District Administration - January 2011 - (Page 73)

Founding members of Redefining Beautiful, a student club meant to empower girls to resist stereotypes based on appearance, pose at Colleyville Heritage High School in Colleyville, Texas. On Tuesdays, about 180 girls come to school without eye shadow and lipstick— showing off clean faces and positive attitudes. Students at North Plainfield High School in New Jersey are rehearsing a play, “Don’t U Luv Me,” which explores violence in teenage dating, which is among the health topics in districts. teenage health teaching module, “Aggressors, Victims, and Bystanders,” which the district started using five years ago and which is produced by the nonprofit Education Development Center. Prior to using this module, Anchorage students were involved in several harassment incidents. “We were looking for a program to address the bullying and harassment that we were seeing,” says Jan Davis, who teaches and coordinates social and emotional learning support in the district’s middle schools. “We knew we needed something.” The module focuses on teaching students to help others, be compassionate toward them and report incidents of bullying if they become aware of them. “We have been able to stop a lot of incidents because kids reported them,” Davis says. Anchorage uses the module as a supple- ment to its basic middle school health education curriculum, which for eighthgraders covers diseases, body functions, mental health, drugs, alcohol and sex education in 45-minute classes daily for a semester. Science and physical education teachers, some certified in health education, instruct the class. In the first revision of its health instruction since the 1980s, East Lyme (Conn.) Public Schools Board of Education adopted last fall a new “Health and Balanced Living” curriculum that combines health and physical education, previously separate programs. Subjects include alcohol and other drugs, community and environmental health, mental health, personal and consumer health, nutrition, family life and sexuality, tobacco and physical activity. All subjects must be covered at every grade level, and issues like cyberbullying and “whatever else is current” are addressed in the units where they fit, says Karen Costello, the district’s administrator for program improvement. Lessons Learned At least one district is using lessons learned from the Holocaust to teach students Sex Education Districts focus on preventing teen pregnancies and diseases. ports sex education programs not based solely on abstinence. “We are very concerned that students are not being provided the best health message,” says Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, which, she continues, is that they should abstain from sex until they are married. “Obviously, there has been a policy change at the federal level, and that certainly has implications at the public school level,” says Huber. Leslie Kantor, national director for education initiatives at Planned Parenthood, which advocates “comprehensive sexuality education” programs, says that evidence supports educational programs that “help young people delay sex until they are ready and use contraception when they begin to engage in it.” In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill last year that included $7.5 million in funding for 58 family-planning centers in the state, including Planned Parenthood. Christie stated he had acted for fiscal, not ideological reasons. A bill to restore the funding was pending in the state legislature late last fall. “Abstinence classes can explain the various contraceptive choices and how they can reduce the risk of acquiring STDs or getting pregnant,” Huber says. “This discussion, however, always stresses the best health choice of abstinence as the only way to prevent all risk.” January 2011 73 Teen pregnancy Eighth-graders in the East Lyme (Conn.) Public Schools learn the risks of early pregnancy and parenthood by being given chicken eggs and told to care for them for a week as if the eggs were infants and the students were 16-year-old parents. “If they go to a basketball game, for example, or someplace else, they have to figure out what to do with their egg—take it with them or call a babysitter,” says Karen Costello, the district’s administrator for program improvement. “Some of them get very distraught, and several eggs have been dropped. But they are learning responsibilities that come with their actions.” Five districts will seek to address prevention of teen pregnancy with new federal grants announced in September by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Gary Thomas, superintendent of the San Bernardino County (Calif.) Schools, one of the grant recipients, will use some of the funding to test a pregnancy prevention curriculum in 94 ninth-grade classes, says Kim Clark, project director of the district’s teen pregnancy prevention program. Also receiving grants are the Macon County (Ga.) Board of Education, Chicago Public Schools District 299, Iredell-Statesville (N.C.) Schools, and the Arlington (Texas) Independent School District. Abstinence supporters are disappointed by the funding because it supwww.DistrictAdministration.com http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - January 2011

District Administration - January 2011
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Conversations
Crisis Response
Going Mobile
Online Edge
Professional Opinion
K12 Guide to Audio/Visual Solutions
Product Focus
What’s the Value in Value-Added?
The Politicization of Bullying
Holding On to Parent Voices
Tough New Issues Refocus Health Education
New Products
Books

District Administration - January 2011