School Health Education Program Evaluation

The evaluation of the Comprehensive and Coordinated Health Education (CCHE) pilot project will be conducted over the 2015-16 school year in 25 Chicago Public Schools (20 Elementary; 5 High Schools). The CCHE project will engage school administrators and teachers to effectively provide health education to all students grades PreK-12.

The CCHE pilot evaluation will be focused on short-term school-level outcomes due to the limitations in the scope and timeline of the project (one school year and limited funding) and likelihood of impact on other long-term outcomes such as improvements in student health and academics. The purpose of the pilot is to inform the CPS Office of Student Health and Wellness on best practices for implementation with school staff and administrators in order to implement the program district-wide, therefore the evaluation will concentrate on this approach and will not evaluate student-level intake of health education knowledge and skills (as these are more intermediate outcomes). The following questions will be assessed as a component of this intervention:

As a result of participation in the intervention:
1. Did school staff knowledge, attitudes and norms on effective delivery of CCHE improve?
2. Did school staff usage of CPS Health Education resources improve?
3. Did student participation in school-based health services improve?
4. Did the school improve access for students to an overall healthy school environment?
5. Did school staff delivery of health education lessons improve?

Target Population: School administrators, teachers, counselors and other school staff providing delivery of the CCHE program in 25 pilot schools.

-Experience in qualitative research methods
-Experience in school-based research and/or health education program implementation
-Desire for improving educational experiences of low-income youth in an urban setting
-Desire to participate in a community-based evaluation project

October 1, 2015 - July 1, 2016

• Participation in quarterly conference calls with the CPS Office of Student Health and Wellness
• Participation in revisions of evaluation data collection materials
• Data entry and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data collected at the 25 schools
• Development of written reports of evaluation outcomes

September 17, 2015