiences that affect teaching practices and relationships with students [3, 4]. A bidirectional arrow between the teacher and the victimized child depicts their unique dyadic relationship and the socialization processes that can occur within that relationship [5]. The intrapersonal characteristics of the child being victimized, in turn, shape how the teacher addresses the victimization. The teacher's ability to aid the victimized child also depends on interactions with the children engaging in the aggression, in part, driven by the characteristics of the aggressive children, their motivation for aggressing, and their modes of aggression. The actions of the teacher and children contribute to, and are influenced by, the larger classroom and school climate, including the quality of relationships among and between students and staff, norms for behavior, clarity and fairness of policies, organizational structure, and emphasis on academic success." Read more>> Comments
An article in Issue #1, 2014 of Child Development Perspectives reviews the research and broadens our understanding of why and how teachers respond to bullying. The analysis shows how teacher beliefs about bullying (being normative or not), their own sense of self-efficacy in delving into complex, private lives of their students and parents, their perceptions about emotional vs physical abuse/bullying and many other factors suggest that the issue and process is very complex. The article "provides a conceptual framework for examining the role of the teacher in the life of a child victimized by peers and for reviewing research. Central to this model is the teacher, who comes to the classroom with beliefs and experiences that affect teaching practices and relationships with students [3, 4]. A bidirectional arrow between the teacher and the victimized child depicts their unique dyadic relationship and the socialization processes that can occur within that relationship [5]. The intrapersonal characteristics of the child being victimized, in turn, shape how the teacher addresses the victimization. The teacher's ability to aid the victimized child also depends on interactions with the children engaging in the aggression, in part, driven by the characteristics of the aggressive children, their motivation for aggressing, and their modes of aggression. The actions of the teacher and children contribute to, and are influenced by, the larger classroom and school climate, including the quality of relationships among and between students and staff, norms for behavior, clarity and fairness of policies, organizational structure, and emphasis on academic success." Read more>> Comments
Why Novice Health Teachers Don't Survive or Stay 5/3/2015
There are few studies that focus on teachers of health, personal and social development (HPSD) but, of the few, it can be said that there is remarkable number of new teachers assigned to teach HPSD who quickly seek a transfer to a different subject or leave the profession entirely. As part of a series of articles in Issue #1, 2015 of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education one author focuses on the experiences of new teachers who are assigned out of the field in which they were trained. "The lived experiences of novice teachers in out-of-field positions influence future career decisions and impact on their journey towards being competent and experienced practitioners, conversely their “life-world” is often misunderstood. The purpose of this article is to investigate the lived experiences of these teachers, how principals’ understanding and leadership styles influence the lived experiences of these teachers. The article argues that the strategies implemented by school leaders based on their understanding of novice out-of-field teachers’ lived experience greatly influence the development of these teachers. It draws on Gadamer’s theories to investigate the lived experiences and perceptions of four principals and four novice out-of-field teachers through the different lenses of these participants. It concludes with a discussion on the interrelationships between school leaders’ understanding and novice teachers’ lived experience. Participants’ interpretation of specific lived experiences connected to out-of-field teaching shapes meaning in their attempt to understand and to “belong,” for example, confidence issues, self-esteem concerns, and disconnectedness." Since very few education faculties offer specialized training or courses in HPSD, it would appear that the majority of these teachers will be left alone in their "out of field" assignments. In a profession that experiences high rates of turnover for all new teachers, this is particularly significant. Read more>> Comments
There are few studies that focus on teachers of health, personal and social development (HPSD) but, of the few, it can be said that there is remarkable number of new teachers assigned to teach HPSD who quickly seek a transfer to a different subject or leave the profession entirely. As part of a series of articles in Issue #1, 2015 of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education one author focuses on the experiences of new teachers who are assigned out of the field in which they were trained. "The lived experiences of novice teachers in out-of-field positions influence future career decisions and impact on their journey towards being competent and experienced practitioners, conversely their “life-world” is often misunderstood. The purpose of this article is to investigate the lived experiences of these teachers, how principals’ understanding and leadership styles influence the lived experiences of these teachers. The article argues that the strategies implemented by school leaders based on their understanding of novice out-of-field teachers’ lived experience greatly influence the development of these teachers. It draws on Gadamer’s theories to investigate the lived experiences and perceptions of four principals and four novice out-of-field teachers through the different lenses of these participants. It concludes with a discussion on the interrelationships between school leaders’ understanding and novice teachers’ lived experience. Participants’ interpretation of specific lived experiences connected to out-of-field teaching shapes meaning in their attempt to understand and to “belong,” for example, confidence issues, self-esteem concerns, and disconnectedness." Since very few education faculties offer specialized training or courses in HPSD, it would appear that the majority of these teachers will be left alone in their "out of field" assignments. In a profession that experiences high rates of turnover for all new teachers, this is particularly significant. Read more>> Comments
Constraints on Schools in Health Promotion: Sex Education Especially 4/3/2015
One of the themes being discussed in the ISHN International Discussion Group on Integration of Health/Social Programs Within School Systems focuses on the political, normative and practical constraints on schools in doing this work. A special issue of Health Education (#1, 2015) illustrates these constraints as several articles discuss the nature and delivery of sexual education in several countries. The editorial introducing this special issue makes note of these powerful differences imposed by the national, state or local contexts. "The papers highlight contrasts, tensions, potentials and barriers embedded in the ways sexuality education is delivered to children and young people internationally. Examples are drawn from Russia, Wales, China and the USA; they identify historical and structural issues related to the implementation of comprehensive progressive approaches. Topics discussed include the importance of appropriate content, theoretical/conceptual frameworks, modes of delivery, timing, attitudes from key stakeholders and the need for comprehensive evaluation of innovative approaches to the delivery of sexual education." These constraints are especially true for sex education but other, less sensitive issues can also be contentious. These include compulsory vaccinations, the use of alcohol, gender equity, child abuse and neglect, and more. Even actions taken to promote healthier school lunches can be politicized (e.g. the recent debates in the US) or cause controversy when letters are sent to parents asking them to prepare healthier lunches or that their child is overweight. Comments
One of the themes being discussed in the ISHN International Discussion Group on Integration of Health/Social Programs Within School Systems focuses on the political, normative and practical constraints on schools in doing this work. A special issue of Health Education (#1, 2015) illustrates these constraints as several articles discuss the nature and delivery of sexual education in several countries. The editorial introducing this special issue makes note of these powerful differences imposed by the national, state or local contexts. "The papers highlight contrasts, tensions, potentials and barriers embedded in the ways sexuality education is delivered to children and young people internationally. Examples are drawn from Russia, Wales, China and the USA; they identify historical and structural issues related to the implementation of comprehensive progressive approaches. Topics discussed include the importance of appropriate content, theoretical/conceptual frameworks, modes of delivery, timing, attitudes from key stakeholders and the need for comprehensive evaluation of innovative approaches to the delivery of sexual education." These constraints are especially true for sex education but other, less sensitive issues can also be contentious. These include compulsory vaccinations, the use of alcohol, gender equity, child abuse and neglect, and more. Even actions taken to promote healthier school lunches can be politicized (e.g. the recent debates in the US) or cause controversy when letters are sent to parents asking them to prepare healthier lunches or that their child is overweight. Comments
Health in All Policies (HiAP), School Health & A Commitment to True Partnerships 2/3/2015
An article in Issue #1, 2015 of Public Health Reports discusses how governments can implement a Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach to inter-sectorial cooperation by using their legislative, regulatory leadership and funding levers. The article makes several practical suggestions on how governments can use the law to prescribe, authorize, structure and fund inter-sectorial cooperation. The article provide several state and local agency examples for each of these suggestions. Most of these cited legally required cooperative actions in the article are focused on responses to specific health issues rather than long-term inter-ministry or intra-ministry cooperation or long term approaches such as school health programs. However, the article can be used as a litmus test of government commitments to requiring and supporting their health ministries to work within other ministries and sectors who deliver their programs in settings such as schools, municipalities, workplaces etc. In this ISHN comment, we extract the suggestions from the article to determine if there is a commitment to the inter-sectorial approach that we call school health promotion. The article reviews the HiAP approach: "The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Institute of Medicine (IOM), European Union, and World Health Organization all recognize the potential of HiAP to address the social determinants of health, and through them, upstream contributions to morbidity and mortality.Sometimes called “healthy public policy” or described as a component of “horizontal government,” “joint-up government,” or “whole-of-government,” HiAP is an approach that integrates health considerations into non-health sectors; it recognizes that “corporate boardrooms, legislatures, and executive branches” make choices that profoundly affect health. Additional research is critical to determine whether HiAP leads to decisions that are more likely to consider health16 and, ultimately, improve it.Nonetheless, HiAP is a promising approach consistent with solving complex social problems through the “collective impact” of multiple sectors collaborating around a common agenda. These sectors include transportation, agriculture, housing, employment, planning, business, education, and energy, and in federal, state, and local government, they are often connected to agencies charged with regulating or facilitating their work." The article goes onto suggest that legislation is a good way to implement HiAP. " But how do governments implement HiAP? Consistent with law’s contributions to improving the public’s health,law can be “an important tool for institutionalizing an infrastructure for HiAP and for requiring agencies to ensure that the policies they pursue serve . . . health.” Governments use law to integrate health into other sectors.They also use legal mechanisms to further cross-sector collaboration around health, which is a critical component of HiAP. Since an effective HiAP strategy will require practical applications to inter-sectorial work, we suggest strongly that any introduction of an HiAP strategy will require the health sector to go to the venues or settings where the other sectors actually deliver their services and programs such as workplaces, municipalities, schools and other places. In other words, the health sector will need to return to a settings-based health promotion strategy if it expects ongoing cooperation from the other sectors. Otherwise the HiAP strategy runs the risk of being perceived as the health sector dumping its work onto the other sectors and they will resist, delay or simply not cooperate.
The article suggests that government can use laws and regulations as levers in several ways to implement HiAP. Many of these same legal strategies for HiAP could be adapted to promote intersectorial cooperation through comprehensive, whole of government approaches to school health promotion.
An article in Issue #1, 2015 of Public Health Reports discusses how governments can implement a Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach to inter-sectorial cooperation by using their legislative, regulatory leadership and funding levers. The article makes several practical suggestions on how governments can use the law to prescribe, authorize, structure and fund inter-sectorial cooperation. The article provide several state and local agency examples for each of these suggestions. Most of these cited legally required cooperative actions in the article are focused on responses to specific health issues rather than long-term inter-ministry or intra-ministry cooperation or long term approaches such as school health programs. However, the article can be used as a litmus test of government commitments to requiring and supporting their health ministries to work within other ministries and sectors who deliver their programs in settings such as schools, municipalities, workplaces etc. In this ISHN comment, we extract the suggestions from the article to determine if there is a commitment to the inter-sectorial approach that we call school health promotion. The article reviews the HiAP approach: "The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Institute of Medicine (IOM), European Union, and World Health Organization all recognize the potential of HiAP to address the social determinants of health, and through them, upstream contributions to morbidity and mortality.Sometimes called “healthy public policy” or described as a component of “horizontal government,” “joint-up government,” or “whole-of-government,” HiAP is an approach that integrates health considerations into non-health sectors; it recognizes that “corporate boardrooms, legislatures, and executive branches” make choices that profoundly affect health. Additional research is critical to determine whether HiAP leads to decisions that are more likely to consider health16 and, ultimately, improve it.Nonetheless, HiAP is a promising approach consistent with solving complex social problems through the “collective impact” of multiple sectors collaborating around a common agenda. These sectors include transportation, agriculture, housing, employment, planning, business, education, and energy, and in federal, state, and local government, they are often connected to agencies charged with regulating or facilitating their work." The article goes onto suggest that legislation is a good way to implement HiAP. " But how do governments implement HiAP? Consistent with law’s contributions to improving the public’s health,law can be “an important tool for institutionalizing an infrastructure for HiAP and for requiring agencies to ensure that the policies they pursue serve . . . health.” Governments use law to integrate health into other sectors.They also use legal mechanisms to further cross-sector collaboration around health, which is a critical component of HiAP. Since an effective HiAP strategy will require practical applications to inter-sectorial work, we suggest strongly that any introduction of an HiAP strategy will require the health sector to go to the venues or settings where the other sectors actually deliver their services and programs such as workplaces, municipalities, schools and other places. In other words, the health sector will need to return to a settings-based health promotion strategy if it expects ongoing cooperation from the other sectors. Otherwise the HiAP strategy runs the risk of being perceived as the health sector dumping its work onto the other sectors and they will resist, delay or simply not cooperate.
The article suggests that government can use laws and regulations as levers in several ways to implement HiAP. Many of these same legal strategies for HiAP could be adapted to promote intersectorial cooperation through comprehensive, whole of government approaches to school health promotion.
- Requiring collaboration: Law can create legally binding duties for departments to collaborate around health. This can be required at the national, state or local agency level.
To our knowledge, there is no government that requires such cooperation by law for SH promotion. Many appoint officials and some even huave joint SH progrrams or committees, but this is not done in legislation. - Authorizing collaboration. Even when law does not require cross-sector collaboration around health, it may permit it. This permission may be direct and explicit. Or, Law may also authorize collaboration around health implicitly, through broad grants of public health authority. -- Many governments authorize their health ministry staff and local health authorities to cooperate with school systems. But often the funding and staffing for this cooperation is not provided to the SH team. Usually funding for prevention and promotion work is delivered through other sections of the health ministry rather than the SH team or any other teams that have responsibility for working with the other sectors/settings.
- Establishing institutions for collaboration. Law can organize and implement collaboration by formalizing relationships through task forces, boards, commissions, or other institutions. -- To our knowledge, there is no government that has established an inter-ministry SH structure by law, although several exist by administrative decisions. These administrative structures often are changed when a new elected or appointed official decides to re-structure the health ministry to address new priorities, often focused on urgent health issues rather than ongoing relationships with other ministries. We have seen some structures on child or family health established by law but often they are not successful and often they are focused on urgent problems rather than long term solutions such as SH or on inter-ministry, inter-sectorial relationships.
- Prescribing a collaborative process. Governments can go beyond generally requiring or authorizing collaboration to prescribe specific collaborative processes.
Again, to our knowledge, there is no government that requires that a collaborative process within the health ministry, across ministries or among local agencies to promote health through schools. In many cases, there are committees, but their existence and use by the various ministries and agencies is always voluntary. Often such committees seldom meet. There are no requirements for ministries or agencies to cooperate in order to receive funding. There are few jointly appointed staff teams or coordinators. There are seldom any joint reporting requirements. - Assigning responsibility. The law can be used to assign responsibilities for cooperation and joint action. Often there are SH coordinators assigned within the health ministries or local health authorities. Sometimes these coordinators are assigned within the education system. However, often these coordinators are responsible for other duties. Often any funding that they have available to work with are focused on specific health issues or programs other than school health.
- Prioritizing a public health issue. Law can elevate a particular public health issue and focus the efforts of different agencies on that issue.
In our view, this suggestion reflects a health sector bias, one that is most often focused on a disease or specific health problem. We recognize that this is how the health sector really works, but this tendency to ignore overall "health" to focus on the "absence of disease" will prevent any long-term cooperation with and within other sectors. If the health sector is unable to moderate this tendency and modulate its activities with other sectors to help them meet their respective goals and primary concerns, then all of the health checklists newly dressed up and prepared as part of a HiAP strategy will not be sustained. - Coordinating government efforts. For a complex problem (or solution) such as homelessness (or healthy schools), requiring attention from several agencies, law can encourage agencies to work in concert and in consistent and complementary ways. -- The research on school health and other forms of health promotion and social development is now clearly recognizing the complexity involved in working within and across sectors. The authors note that " By requiring each participating agency to assign a representative responsible for homelessness (school health) with authority to bind the agency to the Council, use standard data, and contribute resources,the statute promotes consistent and complementary work. It also encourages working in concert by requiring the Council to survey available resources, provide and coordinate state services, improve information flow, establish a resource and information center, and develop monitoring guidelines." To our knowledge, there are few, if any SH councils in the world mandated by law in this manner.
- Providing for funding. Collaboration or executing collaborative recommendations may require funding. Law can create public finance infrastructure and provide and incentivize funding through appropriations, grants, or social impact bonds.
In school health promotion, there are many, many bits and pieces of project funding, often offered to schools in short term competitions. But there are no funding incentives of the scale that would encourage federal departments, state ministries or even local health and education ministries to work together over the long term on school health promotion. - Fostering informal relationships. Laws formalizing collaboration around any issue can improve relationships and create opportunities for future collaboration by requiring the participation of senior leaders within ministries (rather than program level staff), requiring a minimum number of meetings or reports. -- As noted above there are often such committees, but they are often have low level participation and few requirements about their joint work.
Transforming Health, Social & Student Services for Learning: Inserting Educational Outputs into Health/Social System Accountability Systems 20/1/2015
A new book in January 2015 by the UCLA School Mental Health Project makes a cogent argument for transforming the fragmented delivery of various support services so that they truly support student learning and equitable educational opportunity. The authors begin with this "external and internal barriers to learning and teaching have continued to pose some of the most pervasive and entrenched challenges to educators across the country, particularly in chronically low performing schools. Failure to directly address these barriers ensures that (a) too many children and youth will continue to struggle in school, and (b) teachers will continue to divert precious instructional time to dealing with behavior and other problems...Transforming student and learning supports is key to school improvement. To this end, this book incorporates years of research and prototype development and a variety of examples from trailblazing efforts" They go on to say "Mapping a school district’s existing efforts to address problems yields a consistent picture of many practices and fragmented, piecemeal, and usually disorganized activity (as illustrated below). The range of such learning and student supports generally is extensive and expensive". They also go on to describe the cause and this is where we might disagree: "Underlying the fragmentation is a fundamental policy problem, namely the long-standing marginalization of student and learning supports in school improvement policy and practice. Thus, most efforts to directly use student and learning supports to address barriers to learning and teaching and re-engage disconnected students are not a primary focus in school improvement planning." In our view, a major cause of the fragmentation is that the mandates and funding of the various health, social and other services is done in a sporadic, competitive and disjointed manner. Part of the transformation will require that health and other ministries re-organize their work so that they are accountable for providing consistent support for students most at risk, rather than always worrying about the optimal health of all students in universal programs. There have often been attempts to insert health outputs and outcomes into school system accountability. In our view, this should be a two-way street, with health and other systems being accountable for a reasonable number of educational outputs, particularly for more vulnerable students. Read more>> Comments
A new book in January 2015 by the UCLA School Mental Health Project makes a cogent argument for transforming the fragmented delivery of various support services so that they truly support student learning and equitable educational opportunity. The authors begin with this "external and internal barriers to learning and teaching have continued to pose some of the most pervasive and entrenched challenges to educators across the country, particularly in chronically low performing schools. Failure to directly address these barriers ensures that (a) too many children and youth will continue to struggle in school, and (b) teachers will continue to divert precious instructional time to dealing with behavior and other problems...Transforming student and learning supports is key to school improvement. To this end, this book incorporates years of research and prototype development and a variety of examples from trailblazing efforts" They go on to say "Mapping a school district’s existing efforts to address problems yields a consistent picture of many practices and fragmented, piecemeal, and usually disorganized activity (as illustrated below). The range of such learning and student supports generally is extensive and expensive". They also go on to describe the cause and this is where we might disagree: "Underlying the fragmentation is a fundamental policy problem, namely the long-standing marginalization of student and learning supports in school improvement policy and practice. Thus, most efforts to directly use student and learning supports to address barriers to learning and teaching and re-engage disconnected students are not a primary focus in school improvement planning." In our view, a major cause of the fragmentation is that the mandates and funding of the various health, social and other services is done in a sporadic, competitive and disjointed manner. Part of the transformation will require that health and other ministries re-organize their work so that they are accountable for providing consistent support for students most at risk, rather than always worrying about the optimal health of all students in universal programs. There have often been attempts to insert health outputs and outcomes into school system accountability. In our view, this should be a two-way street, with health and other systems being accountable for a reasonable number of educational outputs, particularly for more vulnerable students. Read more>> Comments
"New" Priorities in Prevention Research at US National Institutes 16/1/2015
An article in Issue #1, 2015 of the American Journal of Public Health describes the new strategic priorities of the US National Institutes of Health. That article led us to investigate by briefly reviewing them and the NIH web site. We found that the 2014 priorities were sensible, although more operational rather than strategic in nature. (They include monitoring investments and impacts, identifying new areas, promoting best methods, promoting cooperation and coordination, promoting evidence-based interventions, implementation and dissemination, and increasing the visibility of research). In our brief review, we looked for the application of concepts that are driving health promotion research in recent years. These include ecological approaches, systems change/thinking, social determinants, promoting health in all polices, population health, contextual/situational analysis as well as more traditional ideas such as settings-based health promotion and even the words health promotion. We were disappointed. We found a dated definition of primary & secondary prevention, a narrow conception of prevention research and an overriding focus on diseases and disorders rather than health. Since the priorities were for the Office of Disease Prevention, which is situated within the Research Coordination division, we looked, in vain, for a parallel office on health promotion. Among the various NIH Institutes, we found three on populations (child health, aging, disparities/minority populations) two on medical/health care delivery and the rest (16) on diseases. We looked at the child health institutes and found that their mission was focused on funding studies that explore "health processes; examines the impact of disabilities, diseases, and defects on the lives of individuals". Many years ago, the concept that health was more than "an absence of disease" was established. Maybe NIH should catch up. Read more>> Comments
An article in Issue #1, 2015 of the American Journal of Public Health describes the new strategic priorities of the US National Institutes of Health. That article led us to investigate by briefly reviewing them and the NIH web site. We found that the 2014 priorities were sensible, although more operational rather than strategic in nature. (They include monitoring investments and impacts, identifying new areas, promoting best methods, promoting cooperation and coordination, promoting evidence-based interventions, implementation and dissemination, and increasing the visibility of research). In our brief review, we looked for the application of concepts that are driving health promotion research in recent years. These include ecological approaches, systems change/thinking, social determinants, promoting health in all polices, population health, contextual/situational analysis as well as more traditional ideas such as settings-based health promotion and even the words health promotion. We were disappointed. We found a dated definition of primary & secondary prevention, a narrow conception of prevention research and an overriding focus on diseases and disorders rather than health. Since the priorities were for the Office of Disease Prevention, which is situated within the Research Coordination division, we looked, in vain, for a parallel office on health promotion. Among the various NIH Institutes, we found three on populations (child health, aging, disparities/minority populations) two on medical/health care delivery and the rest (16) on diseases. We looked at the child health institutes and found that their mission was focused on funding studies that explore "health processes; examines the impact of disabilities, diseases, and defects on the lives of individuals". Many years ago, the concept that health was more than "an absence of disease" was established. Maybe NIH should catch up. Read more>> Comments
Teacher Perceptions about their role in Mental Health 15/1/2015
As with many other health issues, mental health advocates often focus on teachers as the key agent in school-based and school-linked mental health promotion. Their "mental health literacy", their willingness to care for their students and their roles in identifying, referring, managing students with problems, which are often presented as disruptive classroom behaviours, are added to their responsibilities to teach all students about mental health, social and emotional learning skills as well as promote mindfulness and resilience, encourage or discourage student friendships and inform, involve ,educate and support parents as well as involve community partners and work with self-help groups. An article in Issue #1, 2015 of Advances in School Mental Health investigated teacher perceptions about their roles and self-efficacy. The researchers note that "Interviews were conducted with 21 teachers from Canberra, Australia. Teachers viewed supporting student mental health as part of their role, though perceived a lack of knowledge and skills in mental health-related areas. They clearly emphasized the need to work within a well-coordinated pastoral care (or secular care) system". The researchers suggest that "Additional training in mental health and clear role delineation within the school may assist teachers to feel better prepared to effectively and appropriately support student mental health." Read more>> Comments
As with many other health issues, mental health advocates often focus on teachers as the key agent in school-based and school-linked mental health promotion. Their "mental health literacy", their willingness to care for their students and their roles in identifying, referring, managing students with problems, which are often presented as disruptive classroom behaviours, are added to their responsibilities to teach all students about mental health, social and emotional learning skills as well as promote mindfulness and resilience, encourage or discourage student friendships and inform, involve ,educate and support parents as well as involve community partners and work with self-help groups. An article in Issue #1, 2015 of Advances in School Mental Health investigated teacher perceptions about their roles and self-efficacy. The researchers note that "Interviews were conducted with 21 teachers from Canberra, Australia. Teachers viewed supporting student mental health as part of their role, though perceived a lack of knowledge and skills in mental health-related areas. They clearly emphasized the need to work within a well-coordinated pastoral care (or secular care) system". The researchers suggest that "Additional training in mental health and clear role delineation within the school may assist teachers to feel better prepared to effectively and appropriately support student mental health." Read more>> Comments
US Founder of School Health Movement Calls for Ed-Health Cooperation 14/1/2015
In an article published in Issue #1, 2015 of the Journal of School health, one of the founders of the school health movement, Lloyd Kolbe calls for greater collaboration between the health and education sectors in the United States so that school health programs can be more effective and sustainable. The article from the former Director of the CDC school health program identifies numerous organizations in the US that can work together, outlining their potential contributions. Readers may recall that ISHN has been promoting a significantly new approach to such partnerships in its work with leading global education organizations representing school district/education ministry officials (ASCD) and teachers.(Education International). Dr. Kolbe's call to action is a reminder of the need for action rather than platitudes. Read more>> Comments
In an article published in Issue #1, 2015 of the Journal of School health, one of the founders of the school health movement, Lloyd Kolbe calls for greater collaboration between the health and education sectors in the United States so that school health programs can be more effective and sustainable. The article from the former Director of the CDC school health program identifies numerous organizations in the US that can work together, outlining their potential contributions. Readers may recall that ISHN has been promoting a significantly new approach to such partnerships in its work with leading global education organizations representing school district/education ministry officials (ASCD) and teachers.(Education International). Dr. Kolbe's call to action is a reminder of the need for action rather than platitudes. Read more>> Comments
Positioning Health Promoting Schools as a new Paradigm for Schooling 14/10/2014
An article in Issue #3, 2014 of Health Education describes the Health Promoting Schools program in Hong Kong that was developed by the Chinese University of HK and then adopted by the government. "The purpose of this paper is to discuss development of the HPS process by University Research Centre in Hong Kong, resulting in an award scheme, where no additional resources were initially provided by the authorities. The team adopted a step-by-step approach starting with capacity building of key stakeholders and comprehensive needs assessment, leading to development of a system of evaluation and monitoring and establishment of a “Healthy School Award” system. The system was built on local data derived from several different sources and made use of qualitative and quantitative information and were intended to be used to guide practice and actions for improvement." The authors suggest that "HPS can be regarded as new paradigm of schooling rather than an add-on programme. The advantage of an academic institution masterminding the development process lies with their strength in education and research, building on the professionalism of school educators in health promotion and developing evidence-based HPS practice. Read more>> Comments
An article in Issue #3, 2014 of Health Education describes the Health Promoting Schools program in Hong Kong that was developed by the Chinese University of HK and then adopted by the government. "The purpose of this paper is to discuss development of the HPS process by University Research Centre in Hong Kong, resulting in an award scheme, where no additional resources were initially provided by the authorities. The team adopted a step-by-step approach starting with capacity building of key stakeholders and comprehensive needs assessment, leading to development of a system of evaluation and monitoring and establishment of a “Healthy School Award” system. The system was built on local data derived from several different sources and made use of qualitative and quantitative information and were intended to be used to guide practice and actions for improvement." The authors suggest that "HPS can be regarded as new paradigm of schooling rather than an add-on programme. The advantage of an academic institution masterminding the development process lies with their strength in education and research, building on the professionalism of school educators in health promotion and developing evidence-based HPS practice. Read more>> Comments
High Power US Group Examines How Health Care Systems Can Work With Schools 18/9/2014
A Chicago-based organization, the Healthy Schools Campaign, has emerged on the national scene in the United States and is working hard to influence national policy decisions. Working from a background paper/initiative, Health in Mind, HSC has formed an influential group of organizational and government leaders called the National Collaborative on Education and Health, with an impressive list of members The NCEH has gained access to the US Surgeon General's Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health (Prevention Advisory Group), which was created by the Affordable Care Act to bring a non-Federal perspective to the Strategy’s policy and program recommendations and to its implementation. On August 24, 2014, the NCEH hosted the first meeting of its Health Systems Working Group, an important step towards identifying strategies for redesigning health delivery systems to meet the health needs of students. The Health Systems Working Group members bring together over 25 health and education leaders who will work together over the next four months to identify strategies to increase collaboration between the health and education sectors to support the delivery of school health services and programs. Some of the key questions this group will address include:
• How can schools be incorporated into (health care) delivery system reforms; other new models of care emerging from the Affordable Care Act; and other innovations being tested for the delivery of physical and mental health services, health promotion and prevention?
• How can the health care system better support schools in creating the conditions of health for students?
• What new models of practice are needed in both the health sector and schools to support an integrated delivery of care model?
• What type of guidance needs to be shared with the health and education sectors to promote collaboration?
At the first meeting of the working group, participants discussed a brief discussion paper describing the opportunities presented by the Affordable Care Act that can be used to promote collaboration between the health and education sectors. The paper also discussed the need for a model that leverages these opportunities. These examples illustrated how preventive and primary care examples where hospitals/health care organizations from Portland, St. Paul, Madison, Grand Rapids, Deleware, Austin, Cincinnati and Kentucky are working closely with schools.
This is an exciting development within the United States. Coinciding with the release of the updated US school health promotion model from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the educational leaders organization, ASCD, these policy level discussions could be connected to the renewed program and practitioner led efforts. They could also be built upon previous substantive work done on school health care services and centres in the US. Hopefully, these high level policy/advocate discussions will be connected firmly to the extensive history of programmic excellence.
Secondly, we hope that the discussions of this NCEH Working Group can be linked to broader discussions of how the health systems can support promotion and prevention policies and programs as well as preventive care through schools. As we know from the many different successful models of school health promotion in the US and elsewhere in the world, several aspects the public health functions of coordination, promotion, prevention, protection and surveillance can all be accomplished by working with and within school systems.
As well, we hope that these policy/advocacy discussions on US health care-school programs can address the barriers and facilitators that health systems face when maintaining and sustaining long-term health promotion approaches such as school health. There is constant pressure on the health promotion sectors of health systems to respond to the latest health/social problem of the day. With scarce resources often drawn to treatment and emergency health, the health promotion sector is often forced to fund activities on a selected list of issues rather than on health overall. While this underlying problem of scarce resources will never disappear, there are systemic changes that can be made to structures, staffing and decision-making to ensure continuity and ongoing relationships/commitments to non-health sectors such as schools. A research agenda on such barriers and facilitators has already been proposed by a recent North American symposium of education and health leaders. Another practical suggestion coming out of that symposium was greater and sustained investments in school nursing. If school nurses can be mandated to the full scope of their professional roles, then they can be be essential glue that keeps school health care connected to school health promotion and to the many specific prevention activities. A third hope for these high powered US discussions is that they take the time to truly understand the core mandates, concerns and constraints of school systems so that they can truly motivate and engage school systems in health promotion. Educators will happily accommodate health services in their schools. Indeed, this is often the first thing that school administrators ask for. Educators can provide all sorts of other health promoting support in their teaching, caring for children, working with parents and community leaders and more. But, as recent research is showing, they are reluctant to do that unless the health systems modify their approach to ensure that is it based on systemic, long-term strategies. ISHN and ASCD have gathered this recent research into a global discussion of how health (and other systems) need to integrate their programs within education systems. Insights and evidence-based and experience-tested ideas from the global discussion, including a consensus statement, a background paper and International Discussion Group are all sources that we hope American and other national leaders will not ignore. Comments
A Chicago-based organization, the Healthy Schools Campaign, has emerged on the national scene in the United States and is working hard to influence national policy decisions. Working from a background paper/initiative, Health in Mind, HSC has formed an influential group of organizational and government leaders called the National Collaborative on Education and Health, with an impressive list of members The NCEH has gained access to the US Surgeon General's Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health (Prevention Advisory Group), which was created by the Affordable Care Act to bring a non-Federal perspective to the Strategy’s policy and program recommendations and to its implementation. On August 24, 2014, the NCEH hosted the first meeting of its Health Systems Working Group, an important step towards identifying strategies for redesigning health delivery systems to meet the health needs of students. The Health Systems Working Group members bring together over 25 health and education leaders who will work together over the next four months to identify strategies to increase collaboration between the health and education sectors to support the delivery of school health services and programs. Some of the key questions this group will address include:
• How can schools be incorporated into (health care) delivery system reforms; other new models of care emerging from the Affordable Care Act; and other innovations being tested for the delivery of physical and mental health services, health promotion and prevention?
• How can the health care system better support schools in creating the conditions of health for students?
• What new models of practice are needed in both the health sector and schools to support an integrated delivery of care model?
• What type of guidance needs to be shared with the health and education sectors to promote collaboration?
At the first meeting of the working group, participants discussed a brief discussion paper describing the opportunities presented by the Affordable Care Act that can be used to promote collaboration between the health and education sectors. The paper also discussed the need for a model that leverages these opportunities. These examples illustrated how preventive and primary care examples where hospitals/health care organizations from Portland, St. Paul, Madison, Grand Rapids, Deleware, Austin, Cincinnati and Kentucky are working closely with schools.
This is an exciting development within the United States. Coinciding with the release of the updated US school health promotion model from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the educational leaders organization, ASCD, these policy level discussions could be connected to the renewed program and practitioner led efforts. They could also be built upon previous substantive work done on school health care services and centres in the US. Hopefully, these high level policy/advocate discussions will be connected firmly to the extensive history of programmic excellence.
Secondly, we hope that the discussions of this NCEH Working Group can be linked to broader discussions of how the health systems can support promotion and prevention policies and programs as well as preventive care through schools. As we know from the many different successful models of school health promotion in the US and elsewhere in the world, several aspects the public health functions of coordination, promotion, prevention, protection and surveillance can all be accomplished by working with and within school systems.
As well, we hope that these policy/advocacy discussions on US health care-school programs can address the barriers and facilitators that health systems face when maintaining and sustaining long-term health promotion approaches such as school health. There is constant pressure on the health promotion sectors of health systems to respond to the latest health/social problem of the day. With scarce resources often drawn to treatment and emergency health, the health promotion sector is often forced to fund activities on a selected list of issues rather than on health overall. While this underlying problem of scarce resources will never disappear, there are systemic changes that can be made to structures, staffing and decision-making to ensure continuity and ongoing relationships/commitments to non-health sectors such as schools. A research agenda on such barriers and facilitators has already been proposed by a recent North American symposium of education and health leaders. Another practical suggestion coming out of that symposium was greater and sustained investments in school nursing. If school nurses can be mandated to the full scope of their professional roles, then they can be be essential glue that keeps school health care connected to school health promotion and to the many specific prevention activities. A third hope for these high powered US discussions is that they take the time to truly understand the core mandates, concerns and constraints of school systems so that they can truly motivate and engage school systems in health promotion. Educators will happily accommodate health services in their schools. Indeed, this is often the first thing that school administrators ask for. Educators can provide all sorts of other health promoting support in their teaching, caring for children, working with parents and community leaders and more. But, as recent research is showing, they are reluctant to do that unless the health systems modify their approach to ensure that is it based on systemic, long-term strategies. ISHN and ASCD have gathered this recent research into a global discussion of how health (and other systems) need to integrate their programs within education systems. Insights and evidence-based and experience-tested ideas from the global discussion, including a consensus statement, a background paper and International Discussion Group are all sources that we hope American and other national leaders will not ignore. Comments
Current US Efforts to Include Health Data in Education Monitoring and Reporting Systems 16/9/2014
A background paper on metrics (monitoring, reporting, indicators and data sources) has been prepared for the US National Collaborative on Education and Health (NCEH) Published in August 2014 which describes current US state and federal efforts to include health data in school monitoring and reporting systems. This ISHN commentary includes several excerpts from the paper followed by some brief comments on how the analysis can be extended to delve deeper into the relationship between health and education systems.
Selected Excerpts:
'With the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as reauthorized by No Child Left Behind of 2001, states are now required to provide report cards for all public schools, which must include information about students’ performance on standardized tests, as well as whether schools have been identified as needing improvement, corrective action, or restructuring. Student data must be dis-aggregated by student subgroups according to race, ethnicity,gender, English language proficiency, migrant status, disability status and low -income status. These report cards must be made public online and through other mechanisms. Some Local Education Agencies use this opportunity to share comprehensive data about schools in the district, particularly contextual data on issues that are strongly correlated with academic achievement, including teacher qualifications, school climate and safety, and commitment to health and wellness. States also have laws requiring that schools report other data, such as school safety (e.g., Virginia and Oklahoma) or the condition of school facilities (e.g.Pennsylvania). Finally, Illinois and Colorado have state laws that require the schools to report on health and wellness data, including access to recess, physical education and access to school health services.
For the past two decades, states have been creating and refining longitudinal data systems to track, store, analyze, and apply a range of data to improve academic achievement and student outcomes. These State Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) allow states to track and monitor a student’s data from one grade to the next. In addition, most of the data reported in state school report cards comes from SLDS. While states generally do collect individual student data on health conditions that are correlated with academic achievement, such as active asthma, vision problems, or dental caries via school health services or required state school health forms, these data are not commonly tracked longitudinally or linked with a student’s academic data. California represents one example of a state that is using a longitudinal data system, the California School Climate, Health and Learning System, to collect information about both education and health." (Note: Later in the report, brief summaries of other states doing similar reporting are provided. These include Oregon, Texas, Colorado and Illinois,)
Although health has not traditionally been collected in SLDS, there is a precedent for collecting non-academic student data in SLDS to inform and develop educationally relevant interventions. Examples such as these can provide a framework for how health can inform and enrich SLDS
to create more robust student interventions. For example , some states have used their SLDS to establish an Early Warning System that can be used to identify students at risk of dropping out by tracking attendance, behavior and course success. According to the Data Quality Campaign, in 2013, 26 states had an Early Warning System that they were using to identify students who might be at risk of dropping out. "
The report also examines recent efforts by the US Department of Education to monitor student health and wellness. "The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE) is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students and seeks to improve schools’ conditions for learning through measurement and program implementation, so that all students have the opportunity to realize academic success in safe and supportive environments.A key activity of the NCSSLE is to provide support to 11 grantees that are working to address factors that affect conditions for learning and impede the building and maintenance of safe and supportive learning environments (e.g.,bullying, harassment, violence, substance abuse). Specifically, these grantees are in the process of implementing programs or developing initiatives to collect and use data to assess the extent to which schools are safe and supportive. NCSSLE also maintains a compendium of valid and reliable surveys, assessments and scales of school climate.
Commentary:
This NCEH background paper provides a good overview of the efforts of some states and the recent federal work to include health data in education monitoring and reporting systems. It provides a description of current education state education department activities in monitoring their system results and how some health data can be included. However, the paper does not mention the well-developed system for reporting on student health and on system capacity that has been developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the School Health Policies and Practices Survey and the various other "profile" reports that CDC publishes. The activities from the education system could be combined with the existing monitoring and reporting systems that have been well developed by CDC. The YRBS data is available by state. The SHPPS data would provide much of the policy/program data required to complete the picture.
As well, the US is one of 43 countries participating in the Health Behaviors of School-aged Children (HBSC) survey, a long-standing international survey done regularly by countries in western Europe and Canada that tracks student health behaviors as well as the social support provided by parents, peers and schools. In particular, the HBSC survey offers excellent data on the "connectedness" between students and their teachers and schools, a key factor in school success. Further, the discussions and initial framework for Monitoring & Reporting Systems developed by the International Discussion Group on MRE led by the International School health Network suggests that in addition to tracking health status/behaviours and system policies/programs, an effective M&R system needs to include data on the learning outcomes achieved by students in health, family studies, personal/social development and physical education. although a couple of US states have considered the development of such additions to their tracking of the learning occurring in other core subjects such as language arts, math and science, there is no system in the US (or any other country) for reporting on student learning in these areas. )Note: The report does discuss student learning somewhat noting that " Most states, for example, have standards for physical and health education. Some states assess student progress on meeting these standards using statewide tests, allowing a statewide comparison and analysis of scores." However, the examples cited in this section in the report such as the Fitnessgram used in California and Texas actually measure health status (fitness levels) rather than what has been learned in PE classes.)
This initial NCEH report could be extended or elaborated upon so that the development of metrics (indicators, data sources and monitoring/reporting systems) is based on a truer, more appropriate relationship between health and education systems. Rather than starting with the concerns of health systems (or by using the readily available data sources), the process could begin with identifying the health and social issues/factors that are most relevant to student learning and school success. Charles Basch, in his work on health equity and schooling in the US, has identified several health problems that have a significantly more impact on educational success. These include eating breakfast, hungry children/school meal programs, teen pregnancies causing school dropouts, homophobic and other forms of bullying, dental health, head lice, asthma and others that cause prolonged absences from school. By starting with these health and social issues, the process becomes more of a support to educators and their primary mission, rather than adding more items for which schools become implicitly accountable (since they are often the only ones reporting on the health and well-being of children on a regular basis). This new premise is part of a US/Canada and global dialogue on how health (and other systems) can fit better within the core mandates, concerns and constraints of school systems. Using this integration within" premise, rather than "adding to" or even "aligning" the metrics of the two systems offers the promise of more engagement and more sustainable support from educators and the systems in which they work. Comments
A background paper on metrics (monitoring, reporting, indicators and data sources) has been prepared for the US National Collaborative on Education and Health (NCEH) Published in August 2014 which describes current US state and federal efforts to include health data in school monitoring and reporting systems. This ISHN commentary includes several excerpts from the paper followed by some brief comments on how the analysis can be extended to delve deeper into the relationship between health and education systems.
Selected Excerpts:
'With the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as reauthorized by No Child Left Behind of 2001, states are now required to provide report cards for all public schools, which must include information about students’ performance on standardized tests, as well as whether schools have been identified as needing improvement, corrective action, or restructuring. Student data must be dis-aggregated by student subgroups according to race, ethnicity,gender, English language proficiency, migrant status, disability status and low -income status. These report cards must be made public online and through other mechanisms. Some Local Education Agencies use this opportunity to share comprehensive data about schools in the district, particularly contextual data on issues that are strongly correlated with academic achievement, including teacher qualifications, school climate and safety, and commitment to health and wellness. States also have laws requiring that schools report other data, such as school safety (e.g., Virginia and Oklahoma) or the condition of school facilities (e.g.Pennsylvania). Finally, Illinois and Colorado have state laws that require the schools to report on health and wellness data, including access to recess, physical education and access to school health services.
For the past two decades, states have been creating and refining longitudinal data systems to track, store, analyze, and apply a range of data to improve academic achievement and student outcomes. These State Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) allow states to track and monitor a student’s data from one grade to the next. In addition, most of the data reported in state school report cards comes from SLDS. While states generally do collect individual student data on health conditions that are correlated with academic achievement, such as active asthma, vision problems, or dental caries via school health services or required state school health forms, these data are not commonly tracked longitudinally or linked with a student’s academic data. California represents one example of a state that is using a longitudinal data system, the California School Climate, Health and Learning System, to collect information about both education and health." (Note: Later in the report, brief summaries of other states doing similar reporting are provided. These include Oregon, Texas, Colorado and Illinois,)
Although health has not traditionally been collected in SLDS, there is a precedent for collecting non-academic student data in SLDS to inform and develop educationally relevant interventions. Examples such as these can provide a framework for how health can inform and enrich SLDS
to create more robust student interventions. For example , some states have used their SLDS to establish an Early Warning System that can be used to identify students at risk of dropping out by tracking attendance, behavior and course success. According to the Data Quality Campaign, in 2013, 26 states had an Early Warning System that they were using to identify students who might be at risk of dropping out. "
The report also examines recent efforts by the US Department of Education to monitor student health and wellness. "The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE) is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students and seeks to improve schools’ conditions for learning through measurement and program implementation, so that all students have the opportunity to realize academic success in safe and supportive environments.A key activity of the NCSSLE is to provide support to 11 grantees that are working to address factors that affect conditions for learning and impede the building and maintenance of safe and supportive learning environments (e.g.,bullying, harassment, violence, substance abuse). Specifically, these grantees are in the process of implementing programs or developing initiatives to collect and use data to assess the extent to which schools are safe and supportive. NCSSLE also maintains a compendium of valid and reliable surveys, assessments and scales of school climate.
Commentary:
This NCEH background paper provides a good overview of the efforts of some states and the recent federal work to include health data in education monitoring and reporting systems. It provides a description of current education state education department activities in monitoring their system results and how some health data can be included. However, the paper does not mention the well-developed system for reporting on student health and on system capacity that has been developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the School Health Policies and Practices Survey and the various other "profile" reports that CDC publishes. The activities from the education system could be combined with the existing monitoring and reporting systems that have been well developed by CDC. The YRBS data is available by state. The SHPPS data would provide much of the policy/program data required to complete the picture.
As well, the US is one of 43 countries participating in the Health Behaviors of School-aged Children (HBSC) survey, a long-standing international survey done regularly by countries in western Europe and Canada that tracks student health behaviors as well as the social support provided by parents, peers and schools. In particular, the HBSC survey offers excellent data on the "connectedness" between students and their teachers and schools, a key factor in school success. Further, the discussions and initial framework for Monitoring & Reporting Systems developed by the International Discussion Group on MRE led by the International School health Network suggests that in addition to tracking health status/behaviours and system policies/programs, an effective M&R system needs to include data on the learning outcomes achieved by students in health, family studies, personal/social development and physical education. although a couple of US states have considered the development of such additions to their tracking of the learning occurring in other core subjects such as language arts, math and science, there is no system in the US (or any other country) for reporting on student learning in these areas. )Note: The report does discuss student learning somewhat noting that " Most states, for example, have standards for physical and health education. Some states assess student progress on meeting these standards using statewide tests, allowing a statewide comparison and analysis of scores." However, the examples cited in this section in the report such as the Fitnessgram used in California and Texas actually measure health status (fitness levels) rather than what has been learned in PE classes.)
This initial NCEH report could be extended or elaborated upon so that the development of metrics (indicators, data sources and monitoring/reporting systems) is based on a truer, more appropriate relationship between health and education systems. Rather than starting with the concerns of health systems (or by using the readily available data sources), the process could begin with identifying the health and social issues/factors that are most relevant to student learning and school success. Charles Basch, in his work on health equity and schooling in the US, has identified several health problems that have a significantly more impact on educational success. These include eating breakfast, hungry children/school meal programs, teen pregnancies causing school dropouts, homophobic and other forms of bullying, dental health, head lice, asthma and others that cause prolonged absences from school. By starting with these health and social issues, the process becomes more of a support to educators and their primary mission, rather than adding more items for which schools become implicitly accountable (since they are often the only ones reporting on the health and well-being of children on a regular basis). This new premise is part of a US/Canada and global dialogue on how health (and other systems) can fit better within the core mandates, concerns and constraints of school systems. Using this integration within" premise, rather than "adding to" or even "aligning" the metrics of the two systems offers the promise of more engagement and more sustainable support from educators and the systems in which they work. Comments
Measuring Sustainability of a Whole School (Schoolwide) PBS Program 3/9/2014
As we learn more about the sustainability of multi-intervention approaches and programs, we are seeing the development of various techniques to measure and monitor such sustainability. An article in Issue #2, 2014 of School Psychology Quarterly reports o the development of "the School-Wide Universal Behavior Sustainability Index: School Teams (SUBSIST; McIntosh, Doolittle, Vincent, Horner, & Ervin, 2009) a measure of school and district contextual factors that promote the sustainability of school practices, demonstrated measurement invariance across groups of schools that differed in length of time implementing school-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS; Sugai & Horner, 2009), student ethnic composition, and student socioeconomic status (SES). School PBIS team members and district coaches representing 860 schools in 14 U.S. states completed the SUBSIST. Findings supported strong measurement invariance, for all items except 1, of a model with two school-level factors (School Priority and Team Use of Data) and 2 district-level factors (District Priority and Capacity Building) across groups of schools at initial implementation, institutionalization, and sustainability phases of PBIS implementation. Schools in the sustainability phase were rated significantly higher on School Priority and Team Use of Data than schools in initial implementation." Read more>> Comments
As we learn more about the sustainability of multi-intervention approaches and programs, we are seeing the development of various techniques to measure and monitor such sustainability. An article in Issue #2, 2014 of School Psychology Quarterly reports o the development of "the School-Wide Universal Behavior Sustainability Index: School Teams (SUBSIST; McIntosh, Doolittle, Vincent, Horner, & Ervin, 2009) a measure of school and district contextual factors that promote the sustainability of school practices, demonstrated measurement invariance across groups of schools that differed in length of time implementing school-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS; Sugai & Horner, 2009), student ethnic composition, and student socioeconomic status (SES). School PBIS team members and district coaches representing 860 schools in 14 U.S. states completed the SUBSIST. Findings supported strong measurement invariance, for all items except 1, of a model with two school-level factors (School Priority and Team Use of Data) and 2 district-level factors (District Priority and Capacity Building) across groups of schools at initial implementation, institutionalization, and sustainability phases of PBIS implementation. Schools in the sustainability phase were rated significantly higher on School Priority and Team Use of Data than schools in initial implementation." Read more>> Comments
Schools as Home; Teachers as Surrogate Parents 1/9/2014
An August 19, 2014 posting to the Teachers Blog from Education Week discusses the "the Unwritten Job Descriptions of Teachers in High-Needs Schools" and thereby underlines one of the challenges and dilemmas of their daily work and professional careers. The author, a woman, discusses her "worst class" and how the predominantly male students in a class in a high needs, urban school in a poor neighbourhood challenged her, her female co-teacher and most other authority figures in the school. She adds " A couple of the guys had terrible tempers, and managing their angry and unpredictable outbursts made me feel like I was walking on eggshells in my own classroom. When the principal and other higher-ups from the Board of Education would come in, instead of feigning interest in the class-work (as most groups of students would have, under those circumstances), they'd ask, "Why are these people here? Tell them to leave," as though we all spoke some other language that our visitors would not understand." She then describes the dramatic changes to their behaviours when a male teacher replaced her female colleague in the team teaching assignment. " In some way, we had become "mom and dad" (albeit, extremely hetero-normatively) for these guys. It was not only evident in their antics of trying to play one of us off the other; the young men in our class could sometimes be calmed down by "man-to-man" talks in the hallway with my team teacher, after which they'd come to me for hugs, band-aids, snacks, what-have-you."Years later, reflecting on that year, the female teacher realized that the students in that class had needed them as surrogate parents and that the real needs of those students were based on the need for secure social attachments with adults. She then briefly cites some of the recent research on this and criticizes the current efforts in the US to see education as a business, as a competition and as a workplace for students rather than a home away from home. Read the blog article here. All this is not very new, any teacher can tell you about the kids in their class with the same needs. What was significant to me in reading the blog commentary was how the writer argues that " For teachers, this represents an added layer of responsibility, one for which we can't expect recognition within our formal evaluations, but which is nonetheless a vital component of doing our jobs well...particularly in high-needs schools in poor areas, where children are often coming from unsteady home lives.' While respecting and even agreeing that view as a former teacher, I am struck by the constant barrage of attacks on teachers these days. More testing, more accountability for students progress regardless of their effort or their families contribution, introduction of term-limited teacher licenses, unilateral legislative attacks on their bargaining agents, reductions in their pensions and so on. In what other profession, in what other industry, in what other corporation would the authorities really expect their employees to stay faithful to their altruistic, additional, uncompensated roles and additional unrecognized responsibilities, especially when assigned to the worst assignments?. Really. And then we have the well-meant, checklists, teacher-proof instructional programs and the fix-the-teacher "professional" development programs from the health and social program advocates constantly knocking on the school door.... This article and our additional comments here present one of the aspects of our global discussion of why the health and social sectors need to step back from their current appeals to schools and seek a new path that can lead to a systematic and teacher aware approach to the integration of these programs within the constraints, concerns and core mandates of education systems. Join us in our on-going, International Discussion Group and series of global symposiums. Comments
An August 19, 2014 posting to the Teachers Blog from Education Week discusses the "the Unwritten Job Descriptions of Teachers in High-Needs Schools" and thereby underlines one of the challenges and dilemmas of their daily work and professional careers. The author, a woman, discusses her "worst class" and how the predominantly male students in a class in a high needs, urban school in a poor neighbourhood challenged her, her female co-teacher and most other authority figures in the school. She adds " A couple of the guys had terrible tempers, and managing their angry and unpredictable outbursts made me feel like I was walking on eggshells in my own classroom. When the principal and other higher-ups from the Board of Education would come in, instead of feigning interest in the class-work (as most groups of students would have, under those circumstances), they'd ask, "Why are these people here? Tell them to leave," as though we all spoke some other language that our visitors would not understand." She then describes the dramatic changes to their behaviours when a male teacher replaced her female colleague in the team teaching assignment. " In some way, we had become "mom and dad" (albeit, extremely hetero-normatively) for these guys. It was not only evident in their antics of trying to play one of us off the other; the young men in our class could sometimes be calmed down by "man-to-man" talks in the hallway with my team teacher, after which they'd come to me for hugs, band-aids, snacks, what-have-you."Years later, reflecting on that year, the female teacher realized that the students in that class had needed them as surrogate parents and that the real needs of those students were based on the need for secure social attachments with adults. She then briefly cites some of the recent research on this and criticizes the current efforts in the US to see education as a business, as a competition and as a workplace for students rather than a home away from home. Read the blog article here. All this is not very new, any teacher can tell you about the kids in their class with the same needs. What was significant to me in reading the blog commentary was how the writer argues that " For teachers, this represents an added layer of responsibility, one for which we can't expect recognition within our formal evaluations, but which is nonetheless a vital component of doing our jobs well...particularly in high-needs schools in poor areas, where children are often coming from unsteady home lives.' While respecting and even agreeing that view as a former teacher, I am struck by the constant barrage of attacks on teachers these days. More testing, more accountability for students progress regardless of their effort or their families contribution, introduction of term-limited teacher licenses, unilateral legislative attacks on their bargaining agents, reductions in their pensions and so on. In what other profession, in what other industry, in what other corporation would the authorities really expect their employees to stay faithful to their altruistic, additional, uncompensated roles and additional unrecognized responsibilities, especially when assigned to the worst assignments?. Really. And then we have the well-meant, checklists, teacher-proof instructional programs and the fix-the-teacher "professional" development programs from the health and social program advocates constantly knocking on the school door.... This article and our additional comments here present one of the aspects of our global discussion of why the health and social sectors need to step back from their current appeals to schools and seek a new path that can lead to a systematic and teacher aware approach to the integration of these programs within the constraints, concerns and core mandates of education systems. Join us in our on-going, International Discussion Group and series of global symposiums. Comments
Western Education Systems Focus on Job Skills, Aboriginal Education 21/8/2014
Many of the news items identified this week related to education ministries turning their focus on job skills training and aboriginal education/students. In Canada, the education and labour ministers agreed on a national plan that will redirect school attention to job training in response to the recent economic downturn. In the US, the news media has been reporting on recent announcements on their Indian education strategy, training to encourage equitable access to excellent educators for schools in poor communities and a summit with business leaders. In England and Scotland, we have similar attention on youth who are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) via reports and news releases.In the same week, health advocates distributed studies about the linkages between health and learning. If the health system is to persuade educators to accept more ownership for health programs, they will need to respond directly and specifically to these education policy directions and not simply make the general argument that healthy kids learn better or that health and educational achievement are linked. Read more>> Comments
Many of the news items identified this week related to education ministries turning their focus on job skills training and aboriginal education/students. In Canada, the education and labour ministers agreed on a national plan that will redirect school attention to job training in response to the recent economic downturn. In the US, the news media has been reporting on recent announcements on their Indian education strategy, training to encourage equitable access to excellent educators for schools in poor communities and a summit with business leaders. In England and Scotland, we have similar attention on youth who are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) via reports and news releases.In the same week, health advocates distributed studies about the linkages between health and learning. If the health system is to persuade educators to accept more ownership for health programs, they will need to respond directly and specifically to these education policy directions and not simply make the general argument that healthy kids learn better or that health and educational achievement are linked. Read more>> Comments
PISA Report on Financial Literacy & Demise of Home Economics 21/8/2014
Home Economics classes, a part of many comprehensive approaches to school health and development (along with Health Ed & Phys Ed) have largely disappeared from the mandatory curricula of many countries, provinces and states in the last decade. It is ironic to note the recent report of the OECD on financial literacy among students, which is now part of their PISA evaluation program. This is the first international study to assess the financial literacy of young people. Around 30,000 students from 18 countries and economies* took the tests, which involved dealing with bank accounts and credit/debit cards, planning and managing finances, understanding taxes and savings, risk and rewards, consumer rights and responsibilities in financial contracts. One of the OECD summaries asked if 15 year olds know how to manage money. They summarized the results as follows: "On average 10% of students can analyse complex financial products and solve non-routine financial problems, while 15% can, at best, make simple decisions about everyday spending, and recognise the purpose of everyday financial documents, such as an invoice. " And we wonder why this generation of adults in so many countries have over-extended themselves with credit card debt, mortgages and over-spending? Read more>> Comments
Home Economics classes, a part of many comprehensive approaches to school health and development (along with Health Ed & Phys Ed) have largely disappeared from the mandatory curricula of many countries, provinces and states in the last decade. It is ironic to note the recent report of the OECD on financial literacy among students, which is now part of their PISA evaluation program. This is the first international study to assess the financial literacy of young people. Around 30,000 students from 18 countries and economies* took the tests, which involved dealing with bank accounts and credit/debit cards, planning and managing finances, understanding taxes and savings, risk and rewards, consumer rights and responsibilities in financial contracts. One of the OECD summaries asked if 15 year olds know how to manage money. They summarized the results as follows: "On average 10% of students can analyse complex financial products and solve non-routine financial problems, while 15% can, at best, make simple decisions about everyday spending, and recognise the purpose of everyday financial documents, such as an invoice. " And we wonder why this generation of adults in so many countries have over-extended themselves with credit card debt, mortgages and over-spending? Read more>> Comments
Teacher, Administrator and Ed Faculty Understanding of Sustainable Development Impedes Adoption 13/8/2014
As we learn more about how health and social programs can be better integrated within education systems, one of the new areas for discussion is how educator understandings, beliefs and professional identities will have an impact on their willingness to address such issues in their practice. Three articles in the July 2014 issue of Environmental Education Research provide insights on teacher, administrator/school leader and education faculty understanding of the concept of sustainable development plays out in their respective work assignments. One article shows that Swedish teachers differ in their understanding of the concept mostly according to their subject traditions. generally do not have a holistic understanding which is prescribed in the formal curriculum documents. The second article examines how a holistic, whole school approach and vision to ESD can be developed by school leaders in different ways. The third article examined how teacher educators were constrained from addressing ESD in their work due to pressing and competing priorities, even when they understood the concept. Read more>> Comments
As we learn more about how health and social programs can be better integrated within education systems, one of the new areas for discussion is how educator understandings, beliefs and professional identities will have an impact on their willingness to address such issues in their practice. Three articles in the July 2014 issue of Environmental Education Research provide insights on teacher, administrator/school leader and education faculty understanding of the concept of sustainable development plays out in their respective work assignments. One article shows that Swedish teachers differ in their understanding of the concept mostly according to their subject traditions. generally do not have a holistic understanding which is prescribed in the formal curriculum documents. The second article examines how a holistic, whole school approach and vision to ESD can be developed by school leaders in different ways. The third article examined how teacher educators were constrained from addressing ESD in their work due to pressing and competing priorities, even when they understood the concept. Read more>> Comments
Social Control vs Helping a Child with Special Needs: The Dilemma Faced by Teachers & Schools 11/7/2014
In the ASCD-ISHN sponsored discussions about integrating health and social programs more effectively within schools, we have identified a set of challenges associated with the contradictory or competing demands and constraints placed in teachers and schools by society. The UCLA Center on Mental Health in Schools has discussed one of these challenges in a recent paper on Helping and Socialization. The paper notes that a significant concern or dilemma arises when the teacher and the school are asked to both help the child displaying deviant behaviour while also serving the school's mandate to socialize children and to exercise the social controls necessary to ensure that other children can continue to learn. An example is presented in the paper as follows: "One major reason for compulsory education is that society wants schools to act as socializing agencies. When a child misbehaves at school, the teacher's job is to bring the deviant and devious behavior under control. Interventions are designed to convince the child he should conform to the proscribed limits of the social setting. The child's parents valued the school's socializing agenda, but also wanted him to receive special help at school for what they saw as an emotionally based problem. The child, like most children did not appreciate the increasing efforts to control his behavior, especially since many of his actions were intended to enable him to escape such control. Under the circumstances , not only was there conflict among the involved parties, it is likely that the teacher's intervention efforts actually caused the child displaying deviant behaviour to experience negative emotional and behavior reactions (e.g., psychological reactance). It is commonplace for policy makers, practitioners, family members to be confronted with situations where socialization and helping agenda are in conflict. Some resolve the conflict by clearly defining themselves as socializing agents and in that role pursue socialization goals. In such a context, it is understood that helping is not the primary concern. Others resolve the conflict by viewing individuals as "clients" and pursuing interventions that can be defined as helping. In such cases, the goal is to work withthe consenting individual to resolve learning and behavior problems, including efforts designed to make environments more accommodative of individual differences. Some practitioners are unclear about their agenda or are forced by circumstances to try to pursue helping and socialization simultaneously, and this adds confusion to an already difficult situation." This role conflict or dilemma is not limited to children who are misbehaving. If teachers are asked to spend inordinately more time helping other children with special medical needs or to help children with social isolation or family stress issues, their time is taken away from the other students. In the "helping professions" such as nursing or social work, there is no conflict, because their priority is clearly with the more vulnerable child. However, educators are mandated to enable every child to reach their full potential, so the maxim is often to try to spend an equivalent amount of time and energy with each and every child, even if they have fewer health, social or even learning needs. To access the UCLA paper Read More>> Comments
In the ASCD-ISHN sponsored discussions about integrating health and social programs more effectively within schools, we have identified a set of challenges associated with the contradictory or competing demands and constraints placed in teachers and schools by society. The UCLA Center on Mental Health in Schools has discussed one of these challenges in a recent paper on Helping and Socialization. The paper notes that a significant concern or dilemma arises when the teacher and the school are asked to both help the child displaying deviant behaviour while also serving the school's mandate to socialize children and to exercise the social controls necessary to ensure that other children can continue to learn. An example is presented in the paper as follows: "One major reason for compulsory education is that society wants schools to act as socializing agencies. When a child misbehaves at school, the teacher's job is to bring the deviant and devious behavior under control. Interventions are designed to convince the child he should conform to the proscribed limits of the social setting. The child's parents valued the school's socializing agenda, but also wanted him to receive special help at school for what they saw as an emotionally based problem. The child, like most children did not appreciate the increasing efforts to control his behavior, especially since many of his actions were intended to enable him to escape such control. Under the circumstances , not only was there conflict among the involved parties, it is likely that the teacher's intervention efforts actually caused the child displaying deviant behaviour to experience negative emotional and behavior reactions (e.g., psychological reactance). It is commonplace for policy makers, practitioners, family members to be confronted with situations where socialization and helping agenda are in conflict. Some resolve the conflict by clearly defining themselves as socializing agents and in that role pursue socialization goals. In such a context, it is understood that helping is not the primary concern. Others resolve the conflict by viewing individuals as "clients" and pursuing interventions that can be defined as helping. In such cases, the goal is to work withthe consenting individual to resolve learning and behavior problems, including efforts designed to make environments more accommodative of individual differences. Some practitioners are unclear about their agenda or are forced by circumstances to try to pursue helping and socialization simultaneously, and this adds confusion to an already difficult situation." This role conflict or dilemma is not limited to children who are misbehaving. If teachers are asked to spend inordinately more time helping other children with special medical needs or to help children with social isolation or family stress issues, their time is taken away from the other students. In the "helping professions" such as nursing or social work, there is no conflict, because their priority is clearly with the more vulnerable child. However, educators are mandated to enable every child to reach their full potential, so the maxim is often to try to spend an equivalent amount of time and energy with each and every child, even if they have fewer health, social or even learning needs. To access the UCLA paper Read More>> Comments
The Struggle to Move from "School Prevention" to "School Health Promotion" 24/6/2014
The Healthy Schools program in British Columbia, Canada is among the Canadian and international leaders in school-based and school-linked prevention of specific health problems and in promoting overall health. A visit to their content rich web site will reveal that the schools program is part of an overall settings-based approach and a "whole of government" strategy called Act Now BC. The province provides funding for a number of excellent initiatives and activities, all of which have used a long-term, systems-based strategy. Multi-intervention approaches are used regularly as the basis for strategies on physical activity, healthy eating, addictions and mental health. The province has mandatory health/personal planning as well as physical education curricula from kindergarten to senior high school grades. The province funds a network of over 150 schools per year as innovators and leaders in school prevention and promotion. Regular conferences bring the school health community together. Excellent learning resources are identified and promoted. The Healthy Schools program has funded the development of a number of generic school health resources that encourage good planning school self-assessments, the use of multiple interventions, effective teaching and student assessment practices and more. Indeed, the province has been both a pioneer and a leader. However, like all other jurisdictions, British Columbia struggles to truly maintain a focus on improving the overall health of the school environment (policies, practices, social interactions, physical conditions, family problems and strengths, relationship with the community etc) rather than being fixated on a selected set of health or social behaviours or conditions. The list of priority topics on the BC education ministry web page for its healthy schools program is typical of most jurisdictions; healthy eating, physical activity, tobacco/drugs. If one reads the list of "generic" school health planning guides and tools from BC (and most other jurisdictions) one will find that the generic principles and practices are almost entirely focused on or applied to only these health problems or behaviours. We will struggle to find references to to child abuse, sexual health, poverty, indigenous students, LGBT students, violence, crime and many other issues confronting youth and families today in those planning documents. The BC Healthy Schools web site does maintain a list of educational and other resources addressing a broader list of issues. And it does list its 150+ school success stories according to this broader list of topics. But, again, if we examine these stories, we find almost no examples of schools trying to build their overall capacity to implement and maintain school health promotion programs (3/159) but we do find an overwhelming number of stories on healthy eating and physical activity. We also find very few stories from schools addressing topics like substance abuse, child abuse and other more difficult social issues. If we turn our attention to the current dominant thinking in the health sector these days, we will find out why so many of the "healthy schools" programs have actually become "school prevention" programs rather than "school health promotion" programs. As funding has been leeched from the health sector overall, we find that health authorities have retreated back to their protection and prevention functions and away from their health promotion function. The work done by health professionals in schools simply reflects this larger trend. Indeed, if one were to examine health ministries around the world and even the WHO, we would find that they are structured, staffed and funded more favourably around "non-communicable diseases" than around "health promotion".
The danger in this trend to reduce the focus and fixate on a selected number of health issues means that the healthy schools programs become vulnerable when a new issue such as cyber-bullying emerges to capture the attention of the public, parents and decision-makers. Resources are quickly devoted to this new problem and if the healthy schools movement is not ready to address it, they will be by=passed. Or, if other multi-intervention approaches/programs such as safe schools or community schools are available and compete with each other for such new resources, then we will soon see new infrastructure, new documents, new research, new leaders emerge, often repeating or over-lapping with work that has already been done. We will also see educators and school systems having to yet again adjust to a new set of requests and demands from a new set of stakeholders, often without aligning with existing initiatives. This is what happened in BC and several other Canadian and western countries. New laws, new coordinators, new professional development activities and much more, all focused on bullying, cyber-bullying and to a lesser extent on LGBT students have been brought into BC (and other jurisdictions) in separate strategies
If the healthy schools movement and its related government, agency and school level programs do not move towards a school health promotion rather than prevention approach, it may very well find itself bypassed by new initiatives focused on the topt topic of the day rather than a long term developmental, systems-based approach. This is not to say that the HS movement should try to compete with such specific emerging concerns. Indeed, that is the way the health system has always been funded, by disease, rather than health. But the proponents of healthy schools need to always include all of the many aspects of health, wellness, development and its connection to learning in its mandate, maintaining links with the advocates, experts and practitioners focused on these 25+ issues and concerns and being ready to work with them as attention is turned to their issue.
This is also not to say that the healthy schools movement should try to be the primary or over-arching paradigm for addressing many of these issues. Instead, the healthy schools movement, linked most effectively to the health sector, and programs should be ready and willing to work with the many other multi-intervention approaches that work with other systems and sectors. These include the safe schools movement working with law enforcement, community schools working with social services and community development sectors, social/emotional learning and PBS models grounded in the school systems, the relief aid/emergencies in education movement working in countries facing disasters/conflict, school health & nutrition programs working in low income countries and many others. But if the healthy schools movement focuses too much on prevention and too little on promotion, it will not be able to either meet its mandate in addressing all aspects of health nor will it be able work effectively to work with other movements/sectors in addressing the needs of the whole child. Comments
The Healthy Schools program in British Columbia, Canada is among the Canadian and international leaders in school-based and school-linked prevention of specific health problems and in promoting overall health. A visit to their content rich web site will reveal that the schools program is part of an overall settings-based approach and a "whole of government" strategy called Act Now BC. The province provides funding for a number of excellent initiatives and activities, all of which have used a long-term, systems-based strategy. Multi-intervention approaches are used regularly as the basis for strategies on physical activity, healthy eating, addictions and mental health. The province has mandatory health/personal planning as well as physical education curricula from kindergarten to senior high school grades. The province funds a network of over 150 schools per year as innovators and leaders in school prevention and promotion. Regular conferences bring the school health community together. Excellent learning resources are identified and promoted. The Healthy Schools program has funded the development of a number of generic school health resources that encourage good planning school self-assessments, the use of multiple interventions, effective teaching and student assessment practices and more. Indeed, the province has been both a pioneer and a leader. However, like all other jurisdictions, British Columbia struggles to truly maintain a focus on improving the overall health of the school environment (policies, practices, social interactions, physical conditions, family problems and strengths, relationship with the community etc) rather than being fixated on a selected set of health or social behaviours or conditions. The list of priority topics on the BC education ministry web page for its healthy schools program is typical of most jurisdictions; healthy eating, physical activity, tobacco/drugs. If one reads the list of "generic" school health planning guides and tools from BC (and most other jurisdictions) one will find that the generic principles and practices are almost entirely focused on or applied to only these health problems or behaviours. We will struggle to find references to to child abuse, sexual health, poverty, indigenous students, LGBT students, violence, crime and many other issues confronting youth and families today in those planning documents. The BC Healthy Schools web site does maintain a list of educational and other resources addressing a broader list of issues. And it does list its 150+ school success stories according to this broader list of topics. But, again, if we examine these stories, we find almost no examples of schools trying to build their overall capacity to implement and maintain school health promotion programs (3/159) but we do find an overwhelming number of stories on healthy eating and physical activity. We also find very few stories from schools addressing topics like substance abuse, child abuse and other more difficult social issues. If we turn our attention to the current dominant thinking in the health sector these days, we will find out why so many of the "healthy schools" programs have actually become "school prevention" programs rather than "school health promotion" programs. As funding has been leeched from the health sector overall, we find that health authorities have retreated back to their protection and prevention functions and away from their health promotion function. The work done by health professionals in schools simply reflects this larger trend. Indeed, if one were to examine health ministries around the world and even the WHO, we would find that they are structured, staffed and funded more favourably around "non-communicable diseases" than around "health promotion".
The danger in this trend to reduce the focus and fixate on a selected number of health issues means that the healthy schools programs become vulnerable when a new issue such as cyber-bullying emerges to capture the attention of the public, parents and decision-makers. Resources are quickly devoted to this new problem and if the healthy schools movement is not ready to address it, they will be by=passed. Or, if other multi-intervention approaches/programs such as safe schools or community schools are available and compete with each other for such new resources, then we will soon see new infrastructure, new documents, new research, new leaders emerge, often repeating or over-lapping with work that has already been done. We will also see educators and school systems having to yet again adjust to a new set of requests and demands from a new set of stakeholders, often without aligning with existing initiatives. This is what happened in BC and several other Canadian and western countries. New laws, new coordinators, new professional development activities and much more, all focused on bullying, cyber-bullying and to a lesser extent on LGBT students have been brought into BC (and other jurisdictions) in separate strategies
If the healthy schools movement and its related government, agency and school level programs do not move towards a school health promotion rather than prevention approach, it may very well find itself bypassed by new initiatives focused on the topt topic of the day rather than a long term developmental, systems-based approach. This is not to say that the HS movement should try to compete with such specific emerging concerns. Indeed, that is the way the health system has always been funded, by disease, rather than health. But the proponents of healthy schools need to always include all of the many aspects of health, wellness, development and its connection to learning in its mandate, maintaining links with the advocates, experts and practitioners focused on these 25+ issues and concerns and being ready to work with them as attention is turned to their issue.
This is also not to say that the healthy schools movement should try to be the primary or over-arching paradigm for addressing many of these issues. Instead, the healthy schools movement, linked most effectively to the health sector, and programs should be ready and willing to work with the many other multi-intervention approaches that work with other systems and sectors. These include the safe schools movement working with law enforcement, community schools working with social services and community development sectors, social/emotional learning and PBS models grounded in the school systems, the relief aid/emergencies in education movement working in countries facing disasters/conflict, school health & nutrition programs working in low income countries and many others. But if the healthy schools movement focuses too much on prevention and too little on promotion, it will not be able to either meet its mandate in addressing all aspects of health nor will it be able work effectively to work with other movements/sectors in addressing the needs of the whole child. Comments
Indigenous, holistic approach to child & learning underpins school reform in Canada's Northwest Territories 23/6/2014
In the ASCD-ISHN global discussion of the need to better integrate health and social programs within education systems, it has been strongly suggested that authorities take a holistic, whole child approach to education rather than trying to carve up children into specific health/social behaviours or conditions to compete with the academic purposes of schooling. With the October 2013 release of its Education Renewal and Innovation Framework: Directions for Change, the Government of the Northwest Territories in Canada illustrates how this can be done from the ground up, while using a distinctly indigenous and rural set of values and principles. The news release announcing the framework identifies several challenges that require changes in the schools, the nature of which illustrate how the new directions see school as part of their respective social and economic contexts and communities. "The framework is one of several initiatives developed by the Government of the Northwest Territories to address challenges like poverty, mental health, addictions, early childhood development, safety, the legacy of residential schools and school attendance. Other challenges within the school system, like authentic learning, staff recruitment, training and retention and transitions to work or learning after high school will be met primarily through school programming and policies themselves, preparing children for a prosperous and healthy future." The foundations of the reforms are equally holistic in their approach to education. The executive summary of the document says it this way: "Thinking around teaching and learning is undergoing a major shift world-wide. The current education system is a model of a system similar to the factories of the Industrial Age. Subject areas are separated, students are sorted by age, and the end goal is a very specific set of skills and knowledge. Research now points to a more ecological understanding of the needs of learners and the factors that benefit learning." These foundational statements are intended to guide the initiative. These statements, especially the first few, are born of indigenous worldviews and experiences where relationships with the land, ecology, and identity are very powerful.
relationships", (2) "e that student wellness and the development of a positive sense of identity are promoted and embedded in school experiences, programming, and environments", (3) "ensure that educators have access to experiences and resources that enhance their wellness in order for them to focus on excellence in teaching" (5) "that the strengths and realities of small communities are recognized and built upon in order to ensure equitable, quality education in all NWT communities" and (9) "work with Aboriginal governments to be successful as they draw down jurisdiction over the education of their people".
The document does include other directions that will be more familiar to those working in school systems based on competition, traditional rote style learning and even narrow, behavioural modification approaches to promote health. These include research-based curriculum, better data and use of those data in decision-making, and more monitoring/reporting to provide better accountability. However, these traditional, more industrial approaches to education are firmly based and and linked within this indigenous, holistic, whole child approach, that in turn, is rooted in a deep understanding the indigenous and rural, northern communities served by the schools in this system. To read more about the NWT education renewal, start at this web page. Comments
In the ASCD-ISHN global discussion of the need to better integrate health and social programs within education systems, it has been strongly suggested that authorities take a holistic, whole child approach to education rather than trying to carve up children into specific health/social behaviours or conditions to compete with the academic purposes of schooling. With the October 2013 release of its Education Renewal and Innovation Framework: Directions for Change, the Government of the Northwest Territories in Canada illustrates how this can be done from the ground up, while using a distinctly indigenous and rural set of values and principles. The news release announcing the framework identifies several challenges that require changes in the schools, the nature of which illustrate how the new directions see school as part of their respective social and economic contexts and communities. "The framework is one of several initiatives developed by the Government of the Northwest Territories to address challenges like poverty, mental health, addictions, early childhood development, safety, the legacy of residential schools and school attendance. Other challenges within the school system, like authentic learning, staff recruitment, training and retention and transitions to work or learning after high school will be met primarily through school programming and policies themselves, preparing children for a prosperous and healthy future." The foundations of the reforms are equally holistic in their approach to education. The executive summary of the document says it this way: "Thinking around teaching and learning is undergoing a major shift world-wide. The current education system is a model of a system similar to the factories of the Industrial Age. Subject areas are separated, students are sorted by age, and the end goal is a very specific set of skills and knowledge. Research now points to a more ecological understanding of the needs of learners and the factors that benefit learning." These foundational statements are intended to guide the initiative. These statements, especially the first few, are born of indigenous worldviews and experiences where relationships with the land, ecology, and identity are very powerful.
- Relationships: Meaningful relationships with self, others, ideas, and the land are the foundation for all learning.
- Ecological Understanding: Education in the NWT is a living system of connections, each affecting an individual’s relationships and well-being.
- Identity: A positive sense of identity is actively supported.
- Development of Self: Each person has multiple needs that must be met in order to grow and become a capable, contributing person.
- Learning Together: People construct knowledge and learn individually and together.
- Diversity: Diversity is recognized and valued in the education system.
- Strengths and Growth: The ongoing growth of learners is nurtured.
- Competencies: The development of competencies is supported in all learners
relationships", (2) "e that student wellness and the development of a positive sense of identity are promoted and embedded in school experiences, programming, and environments", (3) "ensure that educators have access to experiences and resources that enhance their wellness in order for them to focus on excellence in teaching" (5) "that the strengths and realities of small communities are recognized and built upon in order to ensure equitable, quality education in all NWT communities" and (9) "work with Aboriginal governments to be successful as they draw down jurisdiction over the education of their people".
The document does include other directions that will be more familiar to those working in school systems based on competition, traditional rote style learning and even narrow, behavioural modification approaches to promote health. These include research-based curriculum, better data and use of those data in decision-making, and more monitoring/reporting to provide better accountability. However, these traditional, more industrial approaches to education are firmly based and and linked within this indigenous, holistic, whole child approach, that in turn, is rooted in a deep understanding the indigenous and rural, northern communities served by the schools in this system. To read more about the NWT education renewal, start at this web page. Comments
Manitoba's Inter-Ministry Healthy Child Agency: An Effective Structure & Strategy built on Relationships 18/6/2014
One of the major challenges in sustaining and integrating health and social programs within education systems is the tendency in government to create and maintain "silos" of programs, often delivered in isolation or even competition with each other. Most governments create committees to encourage coordination but they often fail, or they focus on only one problem at a time. The Manitoba Healthy Child Agency, a strategy established in law in 2007, is an exception to this rule. The slogan on Manitoba license plates tells the world about "Friendly Manitoba". More than just words, this slogan actually reflects a culture and customs in the province, one which was born in Canada's harshest winters and bred by generations of immigrants who had to rely on each other. So, perhaps, it is this culture of cooperation that enables Healthy Child Manitoba (HCM) to be as effective as an inter-ministry agency, coordinating several ministers and ministries, in a "whole of government" strategy. Other factors could include their requirement to report results every five years, its research, innovation and knowledge development capacity, and its combination of programs (as opposed to framework documents) that are delivered hands-on and delegated ways. As well, the Healthy Child inter-ministry program has its own legislation, entitled the Healthy Child Manitoba Act, thereby giving its coordination work legal authority and requirements to report every five years on progress. The HCM web site describes its work as follows: " in 2000, the provincial government implemented the Healthy Child Manitoba (HCM) Strategy – a network of programs and supports for children, youth and families. This nationally recognized strategy was set in legislation under The Healthy Child Manitoba Act in 2007.Led by the Healthy Child Committee of Cabinet, Healthy Child Manitoba bridges departments and governments and, together with the community, works to improve the well-being of Manitoba's children and youth. HCM focuses on child-centred public policy through the integration of financial and community-based family supports.In addition to these cross-sectoral government structures, The HCM Act also continues the work of cross-sectoral community structures, including Parent-Child Coalitions and the Provincial Healthy Child Advisory Committee (PHCAC). HCM researches best practices and models and adapts these to Manitoba's unique situation. It strengthens provincial policies and programs for healthy child and adolescent development, from the prenatal period to adulthood. HCM then evaluates programs and services to find the most effective ways to achieve the best possible outcomes for Manitoba children, families, and communities."Comments
One of the major challenges in sustaining and integrating health and social programs within education systems is the tendency in government to create and maintain "silos" of programs, often delivered in isolation or even competition with each other. Most governments create committees to encourage coordination but they often fail, or they focus on only one problem at a time. The Manitoba Healthy Child Agency, a strategy established in law in 2007, is an exception to this rule. The slogan on Manitoba license plates tells the world about "Friendly Manitoba". More than just words, this slogan actually reflects a culture and customs in the province, one which was born in Canada's harshest winters and bred by generations of immigrants who had to rely on each other. So, perhaps, it is this culture of cooperation that enables Healthy Child Manitoba (HCM) to be as effective as an inter-ministry agency, coordinating several ministers and ministries, in a "whole of government" strategy. Other factors could include their requirement to report results every five years, its research, innovation and knowledge development capacity, and its combination of programs (as opposed to framework documents) that are delivered hands-on and delegated ways. As well, the Healthy Child inter-ministry program has its own legislation, entitled the Healthy Child Manitoba Act, thereby giving its coordination work legal authority and requirements to report every five years on progress. The HCM web site describes its work as follows: " in 2000, the provincial government implemented the Healthy Child Manitoba (HCM) Strategy – a network of programs and supports for children, youth and families. This nationally recognized strategy was set in legislation under The Healthy Child Manitoba Act in 2007.Led by the Healthy Child Committee of Cabinet, Healthy Child Manitoba bridges departments and governments and, together with the community, works to improve the well-being of Manitoba's children and youth. HCM focuses on child-centred public policy through the integration of financial and community-based family supports.In addition to these cross-sectoral government structures, The HCM Act also continues the work of cross-sectoral community structures, including Parent-Child Coalitions and the Provincial Healthy Child Advisory Committee (PHCAC). HCM researches best practices and models and adapts these to Manitoba's unique situation. It strengthens provincial policies and programs for healthy child and adolescent development, from the prenatal period to adulthood. HCM then evaluates programs and services to find the most effective ways to achieve the best possible outcomes for Manitoba children, families, and communities."Comments
Health, Well-being Part of Renewed Ontario Education Goals 17/6/2014
The news release describing the new Ontario Government vision for education, Achieving Excellence includes well-being as one of the three sub-headings for the release. The release itself includes these two points among the four used to provide examples of how the new educational policy will be implemented. (The fact that health and well-being are featured so prominently bodes well for the notion that the education system in Ontario will truly focus on student health and that the education system will become the driving, coordinating mechanism/agency for school health promotion as well as for school-focused safety, equity and community development.)
The news release describing the new Ontario Government vision for education, Achieving Excellence includes well-being as one of the three sub-headings for the release. The release itself includes these two points among the four used to provide examples of how the new educational policy will be implemented. (The fact that health and well-being are featured so prominently bodes well for the notion that the education system in Ontario will truly focus on student health and that the education system will become the driving, coordinating mechanism/agency for school health promotion as well as for school-focused safety, equity and community development.)
- Working with education and health partners to improve and expand health services for students and families
- Working with partners inside and outside of school to encourage students to be physically active and practise healthy lifestyles
- Achieving Excellence: Children and students of all ages will achieve high levels of academic performance, acquire valuable skills and demonstrate good citizenship. Educators will be supported in learning continuously and will be recognized as among the best in the world.
- Ensuring Equity: All children and students will be inspired to reach their full potential, with access to rich learning experiences that begin at birth and continue into adulthood.
- Promoting Well-Being: All children and students will develop enhanced mental and physical health, a positive sense of self and belonging, and the skills to make positive choices.
- Enhancing Public Confidence: Ontarians will continue to have confidence in a publicly funded education system that helps develop new generations of confident, capable and caring citizens.
Integrating student support services: Transforming student learning 13/6/2014
A part of the ASCD-ISHN global dialogue on integrating health & social programs more effectively within education systems has focused on the need for better coordinated among the various student support services. A recent UCLA planning guide takes this coordination a major step forward and connects it to student learning and success. The guide suggests that "New directions for student and learning supports are key to systemically addressing barriers to learning and teaching. The aim is to unify and then develop a comprehensive and equitable system of student/learning supports at every school. This guide incorporates years of research and prototype development and a variety of examples from trailblazing efforts at local, district, regional, and state levels. The prototypes and examples can be adopted/adapted to design and plan ways to transform the role schools play." The UCLA analysis of the causes of this fragmentation is revealing. They suggest that "While the range of student and learning supports at schools varies; some have few, some have many. In some instances, community services (e.g.,health and social services, after-school programs) are connected to a school. However, given their sparsity, agencies endeavoring to bring community services to schools usually must limit their activities to enhancing supports at a couple of school campuses in a neighborhood. Moreover, there often is not a good connection between community services and the work of the many school and district-based student support staff whose roles include preventing, intervening early, and treating students with learning, behavior, and emotional problems. Such school employed personnel include psychologists, counselors, social workers, nurses, dropout/graduation support staff, special educators, and others. When school and community efforts are poorly connected, community and school personnel tend to work with the same students and families with little shared planning or ongoing communication. Ironically, some education policy makers have developed the false impression that community resources are ready and able to meet all the support needs of students and their families. This impression already has contributed to serious cuts related to student supports (e.g ., districts laying off student support personnel) in the struggle to balance tight school budgets.An outgrowth of all this has been increased fragmentation, as well ascounterproductive competition for sparse resources related to student and learning supports. Underlying the fragmentation is a fundamental policy problem. That problem is the long-standing and continuing marginalization in school improvement policy and practice of most efforts to directly use student and learning supports to address barriers to learning and teaching and re-engage disconnected students. " The UCLA research and planning guide calls for a trans-formative change student support services that is based on these four principles:
1) Expand the policy framework for school improvement to fully integrate, as primary and essential, a component that brings together the supports for addressing barriers to learning and teaching and re-engaging disconnected students.
(2) Reframe student and learning support interventions to create a unified and comprehensive system of learning supports in classrooms and school-wide.
(3) Rework the operational infrastructure to ensure effective daily implementation and ongoing development of a unified and comprehensive system for addressing barriers to learning and teaching.
(4) Enhance approaches for systemic change in ways that ensure effective implementation, replication to scale, and sustainability Read more>> Comments
A part of the ASCD-ISHN global dialogue on integrating health & social programs more effectively within education systems has focused on the need for better coordinated among the various student support services. A recent UCLA planning guide takes this coordination a major step forward and connects it to student learning and success. The guide suggests that "New directions for student and learning supports are key to systemically addressing barriers to learning and teaching. The aim is to unify and then develop a comprehensive and equitable system of student/learning supports at every school. This guide incorporates years of research and prototype development and a variety of examples from trailblazing efforts at local, district, regional, and state levels. The prototypes and examples can be adopted/adapted to design and plan ways to transform the role schools play." The UCLA analysis of the causes of this fragmentation is revealing. They suggest that "While the range of student and learning supports at schools varies; some have few, some have many. In some instances, community services (e.g.,health and social services, after-school programs) are connected to a school. However, given their sparsity, agencies endeavoring to bring community services to schools usually must limit their activities to enhancing supports at a couple of school campuses in a neighborhood. Moreover, there often is not a good connection between community services and the work of the many school and district-based student support staff whose roles include preventing, intervening early, and treating students with learning, behavior, and emotional problems. Such school employed personnel include psychologists, counselors, social workers, nurses, dropout/graduation support staff, special educators, and others. When school and community efforts are poorly connected, community and school personnel tend to work with the same students and families with little shared planning or ongoing communication. Ironically, some education policy makers have developed the false impression that community resources are ready and able to meet all the support needs of students and their families. This impression already has contributed to serious cuts related to student supports (e.g ., districts laying off student support personnel) in the struggle to balance tight school budgets.An outgrowth of all this has been increased fragmentation, as well ascounterproductive competition for sparse resources related to student and learning supports. Underlying the fragmentation is a fundamental policy problem. That problem is the long-standing and continuing marginalization in school improvement policy and practice of most efforts to directly use student and learning supports to address barriers to learning and teaching and re-engage disconnected students. " The UCLA research and planning guide calls for a trans-formative change student support services that is based on these four principles:
1) Expand the policy framework for school improvement to fully integrate, as primary and essential, a component that brings together the supports for addressing barriers to learning and teaching and re-engaging disconnected students.
(2) Reframe student and learning support interventions to create a unified and comprehensive system of learning supports in classrooms and school-wide.
(3) Rework the operational infrastructure to ensure effective daily implementation and ongoing development of a unified and comprehensive system for addressing barriers to learning and teaching.
(4) Enhance approaches for systemic change in ways that ensure effective implementation, replication to scale, and sustainability Read more>> Comments
Nutrition Policy & Education Implementation in Loosely-Coupled Systems 10/6/2014
An article in Issue #3, 2014 of Health Promotion Practice illustrates the challenges of working in loosely-coupled education and health systems. This Canadian study examined policy documents on school nutrition and education in Canada at the federal, provincial and regional or local authority levels. The researchers note that "Results reveal distinct differences across federal, provincial, and regional levels. The availability of nutritious food in schools and having nutrition education as part of the curriculum were key components of the physical environment across federal and provincial levels. Federal and provincial priorities are guided by a health promotion framework and adopting a partnership approach to policy implementation. Gaps in regional-level policy include incorporating nutrition education in the curriculum and making the link between nutrition and obesity." Read more>> Comments
An article in Issue #3, 2014 of Health Promotion Practice illustrates the challenges of working in loosely-coupled education and health systems. This Canadian study examined policy documents on school nutrition and education in Canada at the federal, provincial and regional or local authority levels. The researchers note that "Results reveal distinct differences across federal, provincial, and regional levels. The availability of nutritious food in schools and having nutrition education as part of the curriculum were key components of the physical environment across federal and provincial levels. Federal and provincial priorities are guided by a health promotion framework and adopting a partnership approach to policy implementation. Gaps in regional-level policy include incorporating nutrition education in the curriculum and making the link between nutrition and obesity." Read more>> Comments
Sustaining a Program After a Research Project 10/6/2014
An article in the May 2014 issue of the Journal of School Health reports on the factors that contribute to program sustainability in a school after a research project (with additional funding for the school) is completed. The researchers report that " This study examined the sustainability of New Moves, a school-based program aimed at decreasing weight-related problems in adolescent girls. Ten schools participated in the sustainability study. Teachers completed a survey and interview, and research staff observed 1 physical education (PE) class within 2 years of the study's completion. All schools continued all-girls PE classes using New Moves components following the study period. Fewer schools continued the nutrition and social support classroom modules and individual coaching sessions while no schools continued lunch get-togethers. Program components were sustained in both New Moves intervention schools and control schools. Programs are most likely to be sustained if they (1) fit into the current school structure, (2) receive buy-in by teachers, and (3) require minimal additional funds or staff time. Providing control schools with minimal training and intervention resources was sufficient to continue program components if staff perceived the program was important. Read more>> Comments
An article in the May 2014 issue of the Journal of School Health reports on the factors that contribute to program sustainability in a school after a research project (with additional funding for the school) is completed. The researchers report that " This study examined the sustainability of New Moves, a school-based program aimed at decreasing weight-related problems in adolescent girls. Ten schools participated in the sustainability study. Teachers completed a survey and interview, and research staff observed 1 physical education (PE) class within 2 years of the study's completion. All schools continued all-girls PE classes using New Moves components following the study period. Fewer schools continued the nutrition and social support classroom modules and individual coaching sessions while no schools continued lunch get-togethers. Program components were sustained in both New Moves intervention schools and control schools. Programs are most likely to be sustained if they (1) fit into the current school structure, (2) receive buy-in by teachers, and (3) require minimal additional funds or staff time. Providing control schools with minimal training and intervention resources was sufficient to continue program components if staff perceived the program was important. Read more>> Comments
Report on School Health Coordination: USA 2012 26/5/2014
SHPPS is a national survey periodically conducted to assess school health policies and practices at the state, district, school, and classroom levels. The 2012 study collected data at the state and district levels only. School-and classroom-level data collection will take place in 2014. This report is on school health coordination activities at the ministry and school district levels. 66.0% of states had a person, such as a state school health coordinator, responsible for overseeing or coordinating all of the state’s school health and safety policies and activities. 53.7% of districts had a district-level school health coordinator who oversees the district’s health and safety policies and activities. 68.8% of states had one or more than one group (e.g., a committee, council, or team) of people formally charged with coordinating state-level school health-related activities. 65.4% of districts had one or more than one group (e.g., a school health council, committee, or team) at the district level that offered guidance on the development of policies or coordinated activities that are health-related. Read more>> Comments
SHPPS is a national survey periodically conducted to assess school health policies and practices at the state, district, school, and classroom levels. The 2012 study collected data at the state and district levels only. School-and classroom-level data collection will take place in 2014. This report is on school health coordination activities at the ministry and school district levels. 66.0% of states had a person, such as a state school health coordinator, responsible for overseeing or coordinating all of the state’s school health and safety policies and activities. 53.7% of districts had a district-level school health coordinator who oversees the district’s health and safety policies and activities. 68.8% of states had one or more than one group (e.g., a committee, council, or team) of people formally charged with coordinating state-level school health-related activities. 65.4% of districts had one or more than one group (e.g., a school health council, committee, or team) at the district level that offered guidance on the development of policies or coordinated activities that are health-related. Read more>> Comments
Cost-Benefit Study on School Nursing: $1 invested, $2.20 saved 26/5/2014
The Massachusetts Essential School Health Services (ESHS) program to demonstrate the cost-benefit of school health services delivered by full-time registered nurses. Standard cost-benefit analysis methods were used to estimate the costs and benefits of the ESHS program compared with a scenario involving no school nursing service. Data from the ESHS program report and other published studies were used. A total of 477 163 students in 933 Massachusetts ESHS schools in 78 school districts received school health services during the 2009-2010 school year. Costs of nurse staffing and medical supplies incurred by 78 ESHS districts during the 2009-2010 school year were measured as program costs. Program benefits were measured as savings in medical procedure costs, teachers’ productivity loss costs associated with addressing student health issues, and parents’ productivity loss costs associated with student early dismissal and medication administration. During the 2009-2010 school year, at a cost of $79.0 million, the ESHS program prevented an estimated $20.0 million in medical care costs, $28.1 million in parents’ productivity loss, and $129.1 million in teachers’ productivity loss. As a result, the program generated a net benefit of $98.2 million to society. For every dollar invested in the program, society would gain $2.20. Eighty-nine percent of simulation trials resulted in a net benefit. Read more>> Comments
The Massachusetts Essential School Health Services (ESHS) program to demonstrate the cost-benefit of school health services delivered by full-time registered nurses. Standard cost-benefit analysis methods were used to estimate the costs and benefits of the ESHS program compared with a scenario involving no school nursing service. Data from the ESHS program report and other published studies were used. A total of 477 163 students in 933 Massachusetts ESHS schools in 78 school districts received school health services during the 2009-2010 school year. Costs of nurse staffing and medical supplies incurred by 78 ESHS districts during the 2009-2010 school year were measured as program costs. Program benefits were measured as savings in medical procedure costs, teachers’ productivity loss costs associated with addressing student health issues, and parents’ productivity loss costs associated with student early dismissal and medication administration. During the 2009-2010 school year, at a cost of $79.0 million, the ESHS program prevented an estimated $20.0 million in medical care costs, $28.1 million in parents’ productivity loss, and $129.1 million in teachers’ productivity loss. As a result, the program generated a net benefit of $98.2 million to society. For every dollar invested in the program, society would gain $2.20. Eighty-nine percent of simulation trials resulted in a net benefit. Read more>> Comments
Quebec Researchers, Government Develop new SH Model to Integrate within Education Systems 22/5/2014
A team of Quebec researchers and government officials has been working to develop a new model for school health promotion that results in better integration with the goals and mandates of school systems and effective interventions based on sound theoretical foundations and essential knowledge gleaned from many years of experience. An interim report and synthesis, published in French, is titled " For integrated and effective promotion and prevention interventions in the school context: theoretical foundations, model and essential knowledge". In order to improve the compatibility of health promoting and prevention interventions with the mission of the school, its policies and operations, the National Institute of Public Health (INSPQ ) was given the following mandate .
Working from the synthesis of expert recommendations in the report Success , health and well -being: to act effectively in the school context produced by the INSPQ in 2010 ( Palluy et al , 2010. ), the INSPQ is to:
Read the interim report (Published in French) Comments
A team of Quebec researchers and government officials has been working to develop a new model for school health promotion that results in better integration with the goals and mandates of school systems and effective interventions based on sound theoretical foundations and essential knowledge gleaned from many years of experience. An interim report and synthesis, published in French, is titled " For integrated and effective promotion and prevention interventions in the school context: theoretical foundations, model and essential knowledge". In order to improve the compatibility of health promoting and prevention interventions with the mission of the school, its policies and operations, the National Institute of Public Health (INSPQ ) was given the following mandate .
Working from the synthesis of expert recommendations in the report Success , health and well -being: to act effectively in the school context produced by the INSPQ in 2010 ( Palluy et al , 2010. ), the INSPQ is to:
- Identify the essential elements common to all health topics youth from a model that incorporates the determinants of health and educational success according to the phases of development of young people - from preschool to grade 5 secondary - and intervention (youth, school, family, community) levels;
- Identify best practices in relation to these common essential elements;
- Confirm with experts and key players of the two networks (health and social services , and education) model, essential to all health topics common elements among youth and best practices related thereto .
Read the interim report (Published in French) Comments
Understanding Teachers in Low Income Countries like Tanzania 10/4/2013
An article in Issue #1, 2013 of the International Journal of Education Development uses the \\'Capability Approach\', developed by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, as well as a realist review to assess and explain the quality of teacher practices in Tanzania. The authors suggest that the apparent gap between perceptions (teachers are not performing well enough vs the teachers don't have enough resources) The authors conclude that " By unpacking these components of teachers’ behaviours, and understanding the underlying structures, mechanisms, tendencies and counter-tendencies that produce certain empirically apprehended actions, we can start to see entry points in which measures to improve teachers’ professional performance could be seeded. First, interventions should acknowledge teachers’ causal mechanisms because these are the valued beings and doings that are central to the lives that teachers want to lead; if interventions could aid in the achievement of these functionings, they would also aid in the reduction of some ‘deficient’ behaviours that are associated with their constraint. Secondly, interventions need to account for and address dominant counter-tendencies (or constraining conversion factors) that teachers face, as this will ground strategies in context, provide pragmatic solutions, and convince teachers that these measures are worth trying. Without acknowledgement of causal mechanisms or counter-tendencies, it is highly likely that technocratic fixes that attempt to alter certain criticised practices will not be sustained, as teachers will revert to old ways. The reason being, these criticised ‘old ways’ are grounded in the valued functionings and conversion factors that consistently generate much of teachers’ behaviour." Read more>> Comments
An article in Issue #1, 2013 of the International Journal of Education Development uses the \\'Capability Approach\', developed by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, as well as a realist review to assess and explain the quality of teacher practices in Tanzania. The authors suggest that the apparent gap between perceptions (teachers are not performing well enough vs the teachers don't have enough resources) The authors conclude that " By unpacking these components of teachers’ behaviours, and understanding the underlying structures, mechanisms, tendencies and counter-tendencies that produce certain empirically apprehended actions, we can start to see entry points in which measures to improve teachers’ professional performance could be seeded. First, interventions should acknowledge teachers’ causal mechanisms because these are the valued beings and doings that are central to the lives that teachers want to lead; if interventions could aid in the achievement of these functionings, they would also aid in the reduction of some ‘deficient’ behaviours that are associated with their constraint. Secondly, interventions need to account for and address dominant counter-tendencies (or constraining conversion factors) that teachers face, as this will ground strategies in context, provide pragmatic solutions, and convince teachers that these measures are worth trying. Without acknowledgement of causal mechanisms or counter-tendencies, it is highly likely that technocratic fixes that attempt to alter certain criticised practices will not be sustained, as teachers will revert to old ways. The reason being, these criticised ‘old ways’ are grounded in the valued functionings and conversion factors that consistently generate much of teachers’ behaviour." Read more>> Comments
Complexity & Challenges in Multi-System Partnerships on Alcohol 2/4/2013
Working across multiple systems to prevent a problem or promote health is not easy, even with collaboration mandated from above. An article in Issue #1, 2013 of Critical Public Health describes some of those challenges in an analysis of alcohol abuse prevention partnerships in England. The authors report that: "Tackling alcohol-related harms crosses agency and professional boundaries, requiring collaboration between health, criminal justice, education and social welfare institutions. It is a key component of most multi-component programmes in the United States, Australia and Europe. The findings are based on a mix of open discussion interviews with key informants and on semi-structured telephone interviews with 90 professionals with roles in local alcohol partnerships. Interviewees reported the challenges of working within a complex network of interlinked partnerships, often within hierarchies under an umbrella partnership, some of them having a formal duty of partnership. The new alcohol strategy has emerged at a time of extensive reorganisation within health, social care and criminal justice structures. Further development of a partnership model for policy implementation would benefit from consideration of the incompatibility arising from required collaboration and from tensions between institutional and professional cultures. A clearer analysis of which aspects of partnership working provide ‘added value’ is needed. Read more> Comments
Working across multiple systems to prevent a problem or promote health is not easy, even with collaboration mandated from above. An article in Issue #1, 2013 of Critical Public Health describes some of those challenges in an analysis of alcohol abuse prevention partnerships in England. The authors report that: "Tackling alcohol-related harms crosses agency and professional boundaries, requiring collaboration between health, criminal justice, education and social welfare institutions. It is a key component of most multi-component programmes in the United States, Australia and Europe. The findings are based on a mix of open discussion interviews with key informants and on semi-structured telephone interviews with 90 professionals with roles in local alcohol partnerships. Interviewees reported the challenges of working within a complex network of interlinked partnerships, often within hierarchies under an umbrella partnership, some of them having a formal duty of partnership. The new alcohol strategy has emerged at a time of extensive reorganisation within health, social care and criminal justice structures. Further development of a partnership model for policy implementation would benefit from consideration of the incompatibility arising from required collaboration and from tensions between institutional and professional cultures. A clearer analysis of which aspects of partnership working provide ‘added value’ is needed. Read more> Comments
Health, Social Development and the Goals of Education: Why We Need to Intervene in the Debate 21/3/2014
A new report from the 21st Century Learning Initiative summarizes the debates about the goals of schooling and proposes a transformative change. The Initiaitve has been active and widespread in many countries around the world. Advocates, practitioners, policy-makers and officials who support health and social development through schools based on the development of the whole child should take the time to review this paper. It begins with this overview: "Questions about school reform are being asked with increasing frequency in many countries, especially those seeking to adapt to rapidly changing social, economic and political turmoil. A range of indicators suggest, however, that after a couple of decades of intensive effort and vast expenditure of funds the results of several English-speaking countries remain problematic.3. Given what we now know from research into human learning, it would seem that what we need is not further school reform, but a radical transformation of the education system based on the complimentary roles of home, community and school. To guide future policy we must recognise that the present structure of British, essentially English, education (a structure that has significantly shaped education in many English-speaking countries) is a result of numerous decisions taken in times past by policymakers as they reacted to social and economic environments very different to those of today John Abbott, the leader of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, is the author of the paper and begins with this graphic metaphor:
"Lecturing widely around Britain, North America and Australia in the mid-1990s, I proposed a graphic metaphor: Do we want our children to grow up as battery hens or free-range chickens?" He then begins with the argument that "To develop a system that reduces the individual’s adaptability so as to enhance a set of special skills – a battery hen-type schooling – requires a dangerous certainty about the future. If there is any doubt about the kind of world our children will inherit, then a free-range approach that encourages adaptability and creativity is not only desirable but essential." Abbot offers another metaphor. "Another way of challenging ourselves to think about what we are doing, is to ask whether we see children as pilgrims or customers. Pilgrim or customer? Creators of their own material and eternaldestiny, or consumers of a range of goods and services as defined by someone else? Thinkers able to take responsibility for their own actions, and willing to accept responsibility for working for the common good, or someone who, in their frustration that nothing so far pulled off the shelves of a supermarket quite suits their tastes, searches for yet another perfect brand? Quoting John Milton, Abbot and the Initiative call for a "A complete and generous education" Read more>> Comments
A new report from the 21st Century Learning Initiative summarizes the debates about the goals of schooling and proposes a transformative change. The Initiaitve has been active and widespread in many countries around the world. Advocates, practitioners, policy-makers and officials who support health and social development through schools based on the development of the whole child should take the time to review this paper. It begins with this overview: "Questions about school reform are being asked with increasing frequency in many countries, especially those seeking to adapt to rapidly changing social, economic and political turmoil. A range of indicators suggest, however, that after a couple of decades of intensive effort and vast expenditure of funds the results of several English-speaking countries remain problematic.3. Given what we now know from research into human learning, it would seem that what we need is not further school reform, but a radical transformation of the education system based on the complimentary roles of home, community and school. To guide future policy we must recognise that the present structure of British, essentially English, education (a structure that has significantly shaped education in many English-speaking countries) is a result of numerous decisions taken in times past by policymakers as they reacted to social and economic environments very different to those of today John Abbott, the leader of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, is the author of the paper and begins with this graphic metaphor:
"Lecturing widely around Britain, North America and Australia in the mid-1990s, I proposed a graphic metaphor: Do we want our children to grow up as battery hens or free-range chickens?" He then begins with the argument that "To develop a system that reduces the individual’s adaptability so as to enhance a set of special skills – a battery hen-type schooling – requires a dangerous certainty about the future. If there is any doubt about the kind of world our children will inherit, then a free-range approach that encourages adaptability and creativity is not only desirable but essential." Abbot offers another metaphor. "Another way of challenging ourselves to think about what we are doing, is to ask whether we see children as pilgrims or customers. Pilgrim or customer? Creators of their own material and eternaldestiny, or consumers of a range of goods and services as defined by someone else? Thinkers able to take responsibility for their own actions, and willing to accept responsibility for working for the common good, or someone who, in their frustration that nothing so far pulled off the shelves of a supermarket quite suits their tastes, searches for yet another perfect brand? Quoting John Milton, Abbot and the Initiative call for a "A complete and generous education" Read more>> Comments
Exercising Power over Parent Excuse Notes from PE Classes 11/3/2014
A controversial article published in Issue #1, 2014 of the European Physical Education Review suggests that students who have been excused from PE classes by a note from their parents should still be required to change into their PE uniforms or clothes and attend the classes. The author suggests that "The notion of power as a theoretical construct emerged as a result of constant comparison between the testimonies of the parents, pupils, teachers and trainee teachers, highlighting the seemingly ‘agreed acceptance’ of excuse notes by those key stakeholders involved in pupil participation. It is perceived that the policy of excuse notes attributes power to parents and pupils to self-exempt from participating in PE". The author also notes that "Parents will provide an excuse note for their child if they do not believe PE holds much value. The condoning of pupil self-exemption by parents is influenced by their values towards PE, embedded by their own school experiences and dispositions." The controversy arises from this analysis of power that assumes that the school has the power and the right to over-ride parental wishes on participation in a certain type of education. Imagine the reaction if parents wishes about sex education or religious education were also discounted. Rather than imposing a form of mild coercion, it might be better if deeper analysis of the parent and child negative experiences in PE were addressed. Read more>> Comments
A controversial article published in Issue #1, 2014 of the European Physical Education Review suggests that students who have been excused from PE classes by a note from their parents should still be required to change into their PE uniforms or clothes and attend the classes. The author suggests that "The notion of power as a theoretical construct emerged as a result of constant comparison between the testimonies of the parents, pupils, teachers and trainee teachers, highlighting the seemingly ‘agreed acceptance’ of excuse notes by those key stakeholders involved in pupil participation. It is perceived that the policy of excuse notes attributes power to parents and pupils to self-exempt from participating in PE". The author also notes that "Parents will provide an excuse note for their child if they do not believe PE holds much value. The condoning of pupil self-exemption by parents is influenced by their values towards PE, embedded by their own school experiences and dispositions." The controversy arises from this analysis of power that assumes that the school has the power and the right to over-ride parental wishes on participation in a certain type of education. Imagine the reaction if parents wishes about sex education or religious education were also discounted. Rather than imposing a form of mild coercion, it might be better if deeper analysis of the parent and child negative experiences in PE were addressed. Read more>> Comments
Connecting Integrated Student Support Services to Overall School Improvement 4/3/2014
One of the themes being developed in our discussions is how to integrate health and social programs within education systems. A recent report from the US-based Child Trends organization has described how an integrated set of student services is how the health, social services, mental health and other sectors can and should contribute to student success. If these various services can cooperate and deliver such support in a concerted manner, it would assure educators of their ongoing commitment to working with and within schools. A summary of the Child Trend report and the full research review are available from Child trends. These documents define ISS “representing an emerging field of practice that aims to address persistent disparities in educational achievement and attainment. ISS is a school-based approach to promoting students’ academic achievement and educational attainment by coordinating a seamless system of wraparound supports for the child, the family, and schools, to target student’s academic and non-academic barriers to learning." That report focuses on nine programs:Beacon Initiative, Children’s Aid Society Community Schools, City Connects, Comer School Development Program, Communities In Schools, CoZi Initiative, Say Yes to Education, School of the 21st Century and University‑Assisted Community Schools.. However, the UCLA Center on School Mental Health, a long-time advocate for comprehensive approaches to removing barriers to learning, strongly suggests that integrated student supports (ISS) alone "do not effectively address the fundamental policy and practice concerns about the consequences of pursuing the limited approach that the concept of integrated student supports engenders with respect to enhancing equity of opportunity for students to succeed at school and beyond". The UCLA analysis suggests that "the Child Trends report "doesn’t consider the implications of the fact that in most schools student support is primarily provided by school and district-based student support personnel (e.g., school psychologists, school counselors, school social workers, school nurses, school dropout/graduation support, special educators, and many more school personnel who play a role in prevention, early intervention, and treatment of students with severe and chronic problems. The UCLA "emphasis continues to be on moving toward policy and practice for addressing a wide range barriers to student development and learning and to teachers teaching. Making this a reality involves much more than integrating already over-committed community services into schools. It requires transforming the role schools play and weaving together the broadest range of school and community resources for enhancing student and learning supports. In other words, the support services that must be provided by other agencies, which are vital as a long term commitment from those sectors, must be fully integrated within the goals and priorities of the school systems. Further, school systems must be committed to ensuring that all children are well-served by their schooling. Comments
One of the themes being developed in our discussions is how to integrate health and social programs within education systems. A recent report from the US-based Child Trends organization has described how an integrated set of student services is how the health, social services, mental health and other sectors can and should contribute to student success. If these various services can cooperate and deliver such support in a concerted manner, it would assure educators of their ongoing commitment to working with and within schools. A summary of the Child Trend report and the full research review are available from Child trends. These documents define ISS “representing an emerging field of practice that aims to address persistent disparities in educational achievement and attainment. ISS is a school-based approach to promoting students’ academic achievement and educational attainment by coordinating a seamless system of wraparound supports for the child, the family, and schools, to target student’s academic and non-academic barriers to learning." That report focuses on nine programs:Beacon Initiative, Children’s Aid Society Community Schools, City Connects, Comer School Development Program, Communities In Schools, CoZi Initiative, Say Yes to Education, School of the 21st Century and University‑Assisted Community Schools.. However, the UCLA Center on School Mental Health, a long-time advocate for comprehensive approaches to removing barriers to learning, strongly suggests that integrated student supports (ISS) alone "do not effectively address the fundamental policy and practice concerns about the consequences of pursuing the limited approach that the concept of integrated student supports engenders with respect to enhancing equity of opportunity for students to succeed at school and beyond". The UCLA analysis suggests that "the Child Trends report "doesn’t consider the implications of the fact that in most schools student support is primarily provided by school and district-based student support personnel (e.g., school psychologists, school counselors, school social workers, school nurses, school dropout/graduation support, special educators, and many more school personnel who play a role in prevention, early intervention, and treatment of students with severe and chronic problems. The UCLA "emphasis continues to be on moving toward policy and practice for addressing a wide range barriers to student development and learning and to teachers teaching. Making this a reality involves much more than integrating already over-committed community services into schools. It requires transforming the role schools play and weaving together the broadest range of school and community resources for enhancing student and learning supports. In other words, the support services that must be provided by other agencies, which are vital as a long term commitment from those sectors, must be fully integrated within the goals and priorities of the school systems. Further, school systems must be committed to ensuring that all children are well-served by their schooling. Comments
PISA Results Cannot be Used to Judge Education Systems 27/1/2014
In a thorough and provocative article in the Winter 2014 issue of the AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice, the author begins with these words: " In this article I argue, with evidence, that the scores and rankings from PISA are not important and that they cannot give policy makers or educators meaningful insights into student preparedness for the global economy." He then goes on later in the article to say that "The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2013, p. 265), the private entity that develops and vends the PISA, explains that policy makers should not use results either to indict or commend education systems. Furthermore, they should not use the results to make important policy decisions. In fact, the OECD authors explain that PISA results are due to a combination of variables, including but not limited to schooling, life experiences/home environment, poverty, access to early childhood programs, and health." After further analysis and quoting of the PISA authors about their own report, the analysis concludes that " So, if the vendors of PISA repeatedly warn that (a) PISA is not aligned to school curricula, (b) the scores and ranks are influenced strongly by poverty and selection bias, (c) the skills are left over from the 19th and early 20th centuries, and (d) one test of a 15- year-old child cannot possibly represent the future success of that child or of a country, then what does PISA really tell us about the quality of a school system? Not much." Yet, for those who advocate for health and social development through schools, the recent report is already putting pressure on the school systems to do more about math in schools. Read more>> Comments
In a thorough and provocative article in the Winter 2014 issue of the AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice, the author begins with these words: " In this article I argue, with evidence, that the scores and rankings from PISA are not important and that they cannot give policy makers or educators meaningful insights into student preparedness for the global economy." He then goes on later in the article to say that "The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2013, p. 265), the private entity that develops and vends the PISA, explains that policy makers should not use results either to indict or commend education systems. Furthermore, they should not use the results to make important policy decisions. In fact, the OECD authors explain that PISA results are due to a combination of variables, including but not limited to schooling, life experiences/home environment, poverty, access to early childhood programs, and health." After further analysis and quoting of the PISA authors about their own report, the analysis concludes that " So, if the vendors of PISA repeatedly warn that (a) PISA is not aligned to school curricula, (b) the scores and ranks are influenced strongly by poverty and selection bias, (c) the skills are left over from the 19th and early 20th centuries, and (d) one test of a 15- year-old child cannot possibly represent the future success of that child or of a country, then what does PISA really tell us about the quality of a school system? Not much." Yet, for those who advocate for health and social development through schools, the recent report is already putting pressure on the school systems to do more about math in schools. Read more>> Comments
Local Health Authorities Use of Research Evidence on CSH 16/1/2014
The research supporting multi-intervention approaches and programs in school health promotion is abundant and long standing. Recent research is underlining the need for long-term, systemic planning and investments in capacity-building in areas such as coordination, work force development, inter-agency agreements, coordinated policy development and joint issue management. However, experience in the real world suggests that local health authorities (LHA) do not follow that research and instead, constantly try to implement short-term, project-style interventions based on a "training, then hoping" strategy. Four articles in Issue #6, 2013 of American Journal of Preventive Medicine examine evidence-based decision-making in LHA's and provide clues for this cognitive dissonance. One article examines the factors that affect evidence-based decision-making (EBDM) and found that "Although most people understood the concept, a relatively small number had substantial expertise and experience with its practice. Many indicated that they applied EBDM unevenly. Factors associated with use of EBDM included strong leadership; workforce capacity (number and skills); resources; funding and program mandates; political support; and access to data and program models suitable to community conditions." A second article found that "Local decision-making authority was perceived as greatly restricted by what public health activities were legally mandated and the categoric nature of funding sources, even as some leaders exercised deliberate strategic approaches. One’s workforce and board of health were also influential in making decisions regarding resource allocations. Programmatic mandates, funding restrictions, local stakeholders, and workforce capacity appear to trump factors such as research evidence and perceived community need in public health resource allocation." A third article suggested that LHA participation in a "Practice-based Research Network" will help in the implementation of research. A fourth article introduced the idea that LHA's could make use of local taxation revenue. Read More>> Comments
The research supporting multi-intervention approaches and programs in school health promotion is abundant and long standing. Recent research is underlining the need for long-term, systemic planning and investments in capacity-building in areas such as coordination, work force development, inter-agency agreements, coordinated policy development and joint issue management. However, experience in the real world suggests that local health authorities (LHA) do not follow that research and instead, constantly try to implement short-term, project-style interventions based on a "training, then hoping" strategy. Four articles in Issue #6, 2013 of American Journal of Preventive Medicine examine evidence-based decision-making in LHA's and provide clues for this cognitive dissonance. One article examines the factors that affect evidence-based decision-making (EBDM) and found that "Although most people understood the concept, a relatively small number had substantial expertise and experience with its practice. Many indicated that they applied EBDM unevenly. Factors associated with use of EBDM included strong leadership; workforce capacity (number and skills); resources; funding and program mandates; political support; and access to data and program models suitable to community conditions." A second article found that "Local decision-making authority was perceived as greatly restricted by what public health activities were legally mandated and the categoric nature of funding sources, even as some leaders exercised deliberate strategic approaches. One’s workforce and board of health were also influential in making decisions regarding resource allocations. Programmatic mandates, funding restrictions, local stakeholders, and workforce capacity appear to trump factors such as research evidence and perceived community need in public health resource allocation." A third article suggested that LHA participation in a "Practice-based Research Network" will help in the implementation of research. A fourth article introduced the idea that LHA's could make use of local taxation revenue. Read More>> Comments
Teacher Views & Ideas about Health & Health Education 8/1/2014
Two articles in Issue #6, 2013 of Health Education Journal explore teacher views and ideas about health and health education. The first article compared teacher views about health in several European and African countries. The researchers found that women, older teachers, better educated, elementary and language teachers were more apt to hold positive views about health, with significant differences existing between countries. The second article examined the ideas of over 100 Italian teachers, exploring "the relationships among teachers’ health representations, their ideas about health promotion, their working conditions and their involvement in health-promotion activities at school. The results show that teachers have ambiguous health representations; however, the traditional idea of health as absence of illness was prevalent among the teachers surveyed. Regarding health-promotion activities, the teachers seemed to prefer health education programmes based on informative techniques. Some representations of health were connected to the importance that teachers attributed to health promotion and to teachers’ participation in health-promotion activities. Teachers’ working conditions appear not to be related to their involvement in health promotion." Read more>> Comments
Two articles in Issue #6, 2013 of Health Education Journal explore teacher views and ideas about health and health education. The first article compared teacher views about health in several European and African countries. The researchers found that women, older teachers, better educated, elementary and language teachers were more apt to hold positive views about health, with significant differences existing between countries. The second article examined the ideas of over 100 Italian teachers, exploring "the relationships among teachers’ health representations, their ideas about health promotion, their working conditions and their involvement in health-promotion activities at school. The results show that teachers have ambiguous health representations; however, the traditional idea of health as absence of illness was prevalent among the teachers surveyed. Regarding health-promotion activities, the teachers seemed to prefer health education programmes based on informative techniques. Some representations of health were connected to the importance that teachers attributed to health promotion and to teachers’ participation in health-promotion activities. Teachers’ working conditions appear not to be related to their involvement in health promotion." Read more>> Comments
Sustainability of Programs Doubtful without Continued External Support 8/1/2014
Two articles in the November 2013 Issue of Preventing Chronic Disease cast doubt on whether public health and school health programs are sustainable without continuing external funding and staff support. The first article examines the sustainability of state obesity prevention programs after the discontinuation of a US federal granting program. Noting that program evaluation rarely occurs after such funding periods, the authors report "Many of the programs that continued to run after the grant expired operated at reduced capacity, either reaching fewer people or conducting fewer activities. Many states were able to find funding from other sources, this shift often resulted in priorities changing. Evaluation capacity suffered in all states. Nearly all states reported losing infrastructure to communicate widely with partners. All states reported a severe or complete loss of their ability to provide training and technical assistance to partners. Despite these reduced capacities, states reported several key resources that facilitated continued work on the state plan". In the second article, the study examined the impact of a US requirement for local wellness policies on activity and nutrition in rural Colorado elementary schools after five years. The researchers reported "modest changes", with "Minutes for PE and recess did not increase, nor did offerings of fresh fruits and vegetables. More schools adopted policies prohibiting teachers from taking recess away as punishment (9.7% in 2005 vs 38.5% in 2011, P = .02) or for making up missed instructional time, class work, or tests in other subjects (3.2% in 2005 vs 28.2% in 2011, P = .03). More schools scheduled recess before lunch (22.6% in 2005 vs 46.2% in 2011, P = .04) and developed policies for vending machines (42.9% in 2005 vs 85.7% in 2011, P = .01) and parties (21.4% in 2005 vs 57.9% in 2011, P = .004). Read more>> Comments
Two articles in the November 2013 Issue of Preventing Chronic Disease cast doubt on whether public health and school health programs are sustainable without continuing external funding and staff support. The first article examines the sustainability of state obesity prevention programs after the discontinuation of a US federal granting program. Noting that program evaluation rarely occurs after such funding periods, the authors report "Many of the programs that continued to run after the grant expired operated at reduced capacity, either reaching fewer people or conducting fewer activities. Many states were able to find funding from other sources, this shift often resulted in priorities changing. Evaluation capacity suffered in all states. Nearly all states reported losing infrastructure to communicate widely with partners. All states reported a severe or complete loss of their ability to provide training and technical assistance to partners. Despite these reduced capacities, states reported several key resources that facilitated continued work on the state plan". In the second article, the study examined the impact of a US requirement for local wellness policies on activity and nutrition in rural Colorado elementary schools after five years. The researchers reported "modest changes", with "Minutes for PE and recess did not increase, nor did offerings of fresh fruits and vegetables. More schools adopted policies prohibiting teachers from taking recess away as punishment (9.7% in 2005 vs 38.5% in 2011, P = .02) or for making up missed instructional time, class work, or tests in other subjects (3.2% in 2005 vs 28.2% in 2011, P = .03). More schools scheduled recess before lunch (22.6% in 2005 vs 46.2% in 2011, P = .04) and developed policies for vending machines (42.9% in 2005 vs 85.7% in 2011, P = .01) and parties (21.4% in 2005 vs 57.9% in 2011, P = .004). Read more>> Comments
Studying how health ministries use evidence-based prevention practices 3/1/2014
The protocol for a cross-border study of health ministry use of evidence-based practices in chronic disease prevention is presented in the December 2013 issue of Implementation Science. The authors state "Evidence-based public health approaches to prevent chronic diseases have been identified in recent decades and have the potential for high impact. Yet, barriers to implement prevention approaches persist as a result of multiple factors including lack of organizational support, limited resources, competing emerging priorities and crises, and limited skill among the public health workforce. The purpose of this study is to learn how best to promote the adoption of evidence based public health practice related to chronic disease prevention. This study has the potential to be innovative in several ways. This study will be among the first to provide the public health field with information about the facilitators and strategies that state level practitioners use in evidence based chronic disease prevention. Measures of dissemination among practitioners working in prevention of cancer and other chronic diseases are lacking [79-82]. This study will be among the first to develop, test, and utilize such measures. This study is among the first to apply Institutional Theory with frameworks used in public health, specifically Diffusion of Innovations and a knowledge transfer and utilization framework. The study has the potential for future large scale impact as it may identify effective ways to disseminate public health knowledge needed for EBDM processes in different contexts and help shorten the time between research evidence discovery and program application delivery." To this list of innovative aspects, we add one more. This is one of the first times that the subjects of the study are officials in health ministries, identifying their concerns, rather than focusing on front-line practitioners. At the same time, it should be noted that the specific focus of the study appears to be focused on whether the ministry officials are aware of and are using knowledge about better practices. Since knowledge exchange and transfer is only one of several system capacities required to implement and maintain quality improvements (others include coordinated policy, assignment of coordinators, formal and informal mechanisms for cooperation, ongoing work force development, regular monitoring/reporting, joint strategic issue management across systems and explicit sustainability planning), the study may or may not determine or describe the real world roles of ministry officials in promoting better practices and system change. Read more>> Comments
The protocol for a cross-border study of health ministry use of evidence-based practices in chronic disease prevention is presented in the December 2013 issue of Implementation Science. The authors state "Evidence-based public health approaches to prevent chronic diseases have been identified in recent decades and have the potential for high impact. Yet, barriers to implement prevention approaches persist as a result of multiple factors including lack of organizational support, limited resources, competing emerging priorities and crises, and limited skill among the public health workforce. The purpose of this study is to learn how best to promote the adoption of evidence based public health practice related to chronic disease prevention. This study has the potential to be innovative in several ways. This study will be among the first to provide the public health field with information about the facilitators and strategies that state level practitioners use in evidence based chronic disease prevention. Measures of dissemination among practitioners working in prevention of cancer and other chronic diseases are lacking [79-82]. This study will be among the first to develop, test, and utilize such measures. This study is among the first to apply Institutional Theory with frameworks used in public health, specifically Diffusion of Innovations and a knowledge transfer and utilization framework. The study has the potential for future large scale impact as it may identify effective ways to disseminate public health knowledge needed for EBDM processes in different contexts and help shorten the time between research evidence discovery and program application delivery." To this list of innovative aspects, we add one more. This is one of the first times that the subjects of the study are officials in health ministries, identifying their concerns, rather than focusing on front-line practitioners. At the same time, it should be noted that the specific focus of the study appears to be focused on whether the ministry officials are aware of and are using knowledge about better practices. Since knowledge exchange and transfer is only one of several system capacities required to implement and maintain quality improvements (others include coordinated policy, assignment of coordinators, formal and informal mechanisms for cooperation, ongoing work force development, regular monitoring/reporting, joint strategic issue management across systems and explicit sustainability planning), the study may or may not determine or describe the real world roles of ministry officials in promoting better practices and system change. Read more>> Comments
Going Beyond "Training & Hoping" to Understand Implementation, Capacity, Sustainability & Systems Change 3/1/2014
"Going beyond training and hoping" is a colourful way to describe the paradigm shift now underway in research, practice and policy-making in school health promotion and social development. The words in the titles of the articles the October 2013 Issue of implementation Science are indicative of the new concepts that must be among the new, fundamentally different way that we approach our work and careers in the future. Although these concepts are applied to non-school settings and practices, their resonance should be self-evident. They include: transfer and implementation, scale-up, spread, and sustainability, making change last, leadership in complex networks, multifaceted, multilevel continuous quality improvement programs, dynamic sustainability frameworks and social network diagnostics. Read more>> Comments
"Going beyond training and hoping" is a colourful way to describe the paradigm shift now underway in research, practice and policy-making in school health promotion and social development. The words in the titles of the articles the October 2013 Issue of implementation Science are indicative of the new concepts that must be among the new, fundamentally different way that we approach our work and careers in the future. Although these concepts are applied to non-school settings and practices, their resonance should be self-evident. They include: transfer and implementation, scale-up, spread, and sustainability, making change last, leadership in complex networks, multifaceted, multilevel continuous quality improvement programs, dynamic sustainability frameworks and social network diagnostics. Read more>> Comments
Understanding Teacher Concerns: Parental Involvement 31/12/2013
One of the topics discussed in the ISHN group on Integration within Education Systems is understanding and working with teachers. Several articles in Issue #2, 2013 of The School-Community Journal discuss how teachers often have difficulty in communicating with and involving parents. The first article on first year teachers in New Zealand uses social exchange theory to note that lack of reciprocity, difficulties in building relationships, power-dependence and the social identity of teachers all create barriers. A US study comparing student teacher placements in urban and suburban environments affected teacher perceptions significantly. A third article describes the potential of use of inter-disciplinary teams in middle schools to engage parents. A fourth article examines how individual teacher attitudes and school-related factors will affect the parent-teacher/school relationship.A fifth article explores how adult education programs can teach parents about being involved in schools and their child's education. A sixth article reports on a parent program offered by a housing agency. Read more>> Comments
One of the topics discussed in the ISHN group on Integration within Education Systems is understanding and working with teachers. Several articles in Issue #2, 2013 of The School-Community Journal discuss how teachers often have difficulty in communicating with and involving parents. The first article on first year teachers in New Zealand uses social exchange theory to note that lack of reciprocity, difficulties in building relationships, power-dependence and the social identity of teachers all create barriers. A US study comparing student teacher placements in urban and suburban environments affected teacher perceptions significantly. A third article describes the potential of use of inter-disciplinary teams in middle schools to engage parents. A fourth article examines how individual teacher attitudes and school-related factors will affect the parent-teacher/school relationship.A fifth article explores how adult education programs can teach parents about being involved in schools and their child's education. A sixth article reports on a parent program offered by a housing agency. Read more>> Comments
Integrating Environmental Education within School Systems 30/12/2013
Three articles in Issue #5, 2013 of Environmental Education Research provide a parallel discussion currently underway in the healthy schools sector about integrating health, social and environmental programs within education systems in order that they become sustainable and seen as a core part of schooling. The first article examines the constraints that exist within a school district and how a long-term plan/model (Eco-schools) can be combined with the literature on school improvement to make progress despite the constraints. The second article discusses how "environmental education" and "education for sustainable development" are different, with one (EE) seeking specific innovations and the other (ESD) seeking transformative change or system reform. The third article suggests the use of a systems-based approach to secure a long-term commitment to ESD from universities or other educational institutions. All three of these concepts are echied in the parallel discussions within the school health movement. Read more>> Comments
Three articles in Issue #5, 2013 of Environmental Education Research provide a parallel discussion currently underway in the healthy schools sector about integrating health, social and environmental programs within education systems in order that they become sustainable and seen as a core part of schooling. The first article examines the constraints that exist within a school district and how a long-term plan/model (Eco-schools) can be combined with the literature on school improvement to make progress despite the constraints. The second article discusses how "environmental education" and "education for sustainable development" are different, with one (EE) seeking specific innovations and the other (ESD) seeking transformative change or system reform. The third article suggests the use of a systems-based approach to secure a long-term commitment to ESD from universities or other educational institutions. All three of these concepts are echied in the parallel discussions within the school health movement. Read more>> Comments
Guidance Notes on Teaching and Learning in Fragile Countries Facing Emergencies 27/12/2013
Building on the INEE Minimum Standards, the Guidance Notes on Teaching and Learning articulate good practice on critical issues related to curricula adaptation and development; teacher training, professional development and support; instruction and learning processes; and the assessment of learning outcomes. Accompanying the Guidance Notes is a vetted Resource Pack that includes sample tools, teaching materials and case studies, which can be used to adapt the good practices within the Guidance Notes to one’s specific context. These tools were developed in a widely consultative manner led by an Advisory Group with representatives from the INEE Secretariat, Save the Children, UNICEF, UNESCO, CARE, World Vision, CERG and education consultants as well as input from over 300 technical experts and consultative workshop participants around the world. Read more>> Comments
Building on the INEE Minimum Standards, the Guidance Notes on Teaching and Learning articulate good practice on critical issues related to curricula adaptation and development; teacher training, professional development and support; instruction and learning processes; and the assessment of learning outcomes. Accompanying the Guidance Notes is a vetted Resource Pack that includes sample tools, teaching materials and case studies, which can be used to adapt the good practices within the Guidance Notes to one’s specific context. These tools were developed in a widely consultative manner led by an Advisory Group with representatives from the INEE Secretariat, Save the Children, UNICEF, UNESCO, CARE, World Vision, CERG and education consultants as well as input from over 300 technical experts and consultative workshop participants around the world. Read more>> Comments
Overweight German Kindergarten Teachers 28/10/2013
An article in October, 2013 Issue of BMC Public Health describes the weight status of German kindergarten teachers and suggests that their health is at greater risk than that of the general population and that they may offer an unhealthy role model for their students. The researchers report that "Kindergarten teachers aged 18–62 years (n = 313) were invited to complete a self-reported questionnaire. Their obesity status, health risk behaviors (i.e., habitual physical activity, screen time activities, eating behavior patterns, smoking), and their general ability to identify overweight children and the associated health risks of overweight and obesity based on special age- and sex-specific silhouettes were analyzed. Data regarding kindergarten teachers’ weight status and smoking behavior were compared with nationally representative data from the 2009 Microcensus (n = 371310) using the Mann–Whitney U-test. The prevalence rates of overweight and obesity were 41.2% and 17.9%, respectively. The prevalence of obesity was significantly higher in kindergarten teachers (p < 0.001) compared to national Microcensus data. Only 44.6% of teachers were able to identify overweight children correctly. The fact that being overweight is associated with physical and mental health risks was only reported by 40.1% and 21.2% of teachers, respectively. Older kindergarten teachers were more likely to misclassify the overweight silhouettes, while younger, normal-weight, and overweight kindergarten teachers were more likely to underestimate the associated health risks. Obese kindergarten teachers reported spending more time in front of computer and television screens than their normal-weight counterparts, especially on weekends. In addition, obese kindergarten teachers reported eating less often with their families and more frequently reported watching television during meals. Read more>> Comments
An article in October, 2013 Issue of BMC Public Health describes the weight status of German kindergarten teachers and suggests that their health is at greater risk than that of the general population and that they may offer an unhealthy role model for their students. The researchers report that "Kindergarten teachers aged 18–62 years (n = 313) were invited to complete a self-reported questionnaire. Their obesity status, health risk behaviors (i.e., habitual physical activity, screen time activities, eating behavior patterns, smoking), and their general ability to identify overweight children and the associated health risks of overweight and obesity based on special age- and sex-specific silhouettes were analyzed. Data regarding kindergarten teachers’ weight status and smoking behavior were compared with nationally representative data from the 2009 Microcensus (n = 371310) using the Mann–Whitney U-test. The prevalence rates of overweight and obesity were 41.2% and 17.9%, respectively. The prevalence of obesity was significantly higher in kindergarten teachers (p < 0.001) compared to national Microcensus data. Only 44.6% of teachers were able to identify overweight children correctly. The fact that being overweight is associated with physical and mental health risks was only reported by 40.1% and 21.2% of teachers, respectively. Older kindergarten teachers were more likely to misclassify the overweight silhouettes, while younger, normal-weight, and overweight kindergarten teachers were more likely to underestimate the associated health risks. Obese kindergarten teachers reported spending more time in front of computer and television screens than their normal-weight counterparts, especially on weekends. In addition, obese kindergarten teachers reported eating less often with their families and more frequently reported watching television during meals. Read more>> Comments
Canadian Report Recommends Systems Approach & Equity but Ignores Health Promotion, Schools 23/9/2013
In 2004, Canada's federal government and all provinces & territories agreed to an accord that would reform the health system in Canada. Billions of dollars for health funding, primarily for health care, were committed by the federal government as a strategy to buy long lasting change and reform the system. A small part of that accord included some promises on health promotion, primarily with regard to immunization, coordinated responses to outbreaks of infectious diseases and the creation of a Public Health Agency of Canada. As well, first Ministers agreed that " In addition, governments commit to accelerate work on a pan-Canadian Public Health Strategy. For the first time, governments will set goals and targets for improving the health status of Canadians through a collaborative process with experts. The Strategy will include efforts to address common risk factors, such as physical inactivity, and integrated disease strategies. First Ministers commit to working across sectors through initiatives such as Healthy Schools." (The Accord was signed as Canadian governments also agreed to establish and intergovernmental consortium on school health promotion.)
A review of progress after ten years was part of the accord and the Health Council of Canada was created and mandated to prepare it, along with other regular reporting. The full report notes that the progress has been dismal and recommends a totally new approach based on a systems approach and with an emphasis on equity. What is even more disappointing, along with the poor results achieved in Canadian's health and the health care system, is the absence of any attention, even in this mandatory decade review, of any real understanding that health care does not produce any improvements in health. If we are to improve the health of Canadians, we will need major new investments in health promotion. And, of course, as noted in the Ministers' promises, we need to do that through inter-sectorial action through settings such as schools. Read More Comments
In 2004, Canada's federal government and all provinces & territories agreed to an accord that would reform the health system in Canada. Billions of dollars for health funding, primarily for health care, were committed by the federal government as a strategy to buy long lasting change and reform the system. A small part of that accord included some promises on health promotion, primarily with regard to immunization, coordinated responses to outbreaks of infectious diseases and the creation of a Public Health Agency of Canada. As well, first Ministers agreed that " In addition, governments commit to accelerate work on a pan-Canadian Public Health Strategy. For the first time, governments will set goals and targets for improving the health status of Canadians through a collaborative process with experts. The Strategy will include efforts to address common risk factors, such as physical inactivity, and integrated disease strategies. First Ministers commit to working across sectors through initiatives such as Healthy Schools." (The Accord was signed as Canadian governments also agreed to establish and intergovernmental consortium on school health promotion.)
A review of progress after ten years was part of the accord and the Health Council of Canada was created and mandated to prepare it, along with other regular reporting. The full report notes that the progress has been dismal and recommends a totally new approach based on a systems approach and with an emphasis on equity. What is even more disappointing, along with the poor results achieved in Canadian's health and the health care system, is the absence of any attention, even in this mandatory decade review, of any real understanding that health care does not produce any improvements in health. If we are to improve the health of Canadians, we will need major new investments in health promotion. And, of course, as noted in the Ministers' promises, we need to do that through inter-sectorial action through settings such as schools. Read More Comments
Student Absences, Achievement & Health/Safety 18/9/2013
Researchers are increasingly focused on repeated and prolonged student absences as a primary cause for student academic difficulties. A recent report in the US indicates that student health and safety problems are often causes of these absences. By concentrating our health and social programs on students who are missing school, we can ensure that these programs are better integrated with the priority concerns of education systems. The US report notes that "Chronic absence is a national crisis, dragging down achievement for students across the country. An estimated 5 million to 7.5 million students in the United States are missing so much school that they are academically at risk.In some communities and schools, more than one out of four children are chronically absent.Most school systems report on overall attendance and miss the fact that much of the absences are actually affecting a minority of students who miss classes often. In Utah, a 2012 statewide analysis showed that 13.5percent of all students were chronically absent and that those chronically absent in any year between 8th and 12th grades were 7.4 times more likely to drop out of high school". The US report explains that "Many students cannot get to school because of chronic health conditions; inadequate access to medical, mental health or dental care; unstable or poor-quality unhealthy housing; unreliable transportation; or a lack of effective family and community supports and service delivery. This is especially true for children living in poverty or involved in the foster care or juvenile justice systems. An analysis by the University of Utah found that students who were homeless were 2.5 times more likely to be chronically absent. In addition, environmental conditions, such as mold and lead poisoning, can make children more susceptible to absenteeism. Sometimes poor attendance occurs when students are avoiding going to school because of bullying, academic difficulty, dangerous routes to and from school, an unhealthy school climate, punitive disciplinary practices or the lack of effective instruction. Teacher absenteeism can prompt some children to avoid school. Analyzing chronic absence data by classroom can help reveal if the problem is school-wide or concentrated in particular classrooms. In some cases, it is not the student alone who is demonstrating aversion. Poor attendance could be a reflection of a parent’s negative experiences with school and their lack of confidence that their child’s experience will be different. The US reports calls for an inter-agency response to the problem of prolonged or repeated absences for some students. This is a great opportunity for health, safety & social development programs to be more relevant to educators in achieving their core objectives. Read More>> Comments
Researchers are increasingly focused on repeated and prolonged student absences as a primary cause for student academic difficulties. A recent report in the US indicates that student health and safety problems are often causes of these absences. By concentrating our health and social programs on students who are missing school, we can ensure that these programs are better integrated with the priority concerns of education systems. The US report notes that "Chronic absence is a national crisis, dragging down achievement for students across the country. An estimated 5 million to 7.5 million students in the United States are missing so much school that they are academically at risk.In some communities and schools, more than one out of four children are chronically absent.Most school systems report on overall attendance and miss the fact that much of the absences are actually affecting a minority of students who miss classes often. In Utah, a 2012 statewide analysis showed that 13.5percent of all students were chronically absent and that those chronically absent in any year between 8th and 12th grades were 7.4 times more likely to drop out of high school". The US report explains that "Many students cannot get to school because of chronic health conditions; inadequate access to medical, mental health or dental care; unstable or poor-quality unhealthy housing; unreliable transportation; or a lack of effective family and community supports and service delivery. This is especially true for children living in poverty or involved in the foster care or juvenile justice systems. An analysis by the University of Utah found that students who were homeless were 2.5 times more likely to be chronically absent. In addition, environmental conditions, such as mold and lead poisoning, can make children more susceptible to absenteeism. Sometimes poor attendance occurs when students are avoiding going to school because of bullying, academic difficulty, dangerous routes to and from school, an unhealthy school climate, punitive disciplinary practices or the lack of effective instruction. Teacher absenteeism can prompt some children to avoid school. Analyzing chronic absence data by classroom can help reveal if the problem is school-wide or concentrated in particular classrooms. In some cases, it is not the student alone who is demonstrating aversion. Poor attendance could be a reflection of a parent’s negative experiences with school and their lack of confidence that their child’s experience will be different. The US reports calls for an inter-agency response to the problem of prolonged or repeated absences for some students. This is a great opportunity for health, safety & social development programs to be more relevant to educators in achieving their core objectives. Read More>> Comments
Australian Teacher Knowledge & Confidence about Mental Health 26/7/2013
An article in Issue #2, 2013 of the Asia-Pacific Journal on Teacher Education reports on a survey of 1397 teachers in Australia, followed by interviews with 37 teachers. the authors report that one-half to two-thirds of teachers were knowledgeable and confident about selected components of mental health promotion. The authors report that "Independent judgments by staff about students’ mental health status concurred with students’ scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in about 75% of cases, indicating a good level of staff awareness about students’ mental health status. Exposure to the KidsMatter Primary mental health promotion initiative was associated with improvements in teachers’ efficacy, knowledge and pedagogy, with small to medium effect sizes. Qualitative analysis indicated that teachers’ subject-matter and pedagogical knowledge were heavily reliant on curriculum resources." Implications of these findings are discussed. Read more>> Comments
An article in Issue #2, 2013 of the Asia-Pacific Journal on Teacher Education reports on a survey of 1397 teachers in Australia, followed by interviews with 37 teachers. the authors report that one-half to two-thirds of teachers were knowledgeable and confident about selected components of mental health promotion. The authors report that "Independent judgments by staff about students’ mental health status concurred with students’ scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in about 75% of cases, indicating a good level of staff awareness about students’ mental health status. Exposure to the KidsMatter Primary mental health promotion initiative was associated with improvements in teachers’ efficacy, knowledge and pedagogy, with small to medium effect sizes. Qualitative analysis indicated that teachers’ subject-matter and pedagogical knowledge were heavily reliant on curriculum resources." Implications of these findings are discussed. Read more>> Comments