Archived Information
1998 Massachusetts School Health Education Profile Report
Explanatory Note
Although valid for making year to year comparisons, Figures 4 and 8 may overestimate the actual prevalence of health education and HIV prevention education at different grade levels because of the way percentages have been calculated. Questions regarding the grades in which required health education and HIV/AIDS prevention education were taught were frequently skipped; roughly 20% to 25% of principals indicated only those grades in which health or HIV education did occur, but left blank questions about those grades in which it did not occur. Figures 4 and 8 reflect only completed answers; that is, the percentages reported in these charts are the result dividing "yes" answers by the sum of "yes" and "no" answers for schools containing that grade level. This method of calculation does not include schools that skipped a question; for example, a high school indicating that it did require health education in 10th grade, but leaving the question about health education blank for 11th grade would be included in the percentage calculation for 10th grade but would be left out of calculations about 11th grade. Because of this method of calculation, it is likely that Figures 4 and 8 show inflated rates of health education and HIV/AIDS education at each grade level. Even so, we assume that these figures do accurately represent shifts in prevalence from 1994 to 1996 to 1998, since questions were asked, answered, and analyzed in a similar way for each of these three time periods.
A more conservative, but possibly more accurate, way of calculating requirements for health education (and HIV education) by grade is to divide the number of schools answering that they did require health education (HIV education) in a particular grade by the total of all schools with that grade level, whether or not they answered the question. The results of these two methods of calculating percentages of schools requiring health education and HIV education are presented in Table 1, below. As can be seen in the Table, the second more conservative method of calculation (bolded) uses a larger denominator (all schools with that grade level) and results in a smaller percentage. We can be certain that the "true" percentage of schools requiring health education and HIV/AIDS education lies somewhere between the two percentages reported; it is likely to be closer to the second (lower) percentage than the first. Unfortunately, due to limitations in the data files, it was not possible to show these two calculation methods for 1994 and 1996; percentages reported for those years can be contrasted only with the first (unbolded) percentage.
| TABLE 1 |
Schools Requiring Health Education (%) |
Schools Requiring HIV/AIDS Education (%) |
| # Yes answers / #Yes + No answers in schools with grade |
#Yes answers/ Total # schools with grade |
# Yes answers / # Yes +No + Don't know answers in schools with grade |
#Yes answers/ Total # schools with grade |
| In 6th grade |
85% (n = 265) |
69% (n = 327) |
60% (n = 306) |
56% (n = 327) |
| In 7th grade |
90% (n = 339) |
75% (n = 408) |
74% (n = 388) |
70% (n = 408) |
| In 8th grade |
91% (n = 330) |
75% (n = 400) |
78% (n = 392) |
77% (n = 400) |
| In 9th grade |
81% (n = 280) |
69% (n = 329) |
76% (n = 314) |
72% (n = 329) |
| In 10th grade |
69% (n = 260) |
57% (n = 320) |
68% (n = 298) |
64% (n = 320) |
| In 11th grade |
36% (n = 220) |
25% (n = 317) |
36% (n = 265) |
30% (n = 317) |
| In 12th grade |
32% (n = 220) |
23% (n = 315) |
33% (n = 265) |
28% (n = 315) |
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last updated: January 1, 1998
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