Glossary
A
Steps to take to improve areas you have identified as weaknesses. After analyzing the module scores and using them to identify your school's strengths and weaknesses, you can use the information to brainstorm possible actions for improving the weak areas.
One of the five topics included in the SHI. Asthma is a prevalent chronic respiratory disease characterized by periodic episodes of increased inflammation and narrowing of the small airways. Symptoms may include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and difficulty breathing. Asthma is a leading cause of school absences. Asthma cannot be cured, but it can be controlled. Schools can do their part to control asthma by becoming more "asthma-friendly"– that is, by adopting policies and procedures and coordinating student services to better serve students with asthma.
C
Commitment
One of the measures used for determining or ranking the priority level of an action. The level of commitment assigned to an action indicates the dedication towards that action by school administration and staff, the community, and you.
Coordinator
The facilitator of the SHI process. A coordinator can be someone who is a part of the school or someone external—for example, a retired health educator, community-based dietitian, professor at a local university, graduate student, or a volunteer at a community-based health organization.
Cost
One of the measures used for determining or ranking the priority level of an action. The cost indicates the financial resources required to implement an action.
Counseling, psychological, and social services
One of the eight components of CDC's model of a Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP). The SHI is centered around this model. Counseling, psychological, and social services are provided to improve students' mental, emotional, and social health. These services include individual and group assessments, interventions, and referrals. Organizational assessment and consultation skills of counselors and psychologists contribute not only to the health of students but also to the health of the school environment. Counseling, psychological, and social services are provided by professionals such as certified school counselors, psychologists, and social workers.
Cross-cutting questions
Questions that apply to all health topic areas and are included in a module regardless of the topics that you select.
F
Family and community involvement
One of the eight components of the CDC's model of a Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP). The SHI is centered around this model. Family and community involvement is an integrated school, family, and community approach for enhancing the health and well-being of students. School health advisory councils, coalitions, and broadly-based constituencies for school health can build support for school health program efforts. Schools actively solicit family involvement and engage community resources and services to respond more effectively to the health-related needs of students.
Feasibility
One of the measures used for determining or ranking the priority level of an action. The feasibility ranking assigned to an action indicates how likely it is that the school will be able to implement the action.
H
One of the eight components of CDC's model of a Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP). The SHI is centered around this model. Health education is a planned, sequential, K-12 curriculum that addresses the physical, mental, emotional, and social dimensions of health. The curriculum is designed to motivate and assist students to maintain and improve their health, prevent disease, and reduce health-related risk behaviors. It allows students to develop and demonstrate increasingly sophisticated health-related knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices. The comprehensive health education curriculum includes a variety of topics such as personal health, family health, community health, consumer health, environmental health, sexuality education, mental and emotional health, injury prevention and safety, nutrition, prevention and control of disease, and substance use and abuse. Health education is provided by qualified, trained teachers.
One of the eight components of CDC's model of a coordinated school health program (CSHP). The SHI is centered around this model. Health promotion for staff refers to activities that enable school staff to improve their health status, such as health assessments, health education, and health-related fitness activities. These opportunities encourage school staff to pursue a healthy lifestyle that contributes to their improved health status, improved morale, and a greater personal commitment to the school's overall coordinated health program. This personal commitment often transfers into greater commitment to the health of students and creates positive role modeling.
One of the eight components of CDC's model of a Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP). The SHI is centered around this model. Health services are provided to appraise, protect, and promote student health. These services are designed to
- ensure access or referral to primary health care services or both,
- foster appropriate use of primary health care services,
- prevent and control communicable disease and other health problems,
- provide emergency care for illness or injury,
- promote and provide optimum sanitary conditions for a safe school facility and school environment, and
- provide educational and counseling opportunities for promoting and maintaining individual, family, and community health.
Health services are provided by qualified professionals, such as physicians, nurses, dentists, health educators, and other allied health personnel.
Health topics determine the questions that will be included in your SHI and therefore customize your SHI. The following topics are currently available: safety, physical activity, nutrition, tobacco use, and asthma. Additional health topics will be added in the future.
M
Module
The eight SHI modules are structured around CDC's eight-component model of a Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP) as follows:
N
One of the five health topics included in the SHI. Nutrition involves healthy eating, which is associated with reduced risk of many diseases, including the three leading causes of death—heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Healthy eating in childhood and adolescence is important for proper growth and development and can prevent obesity, dental caries, iron deficiency anemia, and other health problems.
One of the eight components of CDC's model of a Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP). The SHI is centered around this model. Nutrition services involve access to a variety of nutritious and appealing meals that accommodate the health and nutrition needs of all students. School nutrition programs reflect the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans and other criteria to achieve nutrition integrity. The school nutrition services offer students a learning laboratory for classroom nutrition and health education and serve as a resource for linkages with nutrition-related community services. Qualified child nutrition professionals provide these services.
P
One of the five health topics included in the SHI. Physical activity reduces the risk of premature mortality in general and of coronary heart disease, hypertension, colon cancer, and diabetes mellitus in particular. Regular physical activity in childhood and adolescence improves strength and endurance, helps build healthy bones and muscle, helps control weight, reduces anxiety and stress, increases self esteem, and may improve blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
Physical education and other physical activity programs
One of the eight components of CDC's model of a Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP). The SHI is centered around this model. Physical education is a planned, sequential, K-12 curriculum that provides cognitive content and learning experiences in a variety of activity areas, such as basic movement skills; physical fitness; rhythm and dance; games; team, dual, and individual sports; tumbling and gymnastics; and aquatics. Through a variety of planned physical activities, quality physical education should promote each student's optimum physical, mental, emotional, and social development, including sports that all students enjoy and can pursue throughout their lives. Physical education is provided by qualified trained teachers.
Policies are usually developed at the school district or state level and implemented at the school level. They include legal codes, rules, standards, administrative orders, guidelines, mandates, resolutions, or protocols.
R
A unique number automatically assigned to your team when you register for the online SHI. You will use this number to log in to the system and should save it for future reference.
S
One of the five health topics included in the SHI. Safety relates to preventing unintentional injuries and violence, which are leading causes of death and disability among children, adolescents, and young adults. Two-thirds of all deaths among adolescents are due to either unintentional injuries or violence. Major causes of unintentional injuries include motor-vehicle crashes, drowning, poisoning, fires and burns, falls, sports- and recreation-related injuries, firearm-related injuries, choking, suffocation, and animal bites. Types of violence are homicide, suicide, assault, sexual violence, rape, child maltreatment, dating and domestic violence, and self-inflicted injuries. Children and adolescents engage in many behaviors that increase their risk of injury, including not using seat belts, driving after drinking alcohol, carrying weapons, and engaging in physical fights.
School health and safety policies and environment
One of the eight components of CDC's model of a Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP). The SHI is centered around this model. Healthy school environment is the physical and aesthetic surroundings and the psychosocial climate and culture of the school. Factors that influence the physical environment include the school building and the area surrounding it, any biological or chemical agents that are detrimental to health, and physical conditions such as temperature, noise, and lighting. The psychological environment includes the physical, emotional, and social conditions that affect the well-being of students and staff.
School level
The grade level in your school—elementary, middle, or high school. You must choose a school level when creating your SHI.
Scorecard
When using the online SHI, your responses to SHI items will be automatically tallied and appear on a scorecard. Module scorecards display your score for the module. The overall scorecard displays your score for all the modules.
SHI name
The name you assigned to your SHI when you created it, for example, LeHigh Health Plan. A SHI name cannot be more than 20 characters long.
Strengths
The areas in which you scored high (e.g., 3's and 2's) on your scorecard.
T
One of the five health topics included in the SHI. Tobacco use, including cigarette smoking, cigar smoking, and smokeless tobacco use, is the single leading preventable cause of death in the United States.
The group of people who will be working on the SHI. The team consists of individuals who are part of the school, such as the principal, students, nurse, parents and teachers; and individuals outside the school, such as local health department staff members.
Team name
The name you assigned to your team, such as LeHigh Tigers. The team name should not exceed 20 characters.
W
Weaknesses
The areas in which you scored low (e.g., 1's and 0's) on your scorecard.
Contact Us:
- Division of Adolescent and School Health
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