• The health education curriculum is the primary means through which schools deliver health education. Without a curriculum, teachers would not know what to teach and would not know the expectations of their school district or school. • The curriculum clarifies what health content is important, what information is essential, and what students should be able to do as a result of participation in health education. It should exemplify what is expected to be achieved in health education. • It provides the foundation for what students should learn and how teachers should teach. It guides how teaching and learning will achieve health outcome expectations.

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To adequately utilize the HECAT, a health education curriculum should contain specific elements. • A set of expected learning outcomes or learning objectives that contributes to making health-promoting decisions, achieving health literacy, and adopting health-enhancing behaviors, including promoting the health of others. • A planned progression of developmentally appropriate lessons or learning experiences that lead to achieving these objectives. • Continuity between lessons or learning experiences that clearly reinforce the adoption and maintenance of specific health-enhancing behaviors. • Accompanying content or materials that correspond with the sequence of learning events and help teachers and students meet the learning objectives. • Assessment strategies to determine if students achieved the desired learning. • A curriculum is an educational plan incorporating a structured, developmentally appropriate series of intended learning outcomes and associated learning experiences for students. • A curriculum is generally organized as a related combination or series of school-based materials, content, and events. • A health education curriculum includes those learning strategies and experiences delivered in the classroom setting that provide students with opportunities to acquire the attitudes, knowledge and skills necessary for making health-promoting decisions, achieving health literacy, and adopting

Why was it developed? Ensure that the HE curriculum that are chosen are supported by effective/best practice and are effective in promoting Healthy behavior Instead of having teachers or schools choose curriculum or develop their own curriculum the HECAT allows a process that can lead to the most appropriate and effective curricula It is not a tool to evaluate the effectiveness of a curriculum

Developed a framework for assessment based on preliminary characteristics of effective programs.(2002)

Assembled expert advisory group (2003) Advisory group emphasized

Need to focus on essential health topics Priority issues that should be analyzed Curriculum content analysis needed to complement school frameworks (National Health Education Standards)

Synthesized research related to effective programs. (2004) Developed based on 14 characteristics of effective health education.

Focuses on a specific behavior

Is research based and theory driven Addresses individual values Focuses on increasing the personal

perception of risk factors Addresses social pressure and influences

It is intended to assess the written curriculum It is important to understand that it is not about delivering content it’s about giving students the tools to adopt or maintain healthy behaviors.

Contains guidance and analysis items for a complete analysis of health education curricula that reflects research, characteristics of effective curricula, NHES, and expert opinion and interests.

Can analyze single-topic (e.g., tobacco) or multi-topic curricula (comprehensive).

Can be used to select a commercially-packaged curricula and review/improve locally-developed curricula.

Single content curricula Single grade or multiple grade level curricula Comprehensive curricula

In summary – • The purpose of the HECAT is to provide state, regional and local education agencies with a common set of analysis tools to assist with the selection or development of health education curricula. • The HECAT contains guidance, analysis tools, scoring rubrics, and resources for carrying out a clear, complete, and consistent examination of health education curricula. • The HECAT results can help your school select or develop appropriate and effective health education curricula, strengthen the delivery of health education, and improve the ability of health educators to influence healthy behaviors and healthy outcomes among school-age youth. • The HECAT is customizable to meet your local community needs and conform to the curriculum requirements of the state or school district. • Health education is but one of several interventions and factors that can influence and improve the healthy behaviors and outcomes of students. Other notes: Health education is an essential component of a school health program

How is the HECAT organized?

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Includes an overview of school health education, background information about reviewing and selecting health education curricula, guidance to consider during a curriculum review, and tools to analyze commercially packaged or locally developed school-based health education curricula.

Chapter 1 (Instructions) provides step-by-step guidance for conducting a health education curriculum review. It includes essential background information and instructions for using the HECAT to review and improve locally developed curriculum.

Chapter 2 (General Curriculum Information) guides the user in collecting descriptive information about the curriculum, including the developer and the year of development, topic areas, and grade levels.

Chapter 3 (Overall Summary Forms) provides directions and customizable templates for summarizing ratings scores for the appraisal of a single curriculum or comparing scores across curricula, using the analysis items from multiple chapters. Contains three forms

 Individual Curriculum Summary Scores – allows consolidation of scores for a single curriculum.  Multiple Curriculum Comparison Scores – allows comparison of scores across multiple curricula or grade groups.  Notes – provides space to capture critical comments from the review process

Chapter 4 (Preliminary Curriculum Considerations) provides guidance and tools to appraise the accuracy and acceptability of curriculum content, feasibility of curriculum implementation, and affordability of the curriculum materials including cost of implementation.

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Accuracy — to assess the accuracy of the health, medical, and scientific information in the written health education curriculum.

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Acceptability—to analyze how well the curriculum aligns with social norms among students, families, community member; and, to analyze if cultural and other aspects of the school and community are acceptable.

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Feasibility — to determine if the health education curriculum content, materials, and instructional strategies can be successfully implemented and used by health education teachers within the available instructional time and with the existing facilities and equipment

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Affordability — to assess how affordable the curriculum appears to be, for example, to determine the costs of sustaining curricular materials annually, what funds are available for curriculum purchase and implementation, or needed changes in staffing, facilities, or schedule so that lessons in the curriculum can be implemented as written.

These are essential characteristics of any curriculum. Scoring sheets are aligned toward health education curricula. The curriculum fundamentals require that you go deeper into the lessons. You will be examining the learning objectives, the design of the teaching materials are they easy to follow, and available,

Further, it features an integration of the National Health Education Standards (on the left), and the application of those skills to promote the behaviors needed to prevent the highest priority health and safety Alcohol and Other Drug Use, Nutrition, Physical Activity, Sexual Behaviors, Tobacco, Unintentional Injury and Violence are included because they represent the behaviors that account for most of the morbidity and mortality experienced by young people or they are behaviors established in youth that will account for most of the premature morbidity and mortality that today’s young people will experience in adulthood. Personal Health and Wellness is a general category that includes a number of important health issues that are not covered by the other seven categories, as well as basic practices that are fundamental to good health and hygiene. The items assessing Standards 2-7 also address Functional Skills Knowledge and General Skills Development, the building blocks of health literacy that are the foundation for the more content-specific