Welcome to the School Health Index: A Self-Assessment and Planning Guide course of the "Training Tools for Healthy Schools" e-learning series. In this self-paced course, there are several ways to access the training materials. You may select a specific chapter or chapter section by clicking on a title. You may view the course in its entirety by simply clicking on the "play" button in the video window and then clicking "next" to proceed to the next video. Click "back" to view the previous video. You may access more information by clicking on questions or resources in the Go Further section. A full-course download is also available. An "Active Child" icon will appear on the screen periodically to alert you to a tip for more information. At the end of the course, you will have the opportunity to download a Certificate of Completion.
The purpose of this training is to introduce you to CDC's School Health Index: A Self-Assessment and Planning Guide. After this training, you will be ready to conduct or participate in a self-assessment and create a plan to improve the health of students in your school or district.
The course objectives are for you to become familiar with the:
The School Health Index: A Self-Assessment and Planning Guide is a tool that enables you to assess your school's current health and safety policies and programs, as well as develop a plan for improvement.
The School Health Index was developed by CDC in partnership with school administrators and staff, school health experts, parents, and national nongovernmental health and education agencies. It is based on scientific guidance including CDC's research-based guidelines for school health programs, environmental health guidelines for school programs, and various reports on school nutrition, physical activity, and physical education from the Institute of Medicine.
These reports identify the policies and practices most likely to be effective in reducing youth health risk behaviors and supporting healthy behaviors.
The School Health Index is also structured around the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child approach (also known as WSCC) developed by CDC and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (or ASCD).
The WSCC approach builds upon the traditional coordinated school health model and ASCD's Whole Child approach to learning and promotes greater alignment between health and education outcomes.
Today's youth face a variety of health issues. As school health advocates, we have an opportunity and responsibility to improve the lives of young people.
The fundamental mission of schools is to help young people acquire the knowledge and skills needed to become productive and healthy adults. Promotion of healthy behaviors and creation of healthy environments are critical parts of the mission. Schools can contribute to the physical health of students. Healthy students perform better in school and have fewer absences.
The School Health Index offers a team approach to improving school health and safety policies and programs. It is a straightforward tool that gives administrators, staff, parents, and students an opportunity to work together to create a healthier school.
The purpose of the School Health Index is to:
The School Health Index is designed for use at the school level. It can also be used at the district level with appropriate adaptation.
The School Health Index consists of two steps:
The self-assessment step leads members of your school community through the School Health Index modules in order to identify what your school is already doing to promote health as well as areas for improvement.
The planning for improvement step enables you to identify many actions your school can take to improve its performance in areas that received low scores. This step then involves prioritizing those actions to help you decide which actions to focus on first. Finally, you will complete a School Health Improvement Plan to list the steps you will take to implement each of the selected actions.
As you complete the School Health Index and calculate your score, it is important to remember that it is not a research or evaluation tool. It should not be used to audit or punish school staff. What the School Health Index does provide is an Improvement Plan that can be used to monitor progress and review recommendations for change.
The School Health Index identifies low-cost or no-cost improvements to a school environment. The self-assessment process is a focused, reasonable, and user-friendly experience.
Completing the School Health Index is an important first step toward improving your school's health promotion policies and practices. Your school can then act to implement a School Health Improvement Plan and develop an ongoing process for monitoring progress and reviewing your recommendations for change.
The School Health Index is a free, customizable tool. You can conduct the assessment using the interactive online version or by downloading the print version.
To access the online version, click on the "Enter School Health Index" button. Here, you can either register a new team profile or access your current assessment. The online version of the School Health Index records your entries and generates score cards for specific topic areas.
Print versions for either elementary or middle and high schools can be downloaded from the School Health Index website. There are a few differences between the elementary version and the middle and high school version, although the majority of the items are identical.
Once you decide on the online or print format, select the version that is most appropriate for your program.
The School Health Index addresses these health topics:
Questions in the Index are grouped and labeled by topic area. Grouping questions allows schools to choose to address some, but not all, of the health topics if needed. Cross-cutting questions address issues that are relevant to all health topics.
Now that we have developed an understanding of what the School Health Index is, let's review.
Habits and practices related to health and safety are influenced by the entire school environment. The School Health Index is composed of 11 modules that are structured around CDC's and ASCD's Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model. The WSCC model emphasizes a school-wide approach to student health.
The modules are:
The first step to completing the School Health Index is to understand the modules. This course will provide an overview of the modules and exercises to complete an example module.
The School Health Index also has instructions that will help guide you through completing each module to assess how well your school is meeting the opportunities available in that area.
Module 1: School Health and Safety Policies and Environment. A healthy and safe school environment includes the physical and visual surroundings and the psychosocial climate and culture of the school.
Representatives from different segments of the school and community, including parents and students, should work together to maximize healthy eating and physical activity opportunities for students.
Developing and maintaining a supportive school environment can improve the sustainability of healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices that support healthy lifestyles.
Module 2: Health Education. Health education provides students with opportunities to acquire useful knowledge, attitudes, and skills.
These are necessary for making healthy decisions, achieving health literacy, adopting healthy behaviors, and promoting the health of others.
Health education programs should address the National Health Education Standards and incorporate the characteristics of an effective health education curriculum. Health education assists students in living healthier lives. Qualified, trained teachers should teach health education.
Module 3: Physical Education and Other Physical Activity Programs. Physical education is characterized by a planned, sequential pre-kindergarten through grade 12 curricula that provides learning as well as doing in a variety of activity areas.
Quality physical education programs assist students in achieving the national standards for pre-kindergarten through grade 12 for physical education. Qualified, trained teachers should teach physical education.
Additionally, schools can offer multiple opportunities for students to enjoy physical activity outside of physical education classes and increase daily amounts of total physical activity through recess, classroom physical activity, sports, and intramural activities.
Module 4: Nutrition Environment and Services. Schools are in a unique position to promote healthy eating and help ensure appropriate food and nutrient intake among students.
The school nutrition environment provides students with opportunities to learn about and practice healthy eating through available foods and beverages, nutrition education, and messages about food in the cafeteria and throughout the school campus.
Schools provide students with opportunities to consume an array of foods and beverages throughout the school day. Schools also enable students to learn about and practice healthy eating behaviors by providing an array of foods and adequate eating time.
Schools should ensure that only nutritious and appealing foods and beverages are provided in school cafeterias, vending machines, snack bars, school stores, and other venues that offer food and beverages to students. School staff should complete the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Professional Standards requirements training annually. The Professional Standards include menu planning, food safety, food sensitivities and allergies, portion sizes, and more.
Module 5: School Health Services. Schools are responsible for students' physical health, mental health, and safety during the school day.
Health services:
Qualified professionals such as physicians, nurses, health educators, and other allied health personnel should provide these services.
Module 6: School Counseling, Psychological, and Social Services. These services are provided to improve students' mental, emotional, and social health and include individual and group assessments, interventions, and referrals.
By providing services to address the needs of the whole child, the student is more likely to perform better academically as well as emotionally.
Professionals such as certified school counselors, psychologists, and social workers provide these services.
Module 7: Social and Emotional Climate. Social and Emotional School Climate refers to the psychosocial aspects of students' educational experiences that influence their social and emotional development.
The social and emotional climate of a school can impact student engagement in school activities; relationships with other students, staff, family, and community; and academic performance.
Module 8: Physical Environment. A school promotes learning by ensuring the health and safety of students and staff. The physical school environment encompasses the school building and its contents, the land on which the school is located, and the area surrounding it.
The physical environment includes considerations such as:
Promoting school environmental health also means making sure school facilities' staff receive adequate training and that students are engaged and actively involved in promoting environmental health.
Module 9: Employee Wellness and Health Promotion. Comprehensive school employee wellness is a coordinated set of programs, policies, benefits, and environmental supports designed to address multiple risk factors (such as lack of physical activity or tobacco use) and health conditions (such as diabetes or depression) to meet the health and safety needs of all employees.
Schools can provide opportunities for staff members to improve their health status through activities such as health assessments, health education, and fitness activities.
These opportunities encourage staff members to pursue a lifestyle that contributes to their improved health status, improved morale, and a greater personal commitment to the school's overall health program. A personal commitment often transfers into a greater commitment to the health of students and creates positive role modeling.
Module 10: Family Engagement. Family engagement means families and school staff are working together to support and improve the learning, development, and health of students. This means school staff are committed to making families feel welcomed, engaging families in a variety of meaningful ways, and sustaining family engagement. It also means families are committed to actively supporting their child's learning and healthy development.
This module focuses on:
When families are engaged, children's health and learning are reinforced in multiple settings – in school and at home.
Module 11: Community Involvement. Community groups, organizations, and local businesses can partner with schools to provide resources and support for health-related activities. Community members can provide input on school health and safety policies and programs and work with schools on community events that promote health and wellness.
Schools, students, and their families can contribute to the community through service-learning opportunities and by sharing school facilities with community members.
By providing a learning environment that ensures each student is emotionally and physically healthy, safe, actively engaged, supported, and challenged, the WSCC model presents a framework for school systems to evaluate, streamline, implement, and sustain policies, processes, and practices.
There is no single way to implement the School Health Index. Schools have developed many approaches based on what best meets their needs.
Now that you are familiar with the School Health Index modules, you are ready to start the assessment process.
Here are the steps that you can use or modify when implementing the School Health Index:
Your first step is to identify a team of people who will be responsible for completing the School Health Index.
You may choose to create a new team or use an existing team, such as the school health council or team. The number of members on your team will vary, based on staffing, resources, and roles. However, a group effort is very important to capture a diversity of opinions and experiences for meaningful assessment and successful planning and implementation. The team should consist of a cross-section of school representatives and community members. Representation of as many segments of the community as possible can enrich the level of discussion and acceptance of proposed activities.
Getting support from school administrators greatly improves overall commitment to completing the School Health Index and implementing the School Health Improvement Plan. Having school and district-level administrators on the team can facilitate implementation of identified changes.
You will also need to identify a coordinator to lead the team's efforts. The identity of the School Health Index coordinator varies from school to school. Some schools have found that it is best to have individuals from outside of the school facilitate the process. These individuals are removed from school politics and can be neutral in helping staff deal with internal conflicts.
The School Health Index coordinator is responsible for keeping the team motivated and focused on its goals. Team members may have other priorities, so it is important for the coordinator to maintain the team's cohesiveness and encourage the team members to implement their proposed actions. A strong coordinator can be pivotal to the success of the School Health Index.
Functions of the School Health Index coordinator include to:
During the first School Health Index team meeting, the coordinator will explain the assessment process. There are a host of resources available on CDC's website that can be used to illustrate the process and purpose of the School Health Index.
During this meeting, the team will also decide how the School Health Index should be implemented in their school or district. Some teams decide to complete all modules together in one sitting. Typically, smaller groups are created for each of the modules.
It is very important to have at least two people work on each module because it will help increase accuracy and diversity of creative insights for improving school health policies and programs. Each team member should be assigned to a module based on his or her area of interest and expertise. The person most knowledgeable about the module topic can serve as that module's coordinator.
When ready to complete the self-assessment, read through the discussion questions for each module carefully and select the answer that best describes your school.
The School Health Index uses a 4-point scale, assigning 3, 2, 1, or 0 points to each question.
For each question, a score of 3 points means that the school is achieving the "gold standard." A score of 2 points means that the school is doing very well but falls somewhat short of the gold standard. A score of 1 point means that the school is doing something in this area but falls far short of the gold standard. Finally, 0 points indicates that the school is doing very little or nothing to meet the gold standard. Later, these scores will be used to identify strengths and weaknesses.
If a question does not apply to your school, you can designate it as "not applicable." If you are not sure or need more information before you can answer the question, you can skip it and return to it at another time. You do not have to answer all the questions in a module if they do not apply.
Circle or input all of the discussion question answers into the Module Score Card, and calculate each module score.
To determine the module score:
You will later use these percentage scores to prioritize which areas need the most attention.
Each module ends with three planning questions that will result in a list of recommendations.
The first planning question asks the group to list the strengths and weaknesses found in the module based on the scores earned for each item. In general, strengths will be those questions that were scored as 3s or 2s, and weaknesses will be those scored as 1s or 0s.
The second question asks the group to list actions to improve each weakness identified in the first planning question. These are meant to be simple statements converting the items that were weaknesses into actions.
The third planning question asks the group to rate from 1 to 5 each proposed action in terms of five dimensions. This enables actions to be prioritized for implementation.
The five dimensions ask the following questions
After rating each action along the five dimensions, the top scores should reflect those actions that need to be addressed first.
Let's practice going through the self-assessment process for one module.
The planning for improvement process follows the self-assessment process. All members of the School Health Index team meet to participate in the planning process.
This is the time to:
After conducting the self-assessment, collect the Module Score Cards, and transfer the scores to the Overall Score Card.
You can place an X to indicate the range or enter the actual module score in the appropriate column for each module on the Overall Score Card.
The completed Overall Score Card will help you determine which areas covered by the School Health Index are in need of most improvement.
During the planning meeting, each module group presents its two or three priority actions. If the entire team completed all the modules together, the team reflects on the priority actions they selected for each of the modules.
Then, the team decides on several actions for the coming school year. It is very important to select a manageable number of recommendations. Most schools choose between three and five actions. Also, consider mixing both short- and long-term goals.
Finally, the team completes the School Health Improvement Plan. The Plan helps the team identify priority actions, list specific steps that need to be taken to implement each action, and designate who will be responsible for each step.
Let's work through answering the final planning question for one module to develop the School Health Improvement Plan.
After the School Health Improvement Plan has been developed, the next steps are to secure approval, implement the recommendations, and monitor progress.
Check progress on your plan annually. Take the time to measure and recognize progress and accomplishments of the previous school year. Report annually to the principal, superintendent, and school board on progress made during the previous year and plans for the upcoming year.
The School Health Index is a straightforward tool that gives administrators, staff, parents, and students a chance to get involved and work together to create a healthier school environment and student population. Schools across the country have already made dramatic improvements based on the School Health Index.
A small investment of time can pay big dividends in improving students' well-being, readiness to learn, and prospects for a healthier life.
Now that you have completed the School Health Index: A Self-Assessment and Planning Guide course, you should be ready to participate in a self-assessment and create a plan for improvement for your school or district.
You can print a Certificate of Completion by clicking on the certificate link in the Go Further section.
We hope you have enjoyed participating in the School Health Index: A Self-Assessment and Planning Guide course, part of the "Training Tools for Healthy Schools" e-learning series.