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1998 Massachusetts School Health Education Profile Report

Introduction

Health education is a requirement under Massachusetts General Law (Chapter 71, Section 1). Two developments in the early 1990's resulted in increasing attention being devoted to improving health education in schools throughout the Commonwealth. First, in 1992 Massachusetts voters approved a tax on tobacco products, the funds from which were to be devoted to preventing tobacco use and promoting healthy behaviors. Since that time, there has been a major increase both in the money made available for school health education and in the level of attention given to the subject. At present, virtually all districts receive annual Health Protection Fund grants and have a formally-appointed Health Coordinator.

Second, the 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act specified that basic knowledge and concepts be clearly delineated for all core subjects, including health, and that all students be held to high learning standards. State curriculum frameworks have been written for each of the major subject areas. The recently approved Massachusetts Comprehensive Heath Curriculum Framework outlines the major strands, content areas, and learning standards that should be included in a high-quality school health education program. Districts will be expected to align their programs with the Massachusetts framework, although final decisions about the specific content of school health education will continue to be made at the local level. Additionally, though health is not one of the subjects included in the statewide Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), districts are required to conduct formal assessments of their own health education programs.

This push toward stronger health education programs is occurring not only in Massachusetts but in other parts of the country as well and is supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The School Health Education Profile Survey (SHEP) was developed by CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health to assess the implementation of comprehensive health education. The survey was first conducted in Massachusetts in 1994 with funding from the CDC to determine the status of comprehensive health education and HIV prevention education in secondary schools throughout the Commonwealth. The SHEP survey focuses on the following key aspects of comprehensive school health programs:

• quantity and duration of required health education courses,
• content and curricula of health education,
• characteristics of HIV/AIDS prevention programs,
• professional training of health educators, and
• parental involvement in school health education.

In 1998, Massachusetts added a set of supplementary questions to the standard SHEP instrument. These included questions about:

• school policies related to violence, harassment, alcohol and drug use,
• staff training on those policies, and
• school programs and services that might influence students' risk taking behaviors.

The results of the 1998 SHEP, compared with results from previous years, allow us to monitor our state's progress in implementing comprehensive health programs. These results should be valuable for use in setting priorities for improving school health education programs aimed at increasing knowledge and skills, improving attitudes, and fostering health-enhancing behavior among Massachusetts youth.

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