Current Research

School Nutrition Education Program

Research supports the link between students’ health status, their behaviors, and their success in school. Making the Connection: Health and Student Achievement, a presentation produced by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, and the Society of State Directors of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, looks at each of the eight component areas of coordinated school health programs and their impact on student success in school. For a summary of the most current research showing the links between healthy behaviors and improved academic achievement, order your free CD.

The eight components of a coordinated school health program are:

• Family and community involvement,
• Comprehensive school health education,
• Physical education,
• School health services,
• Counseling, psychological, and social services,
• School nutrition services,
• Healthy school environment, and
• School-site health promotion for staff.

Links to the most current research, excerpted from Making the Connection: Health and Student Achievement, for the nutrition and physical activity components of coordinated school health programs are provided.

Comprehensive School Health Education

Comprehensive health education curriculum, of which nutrition education is a part, is designed to address all aspects of health, including the physical, mental, emotional, and social dimensions. Curriculum is the written program approved by the school district, or what and how the teachers teach. Curriculum is age-appropriate for the student. Comprehensive school health education is designed to increase students’ knowledge and their ability to use that knowledge to make healthy decisions.(See footnote 1)

Students who receive comprehensive school health education increase their health knowledge, and improve their health-related skills and behaviors.(See footnote 2)

Curricula that have research that indicates its effectiveness have been proven to assist students in establishing and maintaining healthy behaviors.(See footnote 3, 4) The Division of Community Health promotes evidence-based nutrition curricula for use in Missouri schools.

A study of third and fourth grade students that included a control group of students who did not receive comprehensive school health education and an experimental group that did, showed that students who received comprehensive school health education scored higher than the control group on assessments in reading and math. (See footnote 5)

Parents nationwide want comprehensive school health education. In a nationally representative survey funded by the U.S. Department of Education, 73 percent of adults felt that health education in schools was “definitely necessary.” This level of support mirrors other polls and surveys conducted with parents, administrators, and students regarding the importance of health education. (See footnote 6)

Physical Education

The other curricular area of a coordinated school health program is physical education. Physical education involves promoting lifelong physical activity through a planned, sequential, K through 12 curriculum. Physical education focuses on the cumulative development of fitness and motor skills as well as on enhancing mental, social, and emotional abilities through cooperative and team building activities. (See footnote 1)

Physical activity among adolescents is consistently related to higher levels of self-esteem and lower levels of anxiety and stress. (See footnote 7)

The health and mental health benefits of regular physical activity from physical education are positively associated with enhanced academic performance. Specifically, researchers report that there is enough evidence that relates the effects of physical activity on academic ratings to suggest this association deserves more attention. Additionally, teachers who participated in this study reported improvement in students’ classroom behavior. (See footnote 8)

Students who participated in school physical education programs did not experience a harmful effect on their standardized test scores, though less time was available for other academic subjects. (See footnote 9, 10, 11)

School Nutrition Services

School nutrition services involves much more than school lunches. An effective program integrates an attractive meal program with nutrition education and a food environment that promotes healthy eating behaviors for all children. School nutrition is focused on lifelong benefits.(See footnote 1)Ensuring that schools offer nutritious, appealing choices whenever and wherever food and beverages are available on campus is an important policy objective of many programs.

Hunger impacts students’ academic achievement and health in profound ways. In national health data, children aged 6 to 11 who reported not having enough food to eat, referred to in this report as “food insufficient”, were more likely to have significantly lower arithmetic scores, were more likely to have repeated a grade, were more likely to have seen a psychologist, and were more likely to have had difficulty getting along with other children.(See footnote 12)

In teenagers, the results of food insufficiency were dramatic: they were more than twice as likely to have seen a psychologist, almost three times as likely to have been suspended from school, almost twice as likely to have difficulty getting along with others, and four times as likely to have no friends. (See footnote 12) These findings speak to the critical need for school nutrition programs so that students can thrive in and out of the classroom.

School nutrition programs have a tremendous impact on students’ behavior and their academic achievement. School breakfast programs often provide a healthy start for the day that may not otherwise be available. One study found that students who participated in school breakfast programs demonstrated increased learning and academic achievement outcomes, greater attention to academic tasks, reduced visits to the school nurse, and fewer behavioral problems. (See footnote 13)

Another study of school breakfast programs demonstrated improvements in absenteeism and tardiness among low-income elementary school children.(See footnote 14) School breakfast programs can ensure that young people get the nutritious meals they need to succeed in the classroom.

School-Site Health Promotion for Staff

School-site health promotion for staff focuses on assessment, education and fitness activities for school faculty and staff. By practicing healthy behaviors at school, administrators, teachers, and other staff not only maintain and improve their health and well-being, but also become role models for the students in their care. (See footnote 1) This type of reinforcement is critical to sustaining healthy behaviors for both adults and students.

Teachers who participated in a health promotion program focusing on exercise, stress management, and nutrition reported increased participation in exercise and lower weight, better ability to handle job stress, and a higher level of general well-being. (See footnote 15)

Students benefit from having healthy teachers as well because their teachers are more energetic and absent less often. This means more days with their regular teacher in the classroom rather than a substitute. Healthy adults in the school also contribute to a more positive and optimistic environment.(See footnote 16)

References

All references are excerpted from Making the Connection: Health and Student Achievement, developed with support provided by two cooperative agreements with the Division of Adolescent and School Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30341. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Association of State and Territorial Health Officials cooperative agreement number U87/CCU310224. Society of State Directors of Health, Physical Education and Recreation cooperative agreement number U87/CCU316620.

FOOTNOTES:
1. Marx, E., Wooley, S.F., and Northrup, D. (Eds.) (1998). Health is Academic: A Guide to Coordinated School Health Programs. Washington, D.C.: Education Development Center, Inc.
2. Connell, D., Turner, R., and Mason, E. (1985). Summary of findings of the school health education evaluation: Health promotion effectiveness, implementation, and costs. Journal of School Health, 55(8),316-321.
3. Botvin, G.J., Griffin, K.W., Diaz, T., Ifill-Williams, M. (2001) Preventing binge drinking during early adolescence: one-and two-year follow-up of a school-based preventive intervention. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 15(4),360-365.
4. Dent, C., Sussman, S., Stacy, A., Craig, S., Burton, D. Flay, B. (1995). Two year behavior outcomes of project towards no tobacco use. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63(4),676-677.
5. Schoener, J., Guerrero, F., and Whitney, B. (1988). The effects of the Growing Healthy program upon children’s academic performance and attendance in New York City. Report from the Office of Research, Evaluation and Assessment to the New York City Board of Education.
6. Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning. (1998). What Americans believe students should know: a survey of U.S. adults, 39-45, http://www.mcrel.org/products/standards/survey.asp, (May 23, 2003).
7. Calfas, K. and Taylor, W. (1994). Effects of physical activity on psychological variables in adolescents. Pediatric Exercise Science, 6,406-423.
8. Dwyer, T., Blizzard, L., and Dean, K. (1996). Physical activity and performance in children. Nutrition Reviews, 54(4),S27-S31.
9. Sallis, J., McKenzie, T., Kolody, B., Lewis, M., Marshall, S., and Rosengard, P. (1999). Effects of health-related physical education on academic achievement: Project SPARK. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 70(2),127-134.
10. Shepard, R.J. (1996). Habitual physical activity and academic performance. Nutrition Reviews, 54(4 supplement), S32-S36.
11. Dwyer, T., Coonan, W.E., Leitch, D.R., Hetzel, B.S., and Baghurst, R.A. (1983). An investigation of the effects of physical activity on the health of primary school students in Australia. International Journal of Epidemiology, (12)3,308-313.
12. Alaimo, K., Olson, C.M., and Frongillo, E.A. (2001). Food insufficiency and American school-aged children’s cognitive, academic, and psychosocial development, 108(1),44-53.
13. Murphy, J., Pagano, M., Nachmani, J., Sperling, P., Kane, S., and Kleinman, R. (1998). The relationship of school breakfast to psychosocial and academic functioning. Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine, 152,899-907.
14. Meyers, A., Sampson, A., Weitzman, M., Rogers, B., and Kayne, H. (1989). School breakfast program and school performance. American Journal of Diseases of Children, 143,1234-1239.
15. Blair, S., Collingwood, T., Reynolds, R., Smith, M., Hagan, D., and Sterling, C. (1984). Health promotion for educators: Impact on health behaviors, satisfaction, and general well-being. American Journal of Public Health, 74(2),147-149.
16. Symons, C.W., Cummings, C.D., Olds, R.S. (1994). Healthy People 2000: An agenda for school site health promotion programming. In: Allensworth, D.D., Symons, C.W., Olds, R.S., Healthy Students 2000: An Agenda for Continuous Improvement in America’s Schools. Kent, OH: American School Health Association, 1994.