CDC offers schools new tool for assessing health education instruction
By Kimberly Beltran
Friday, July 19, 2013
School districts and other educational agencies have access to a new online tool to help them review, select or develop appropriate and effective health education curricula based on national standards.
The Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool, or HECAT, was recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and offers guidance, analysis tools, scoring rubrics and other resources for examining a district’s health care curriculum. The HECAT is customizable to meet local community needs and state or local curriculum requirements.
Aligned with the National Health Education Standards and CDC’s “Characteristics of an Effective Health Education Curriculum,” the HECAT is designed to help schools select or develop appropriate and effective health education curricula and improve the delivery of health education.
“Good health and academic success go hand in hand. Healthy children make better students, and better students become healthy, successful adults who are productive members of their communities,” state officials wrote during the 2008 adoption of the Health Education Content Standards for California Public Schools.
But students throughout California and the U.S. have continued to face serious challenges to good health: obesity and diabetes are rising at alarming rates; asthma continues to be a leading cause of student absences; and too many adolescents continue to make choices that negatively impact their lives. As a result, state legislators continually