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| Team Colorado |
For nearly a decade, Colorado has been promoting the Coordinated School Health model with funding support from both public and private sources. As of 2010, an estimated 300 Colorado schools have school health teams. While the number of school teams continues to grow, state leaders have had no consensus as to the criteria that define a healthy school. Using a consensus process, the Co-Directors of the Colorado’s Coordinated School Health Initiative solicited input from nearly 500 stakeholders within the eight areas of coordinated school health to identify those policies and practices that represent the highest standards of performance. Building on current assessment tools such as CDC’s School Health Index, the Co-Directors for Coordinated School Health solicited input from content experts from the eight content areas of Coordinated School Health to select those scoring elements that best suited Colorado laws and policies. The assessment criteria included legislatively mandated requirements, performance standards and policies generally recognized to advance the practice of school health.
As an incentive to encourage broad use of the Scorecard, the Coordinated School Health Co-Directors from the Departments of Education and Public Health and Environment organized a Commissioner’s healthy schools award ceremony in2010, with cash awards to be given to “Healthy Schools Champions” meeting the formal criteria of what constitutes a healthy school in Colorado. Cash awards were allotted for the top 15 schools: five $5,000 winners and ten $1,000 winners without regard to the level of instruction (e.g., elementary, middle or high schools had equal weight). “Champion schools” were selected based on four criteria: 1) the raw score of the eight components, 2) the quality of success stories, 3) four letters of support from the principal, a teacher, a parent, and a student; and 4) Interviews. All schools scoring in the top quartile received a Healthy School Champion banner, and the top 15 also received a monetary award.
Highlights of this very successful effort include:
- Colorado has now created an agreed upon set of indicators that can help schools to work towards healthy practices within each of the eight component areas of Coordinated School Health and a way to help schools define the progress they have made, as well as those areas where additional work needs to be focused.
- The Co-Directors of Coordinated School Health in Colorado have initiated a voluntary, self-assessment process by which school teams can assess their policies and practices across the eight component areas of Coordinated School health.
- The Healthy School Champion Score Card, has created consensus around the criteria that constitute healthy school environments allowing school teams to assess the current state of their efforts, to monitor their progress over time and to compete for recognition with other school teams across the state.
- Through a local foundation, funding has now been secured to bring this effort to the next level by creating a virtual, one-stop web environment that couples the assessment tool with training and grant funding resources.
- Colorado is institutionalizing Coordinated School Health through an annual school recognition “School Health Champion” event to honor schools identified as the healthiest schools across the state.
Jon Gallegos
jon.gallegos@state.co.us http://www.cde.state.co.us/HealthAndWellness/HealthySchoolsChampions.htm
