60 Years After Brown: Education & Health Inequality

60 Years After Brown: Education & Health Inequality

This weekend marks the 60th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, which made segregation unconstitutional:

“…the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

Yet segregation and inequality is still very much alive in education today. Despite the proven benefits of integration, this nation has retreated in recent years to deeply segregated, deeply unequal conditions. From NEA:

“Today, nearly half of the nation’s students are low income. Forty-four percent are students of color, and both populations are concentrated in segregated schools.“

This inequality isn’t just limited to academic outcomes and resources. Inequality also exists when it comes to health, which in turn can impede learning readiness.

The Health Equity Gap

Health equity means that everyone has a fair opportunity to live a long, healthy life. It implies that health should not be compromised or disadvantaged because of an individual or population group’s race, ethnicity, gender, income, sexual orientation, neighborhood or other social condition.

But in fact health outcomes in the U.S. are greatly impacted by racial, geographic and socio-economic factors. For example, these factors impact rates of:

• Food insecurity and lack of access to healthy foods (also known as “food deserts”).
• Childhood obesity and associated risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and other long-term health effects.
• Teen pregnancy and birth rates.

That’s why NEA Health Information Network and other allies are actively working to take on healthy inequality through preventative programs, through programs such as our Exemplary Sexual Health Education work and Bag the Junk project.

NEA HIN is also working to meet the needs of low-income children through our Breakfast in the Classroom project.

A Closer Look at NEA HIN In Action: Tackling Hunger Head On

Educators know that when students are hungry, it’s makes learning hard.

NEA HIN’s Breakfast in the Classroom project is an innovative way for more students to participate in the federally-funded school breakfast program by moving breakfast from the cafeteria and into the classroom. All students, regardless of income, receive a free breakfast – reducing stigma that can be associated with free and reduced-price meals.

Studies have shown that when breakfast is moved into the classroom, after the start of the school day, more students are able to reap the benefits associated with the morning meal. As a result of eating breakfast, students show improvements in academic achievement, have better attendance records, exhibit fewer behavioral problems, and rates of obesity. Through NEA HIN’s Breakfast in the Classroom project, free breakfasts will be served in seven states during the 2014-2014 school year.

Equity for All

Equity is one of the cornerstones of America’s public education system. Every child deserves the right to equal access to educational opportunities. And we must do more to ensure all students are supported by a healthy, safe environment that allows children and teens to be learning-ready.

Tell us: what can be done to address education and health inequality? Share your thoughts below.

Today’s Health Educator {Part 1)

What do you remember about learning health when you were in school? Can you remember how you learned about the health risks involved with drug and alcohol abuse? Can you remember learning about the Food Pyramid? What about how to manage your stress? The truth of the matter is when asking these questions of educators today the responses of the “what” are just as vast as the responses of the “how”.” Some of you will describe experiences that occurred during a formal school experience, such as during an actual health class – we will call that “formal” health education. Some will describe experiences and memories with friends or a health-related conversation with a parent or older sibling or in other classes  – we will call that “informal” health education. And, whom are we kidding? Some won’t remember what they had for breakfast earlier in the day day!

Luckily, whether you remember every detail or just a glance, throughout our lives we have all learned messages and information about our health. Curriculum is the “what” that encompasses the knowledge, skills, and experiences of learners. It is both the planned (“formal”) and unplanned (“informal”) experiences students have in schools, both of which result in learning. When looking at the planned experiences, we can examine voluntary National Health Education Standards as well as what each state and/or school district has in place to set forth what health topics and learning objectives will be met.

State and local education agency laws or policies and procedures for implementing health education will vary greatly and dictate things such as the “who” (identify the educator/role at any given school chiefly responsible for providing ‘formal” health instruction) and the “how” (the courses and methods to be used). For example, according to the CDC’s 2012 School Health Profiles system, about 50% of schools (in the 43 participating states) reported that they require students to take two or more health education classes. Conducted every two years, the School Health Profiles is a system of surveys assessing school health policies and practices in states, large urban school districts, territories, and tribal governments. In some instances, where specific/separate health courses are not required, Health education is integrated or shares time with other content areas and the amount of time students will spend learning about health (“formally”) may be set forth through laws or policies as well. Though, health education is rarely formally assessed.

Even when a student is fortunate enough to have a formal health education experience from a certified health education specialist, is that the only health education he or she will receive? Think back on your own experiences. Think about it like this: within the school setting itself, either in other classes (outside of a formal health education setting), before and after school (on buses or in sports activities), and certainly at lunch time – our students encounter MANY unplanned experiences related to their health. That’s the thing about health, its everywhere. How do you choose to eat in the cafeteria? Why is it important not to be sedentary for long periods of time?

So, this is where magic meets logic – we, as educators who may or may not be “officially” responsible for formal health education know how important health education is. We also know that whether we plan for it to happen or not, students are naturally learning about their health all day long at school. This logical knowledge results in the following magical aha moment: wouldn’t it be helpful if we were all somewhat familiar with the actual planned health education experiences? So that when topics naturally occur, we can at least be on the right field, in the right arena, on the right train as to what students should be learning about health.

Doesn’t education work better if we all support one another’s efforts to teach our students what is intended for them to learn? This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to know how to explain technical health knowledge to students if you are a mathematics educator. What this means is, as a mathematics educator, you will be better at teaching your subject, if you can connect math skills that involve interpreting data, to real life problems such as teen prescription drug abuse. You will enable your students to make connections between the skills they learn in school and their real world applications. Educators are going to do this anyway; supporting health education with intent when making these practical connections is what we, at HIN, hope to be able to help you to do.  

You are about to embark on a journey, we will be taking a look at health education, where has it been and where could it be going; we will share experiences of educators like yourselves from all types of school settings (from classroom teachers to school nurse; representing health education in both formal and informal contexts).

Your charge is this: learn how every educator can support health education and advocate for the quality of implementation that our students deserve.

There are resources to help support your efforts and we want to share those too, we will call those “souvenirs” from our tour. You can start today by exploring two of HIN’s most recent heath curriculum resources which can be utilized in both classroom based and non-traditional education settings (i.e., by before or afterschool program leaders, food service professionals who work with students during lunchtime, etc.). Check out Healthy Steps for Healthy Lives (Nutrition and Physical Activity lessons) and Rx for Understanding: Preventing Prescription Drug Abuse (lessons to address teen prescription drug abuse).

Health education has many faces and you will see one of those faces by simply looking in the mirror. Everyone is a “Health Teacher” in some way, so please join us for our Tour of Health Education blog series. Our next stop – the Recipe for Effective Health Education – we hope two see you there!