CDC's School Health Education Resources (SHER)
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: What is SHER?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) School Health Education Resources (SHER) is a user-friendly tool to help
teachers find CDC’s school health
education resources.
Q2: What is the purpose of CDC's SHER?
The purpose of SHER is to help school district staff easily locate
school health education instructional resources for grades pre-K–12. The resources
in SHER are aligned with the National Health Education Standards. SHER
supports CDC’s mission to promote healthy behaviors.
Q3: Who can use SHER?
SHER is designed to be used by preK–12
classroom teachers, health education teachers, and other staff in school
districts such as curriculum directors or specialists, school health
coordinators, or principals. Additional users of SHER might include
- Other school administrators.
- School nurses.
- Students.
- Parents and guardians.
- Public health educators.
- College or university health education faculty.
- College or university students majoring in education or health
education, or public health with a concentration in school health
education.
- School health education curriculum committee members.
- School Health Council or Team members.
Q4: Why does CDC develop health education resources?
CDC is the principal agency in the United States government charged
with promoting the health and quality of life of all people by
preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability, and by
ensuring that our nation is prepared for any emergencies or crises that
affect the health and well-being of American citizens. As the nation’s
prevention agency, CDC accomplishes its mission by working with partners
throughout the United States and the world to
- Monitor health.
- Detect and investigate health problems.
- Conduct research to enhance prevention.
- Develop and advocate sound public health policies.
- Implement prevention strategies.
- Promote healthy behaviors.
- Foster safe and healthful environments.
- Provide leadership and training.
Educating the public is a key function in supporting CDC’s
mission. School health education teachers, other classroom teachers, and
curriculum specialists are essential participants in and contributors to
CDC’s mission. Not only can they deliver scientifically-based health
instruction and promote healthy lifestyle behaviors to more than 54
million
students each school day, they also can inspire and prepare the parents,
public health workers, and health educators of the future.
Q5: What kinds of school health education resources are available
from the CDC?
CDC has developed a wide variety of
scientific materials, instructional resources, and tools for use by
classroom teachers. SHER provides the sole comprehensive, user-friendly
place to browse and access these resources, which include
- Curricula and lessons.
- Teacher instructional materials.
- Student materials.
- Fact sheets.
Q6: How is SHER organized?
The health education resources are organized by
- Topic.
- Grade level groupings (preK–2; 3–5; 6–8; and 9–12).
- A description of the resource.
- URL link.
- Applicable National Health Education Standards (NHES).
- Applicable Characteristics of
Effective Health Education
Curricula.
- Availability in other languages.
Q7: What are the National Health Education Standards?
The National Health Education Standards guide the expectations for student learning and
achievement. A feature of SHER is to assist teachers in linking key health-related skills and
knowledge for planning curriculum, lessons, and educational activities.
Q8: What are the Characteristics of Effective Health Education
Curricula?
The Characteristics of Effective
Health Education
Curricula have
been identified by CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health based
upon reviews of effective programs and curricula, and input from school health education
experts. They are included as a feature
of SHER to assist teachers and
others in planning effective health education curriculum, lessons, and
educational activities.
Q9: How does my state or school district's health education
standards fit into SHER?
The National Health Education Standards form the foundation for most
state and local education agencies health education standards.
Q10: How can using SHER add to the resources that my district
provides for health education?
SHER can be used to
- Identify additional science-based information and instructional
materials that are aligned with the National Health Education
Standards and characteristics of effective health education
curriculum.
- Identify new curriculum and materials that are
affordable and feasible to implement.
- Provide additional resources that can help strengthen your
health education curriculum or selection processes.
Q11: How can my school district or school strengthen school health
education?
SHER was developed to provide educators with user-friendly and free
access to CDC’s instructional resources for health education. CDC’s School Health Index (SHI),
a self-assessment tool, can be used to determine the extent to which
your school implements the types of policies and practices recommended
by the CDC in its research-based
guidelines related to health education. The SHI is easy to use and is available online as an interactive tool.
Suggested outcomes for a
comprehensive school health education curriculum, NHES performance
indicators, and other state and national resources are also available on
SHER.
Q12: Where can we get help in planning a health education curriculum?
There are several resources available to assist you with health
education and curriculum planning. First, contact the curriculum
director for health education or school health coordinator in your
school district, or the health education consultant or the coordinated
school health program director in your state education agency. Other
curriculum experts include
- Lead health education teachers or mentor teachers in your
district or other school districts.
- Instructional staff from local or state college or university
health education teacher preparation programs.
- State-based professional health education organizations.
- Reputable consultants with expertise in health education
curricula.
- National professional organizations.
Many school health educators are members of national professional
associations that represent health education teachers, including the
American Association for Health Education (AAHE)* and the
American School
Health Association (ASHA).*
| * |
Links to non-Federal organizations are provided solely as a service to our users. Links do not constitute an endorsement of any organization by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. The CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at this link. |
|
