Healthier Students Are Better Learners Discussion

Description

You will read an article about recommended policies and practices to close achievement gaps in schools that are causally related to students’ health. Next, you will respond to reflection prompts about the article.

Purpose

To develop the following National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) 2020 areas of responsibility and competency:

• Area I: Assessment of Needs and Capacity

To develop the following SOPHE 2019 Health Education Teacher Preparation Standards:

• Standard 2: Assessing Needs

Procedures

Resources

In the D2L content folder labeled Resources, locate the following item:

Article: Basch, C. (2011b). Healthier students are better learners: High-quality, strategically planned, and effectively coordinated school health programs must be a fundamental mission of schools to help close the achievement gap. Journal of School Health, 81, 650-662.

This article is a continuation of the Basch (2011a) article and (2010) report. In this article, Basch recommends ways to address the health disparities that impact students’ motivation and ability to learn.

Prompts

Respond in complete sentences to the reflection prompts below:

1. According to Basch (2011b), schools may not be able to address all of the conditions that cause educational or health disparities, but students are entitled to certain rights. What are at least five of these rights and how do they relate to students’ motivation and ability to learn?

2. Basch discusses three elements necessary for effective and efficient school health programs.

a. List these three elements.

For each element:

b. Explain (in your own words!) what the element means. Provide examples.

c. Explain why the element is important for the effective and/or efficient coordination of school health programs.

d. Identify and describe challenges associated with the element.

3. Starting on page 654, Basch recommends how various national, state, and local entities or efforts could support school health. These entities and efforts are:

1. Leadership from the U.S. Department of Education
2. Policy Development
3. Guidance, Technical Assistance, and Professional Development
4. Accountability and Data and Software Systems
5. Research Agenda

Imagine you have been invited to head up one of these entities or efforts. Select one that interests and respond to the following prompts.

a. What is your entity or effort and how does it relate to improving school health? Describe the entity’s or effort’s components and how those components could improve school health. Be specific, provide, and cite your sources within your response.

b. Of the recommendations listed for your entity or effort, which would be your top three if you had the resources to implement them? Why?

c. Of the recommendations listed, which do you think would be the most challenging to implement? Why? How could these challenges be overcome?

Assignment Submission Directions

1. Remove my directions. Your work should look professional.
2. Include your name at the top.
3. Use Arial, Time New Roman, or a similar font style; use 10, 11, or 12-point font
4. Double or single-spaced is fine.
5. Cite all sources using APA format. Not sure how to do that?
   1. OWL: In-Text Citation Guide
   2. OWL: Reference List Rules
6. Save your file as a .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdf. Other formats cannot be opened in D2L.
7. Submit to the appropriate D2L Assignments folder. Emailed assignments are not accepted.

Grading Criteria