The academic success of America’s youth is strongly linked with their health. Health literacy is essential for preparing students to be healthy and productive members of our society.
Health education is achieved through a partnership of all stakeholders: teachers, students, families, administrators, schools, and community. The task of the Beaverton School District is to create a learning environment in which all students are valued for their diversity, fostered in their wellness development, challenged, and motivated to continue learning and leading a healthy lifestyle throughout their lifetime.
The current Health curriculum was adopted by the School Board on May 14, 2018. The adoption process followed the procedures outlined in the Instructional Materials Selection Administrative Regulation II/IIA-AR.
The Great Body Shop is the Board adopted instructional resource to teach the BSD Elementary Health Learning Targets.
The lessons and activities included in the Scope & Sequence are those that teach the adopted BSD Elementary Health Learning Targets. Teachers may teach lessons from the core curriculum that are not included on this Scope & Sequence but are instructed to not go beyond the scope of the grade level curriculum or standards during instruction, including private conversations with students.
● Lesson 4: How and Where to Find Help
- Lesson 3: Drugs and Advertising
- Lesson 4: Choose to Be Drug Free
Human Sexuality Education Standards and Great Body Shop Alignment
The following lists the grade level standards addressing Human Sexuality, Gender Education, HIV/AIDS Education, and Sexual Abuse Prevention and identifies where they are taught in the Board adopted instructional resources
- Abstinence-Based Statement
- Additional Health Education Resources
- Controversial Health Issues Policies
- Erin's Law
- Health Education Question & Answer Protocol
Health Education Abstinence-Based Statement
Abstinence is a key concept in the K-12 Beaverton health education curriculum. The position of Beaverton School District is to support abstinence in a variety of contexts. Abstinence means “voluntarily choosing not to participate in a particular activity.” In the context of human sexuality and HIV/AIDS prevention programs, abstinence refers to choosing not to engage in sexual activity, including other behaviors that contribute to the spread of sexually transmitted disease/infections. Beaverton School District, in accordance with Oregon state laws and rules, mandates abstinence-based sexuality education.*
Abstinence-based sexuality education programs emphasize that abstinence is the only 100% effective way to prevent unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases/infections, HIV/AIDS, and Hepatitis B and C. Abstinence will be emphasized, but not to the exclusion of other materials and instruction on contraceptives and disease prevention methods. Abstinence-based programs are balanced, medically accurate, and include age appropriate information about condom use and other forms of contraception.
The plan of instruction for K-12 shall include information and skills-based teaching strategies that:
● Promote abstinence for school age youth
● Provide medically accurate information that is free of race, gender, and ethnic bias.
● Incorporate refusal skills and decision-making activities
● Encourage positive family communication and involvement to help students learn to make responsible, respectful and healthy decisions
● Promote healthy and consensual relationships with an uninfected partner for adults as the safest and most responsible sexual behavior
● Teach that no form of sexual expression, or behavior is acceptable when it physically or emotionally harms oneself or others and that it is wrong to take advantage of or exploit another person
● Reinforce the benefits of abstinence without devaluing or ignoring those young people who have had or are having sexual relationships or participating in sexual activities
● Provide students with information about Oregon State Laws that address young people’s rights and responsibilities relating to their sexual health*
* In accordance with: Oregon State Law 336.455, Oregon Administrative Regulation 581-22-1440 and 581-022-1440 Abstinence-based programs are supported by: Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Adolescent School Health (DASH), American Medical Association (AMA), American Psychiatric Association (APA), American Red Cross, Guttmacher Institute, Advocates for Youth, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, National Association of State Boards of Education, The Kaiser Family Foundation, Child Trends, UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, Harvard AIDS Institute, The National Commission on Adolescent Sexual Health
Beaverton School District
STUDYING CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES–BOARD POLICY
Since our society is based on the free exchange of ideas and diversity of political and social thought, it shall be the policy of this district to encourage unbiased, unprejudiced, and scientific study of controversial issues as they arise as part of the school curriculum. A controversial issue may be defined as any topic or problem which society is in the process of debating, on which there is honest disagreement. Such issues arise when different interpretations are given to a particular set of circumstances. The basic goal in study of controversial questions should be to enable the student to develop techniques for considering such questions techniques which he/she will use habitually in later life. Learning situations shall provide opportunities for the development of clear thinking, balanced judgment, intelligent choices, informed opinion, an ability to differentiate fact from opinion, and an understanding of propaganda devices. Questions treated should come within the range of the knowledge, maturity, and competence of the students. Issues selected for study should be current, significant, and of interest to the students. The teacher has the responsibility of handling controversial issues. The role of the teacher should be such as will reveal to students the processes used by the social scientist with which problems are identified, studied, and solved. The teacher shall avoid indoctrination in his/her own personal viewpoint and shall not attempt to control or limit the judgment of students. The selection of materials, guest speakers and classroom activities in general shall be done with studied impartiality for the purpose of fairly presenting all sides of an issue. The administration of this policy in the schools of the district is the immediate responsibility of the principal under the guidance of procedures established by the superintendent.
END OF POLICY Legal References: ORS 336.067 Code: INB OAR 581-022-1020 Adopted: 12/2/63 OAR 581-022-1910 Readopted: 2/9/98 Orig. Code: 6144 United States Constitution, Amendment I Oregon Constitution, Article 1 Code: INB
STUDYING CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES–AR Statement Board Policy INB
Controversial Issues clearly outlines the position of the Board on the introduction of controversial issues and speakers into the classroom.
1. At the beginning of the school year, teachers, in conjunction with a building administrator, will review the policy and guidelines concerning controversial issues and speakers, and will reevaluate the preceding year’s activities as they pertain to the use of controversial resource persons. Implementation of the policy will be evaluated continuously throughout the year to avoid oversights in procedure.
2. The teacher shall notify his/her immediate supervisor and his/her principal concerning the controversial topic he/she plans to introduce and/or the guest speaker he/she plans to utilize in his/her program. It shall be the responsibility of the principal, the department and the teacher to ensure impartiality. When opinions differ as to the advisability of addressing a particular topic or using a particular speaker, the principal shall have the final determination.
3. As appropriate, the teacher shall discuss with the guest before his/her appearance in the classroom the fact that he/she is in a school class and language and behavior should be appropriate for public school students.
4. The teacher must remain with the students while the guest speaker is with the class.
Code: INB-AR Adopted: 7/83 Readopted: 4/1/00 Orig. Code: 6000-15
CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES/CONTROVERSIAL GUEST SPEAKERS
Q: Can grade 9-12 teachers of health discuss controversial issues?
A: The role of the health teacher is to provide information and assist in building skills which will enable students to make informed decisions and build foundations for healthy lifestyles. As public school employees, teachers of health are expected to honor the diversity of our community and keep their own personal beliefs in check.
Although there are a variety of controversial issues which are health related and provide context for discussion and learning, teachers are asked to distinguish between widely shared beliefs or values and controversial issues. The Health Education Question and Answer Protocol is expected to be utilized when controversial issues arise.
Teachers of health are asked to provide instruction that is within the scope of the health education standards/targets health curriculum. Best practices in health education tell us that using the evidence based curriculum adopted by the district is the most effective way to impact student behaviors in a positive way. When providing instruction in a controversial area, all teachers need to operate within the parameters of the Board Policy, INB: Studying Controversial Issues.
Q: Can grade 9-12 teachers of health invite in guest speakers on controversial issues?
A: It shall be both the principal’s and the teacher’s responsibility to insure that the presentation be aligned to the district’s health education standards/targets for that grade level. It is also their responsibility to insure compliance with district policies and state laws. Like the teacher, it is the expectation that the guest speaker share medically and scientifically accurate information. The guest speaker must refrain from indoctrination of their own personal viewpoint and shall not attempt to limit the judgment of students.
Parents must be informed in advance of all guest speakers on controversial issues and an opportunity must be provided to opt their child out of the presentation.
Prior to the event, the teacher shall discuss the parameters of the presentation with the guest speaker. If the guest speaker agrees to the guidelines, the use of district procedures on handling sensitive topics will be expected. If the guest speaker does not stay within the district guidelines, it is the responsibility of the hosting teacher to interrupt, correct or reframe any inappropriate or misinformation. If necessary, it is the responsibility of the hosting teacher to stop the presentation. The teacher must remain with the students while the guest speaker is with the class. Arrangements for appropriate supervision shall insure a reasonable adult/student ratio.
BSD HEALTH EDUCATION STAFF GUIDELINES - Guest Speakers from Outside Agencies
The Beaverton School District, with the leadership of the Health Project Team, developed carefully crafted comprehensive health education learning targets aligned to the Oregon State Standards in Health Education. Decisions about the learning targets at specific grade levels were made after much consensus building and community input. It is expected that all presentations by guest speakers from outside agencies comply with grade level learning targets, district policies, philosophy, and state laws. It is also expected that the guest speaker employ the district guidelines for handling sensitive topics.
1. Share the following guidelines with potential presenter and determine if they can present within the following constraints:
a. District Health Education Standards/Targets linked to the presentation
b. The learning targets and curriculum agreements for the grade level(s) of the students
c. The K-12 District Abstinence-Based Statement
d. The Comprehensive Health Education Guide for the appropriate level
2. IICC-AR Classroom Guest Speaker (speaking to an entire classroom)
Note: School staff must be present at all times, managing the classroom. Guest speakers from the community are a valuable resource for enriching district curricula. Guest speakers who are presenting information to an entire class will not be required to complete a volunteer application and criminal records background check. Guest speakers must adhere to the following:
- Information presented must be educational, not promotional.
- Presenters are prohibited from gathering personally identifying information from students. It is allowable for presenters to post their name, the name of the organization with which they are affiliated, and phone number, email address, or other contact information. This contact information should be given in a neutral way. It can remain posted throughout the presentation and shall be removed when the presentation is over.
- The information presented should be age appropriate and relevant to curriculum and classroom instruction. The information must be presented in a neutral and nondiscriminatory manner.
- District representatives have a responsibility for the vetting and the supervision (maintaining a presence) of guest speakers and outside presenters. Building administrators have the authority to cancel or stop presentations deemed to be inappropriate.
3. During the event, if the presenter is not staying within the District guidelines, it is the responsibility of the hosting teacher either to stop the presentation entirely or interrupt it long enough to bring the presentation back in line with the guidelines. The hosting teacher will be expected to correct any misinformation shared with students or reframe it within District guidelines (which may include referring students to parents for further discussion.) The teacher needs to report any of those kinds of situations to the principal immediately.
1. Provide notification to parents of a controversial speaker as per Board policy, Administrative Regulations and the Health Education Guidelines for Use of Guest Speakers from outside agencies.
2. Appropriate supervision of students is the joint responsibility of the hosting teacher and the school administration. Ratios of adults to students need to be appropriate to the nature of the event/presentation.
Health Education Question & Answer Protocol
The role of the health teacher is to provide information and assist in building skills which will enable students to make informed decisions and build foundations for healthy lifestyles. The Beaverton School District recognizes that families are the primary health educators of their children. In respect for the diversity of our community, health educators are expected to distinguish between widely shared beliefs or values and controversial issues related to the learning targets in the K-12 health curriculum. Widely shared beliefs or values are those shared by most families, or specifically written into law or policy, which the teacher is, in fact, expected to teach.
Young people tend to have a lot of questions. These questions can have many different motivations. As a health teach, you will likely receive many questions that at times can be difficult to answer. The protocol listed below is intended as a guide to help you navigate and answer some of the more challenging/sensitive questions that you may receive
An important component to remember: Students won’t remember every fact you tell them, but they will remember if they felt comfortable, validated and/or reassured and whether you conveyed positive health attitudes through your words, tone of voice and facial expressions.
A – Affirm the asker.
N – Note the question as values-based.
S – State the facts.
W – What is the range of values and beliefs people have?
E – Encourage talking to family, faith leader, or another adult that they trust.
R – Remain available.
Health Education Question & Answer Protocol
A – Affirm the asker. “That’s an important issue… I’m glad you asked… A lot of people wonder that.”
N – Note the question as values-based (if it is one). “That’s a belief question. Many people, families, and religions have different answers.”
S – State the facts. “Before we look at beliefs, let’s examine a few facts…”
W – What is the range of values and beliefs people have? (This does not mean asking the class to share their personal beliefs.)
“Different people believe things about _________. What do you think some people believe?” Here the teacher has four jobs:
(1) to ensure that as complete a range of beliefs as possible is described
(2) to ensure that each belief position is expressed in as fair and even-handed a way as possible…preferably in the way the person who holds it would describe it if he/she were there
(3) to create a climate in the classroom where all beliefs are respected
(4) teachers should not be sharing personal beliefs that are not widely shared on a topic with students - Stick to the facts.
E – Encourage talking to family, faith leader, or another trusted adult.
“Since people have such different beliefs about _____, I would encourage you to find out what your families believe. Talk about it with people you trust, especially adults.”
R – Remain available. “I appreciate your question, and I want you to know that I am here as a support and resource for you.” Provide students with your school contact information and the opportunity to ask questions in a safe environment (email, question box, before/after school, etc.).
- BSD Best Practices in Health Instruction
- BSD Health Education Position Statement
- Summary of Comprehensive Sexuality Education in BSD
When observing health instruction in the Beaverton School District, one should see aspects of each of the following practices:
Purpose - A comprehensive health program teaches concepts and tools, is age and developmentally appropriate, and follows a K-12 learning progression. The health program engages students deeply in the learning process, connects to standards, broader purpose, and transferable skills.
Lessons are structured based on health content standards that are intentional, relevant, comprehensive, and designed to help students learn and apply transferable knowledge and skills.
The learning targets are measurable, clear, and displayed in student friendly language.
Lessons are created with cultural awareness including academic background and life experiences as the basis of teaching points for all students in order to ensure their success.
The learning targets, communicated through verbal and visual strategies, are used as the basis for students to check their understanding.
Provide opportunities for students to show their understanding, self-reflect, and apply their learning in meaningful and relevant context.
Student Engagement - An effective health learning environment supports student engagement in the three dimensions of health learning (mental/emotional, physical and social).
The health teacher promotes inquiry that facilitates skill development.
The health teacher serves as a facilitator of learning, creating opportunities where students respond to peers and teacher to support learning around health literacy and standards.
The health teacher is flexible and responsive in instructional strategies, while maintaining rigor during the lesson.
The health teacher’s expectations and strategies engage all students in work of high cognitive demand that focuses on understanding and application of health learning targets.
Students are productively collaborating, participating in quality discourse, and taking ownership of their learning in ways that support their health learning targets.
Students will express, clarify, justify, interpret and/or represent their ideas with others through meaningful discourse and productive academic talk.
Curriculum & Pedagogy - Curriculum and instruction engages all students with authentic, meaningful, and holistic approaches to health and wellness through the inclusion of functional information on a variety of health topics.
The health education curriculum is sequential, comprehensive and planned from grades K-12 and the instruction offers multiple opportunities for students to engage in discourse around health related topics, targets, and standards.
The health education curriculum goals clearly demonstrate a focus on developing the skills necessary for health literacy and health-enhancing behaviors.
Students are provided with clear expectations and expected outcomes for skill development, along with opportunities to practice and receive feedback based on those outcomes.
The curriculum includes up-to-date, medically and scientifically accurate, and age and developmentally appropriate information that is culturally responsive and connects to students’ home, neighborhood, community and culture.
The health teacher provides adequate instruction time, multiple opportunities, differentiated instruction, adaptations/modifications and resources to ensure student achievement, self-reliance, self-advocacy, and problem solving skills.
Lessons integrate technology to enhance instruction in meaningful and appropriate ways.
Instruction promotes student led inquiry into transdisciplinary themes around health related concepts and standards.
Assessment for Student Learning - The use of formative and summative assessments in health education are designed to measure students’ functional knowledge acquisition and skill performance.
Clearly articulated formative, summative, and performance-based assessments are designed and implemented to measure student growth and proficiency of learning targets.
Performance-based assessments will be given to allow students to demonstrate functional knowledge and skills with real world application.
The health teacher designs and implements assessments that measure student achievement of curricular objectives and has an observable system for recording data.
Students are using assessment data to monitor their progress toward proficiency.
The health teacher will use student data from formative, summative and performance- assessments to measure the effectiveness of the curriculum and instruction.
Assessments are reviewed and updated regularly to reflect current research-based practices.
Classroom Environment & Culture - Teachers will create a supportive, inclusive, challenging, and caring learning environment. Students will be provided with clear feedback, relevant activities, and opportunities to safely share their thoughts and opinions. All students, without exception, are acknowledged, appreciated, valued, and respected.
The health teacher creates an environment that is inclusive and supportive of all students, and is cognizant of race, ethnic origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or physical ability.
The health teacher’s interactions with students foster freedom of expression by encouraging respect and acceptance of others’ responses.
The health teacher develops and maintains a positive learning environment in which all students feel emotionally, socially and physically safe.
The health teacher establishes norms that recognize personal biases and encourage appreciation for varied perspectives.
Resources are made available that are inclusive of student needs, representative of student populations, and accessible to students of various cultures, languages, and identities (e.g. class libraries, technologies, student created posters, multi-lingual labels, and diagrams).
The health teacher provides guidance and support for students to engage in critical thinking within difficult topics using the BSD Difficult Questions Protocol, specifically the spectrum/ continuum strategy to acknowledge all students while simultaneously exposing them to multiple perspectives.
The academic success of America’s youth is strongly linked with their health. Health literacy is essential for preparing students to be healthy and productive members of our society. To prepare our students we must promote a skill-based learning model in which students will be able to develop, practice, and personalize the following essential health skills:
● Comprehends concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health
● Analyze the influences of family, peers, culture, media, technology, and other factors on health behaviors
● Access valid information, products, and services to enhance health
● Use interpersonal communication skills to enhance health and avoid or reduce health risks
● Use decision making skills to enhance health
● Use goal-setting skills to enhance health
● Practice health enhancing behaviors and avoid or reduce health risks
● Advocate for personal, family, and community health
-Oregon Department of Education Health Standards (2016)
Health promoting skills based on the Oregon Health Education Standards and Performance Indicators are critical components of a rigorous and balanced K-12 comprehensive health education program. To prepare students for success in life we must provide all students with a current, sequential, developmentally appropriate, accessible, diverse, and challenging curriculum that will develop critical thinkers, culturally competent community members, reflective individuals, and intrinsically motivated advocates for health and wellness. Health instruction that develops conceptual understanding and skills must reflect developmentally age appropriate curriculum, Kindergarten through 12th grade. Structures within a school will be inclusive to support adequate health instruction and skill development for all students in accordance with state laws. Proficiency on learning targets and ongoing assessment of student progress will inform instruction and assist teachers in helping their students move successfully to the next level of learning.
In order to best support teachers in implementing an effective health program, purposeful, evidence-based, and ongoing collaborative professional development will be provided to improve educational practices. At all levels, teachers need access to quality resources that deepen their knowledge, instructional and differentiation skills, and cultural competency to meet the needs of our diverse student population. A combination of materials that use multiple instructional strategies, including evidence-based intervention and extension methods, along with the use of medically accurate and inclusive instructional resources, will be required to successfully reach all students. Educators must provide students with meaningful multiple opportunities to engage with a variety of skill building tasks that reflect the diverse backgrounds, abilities, and experiences of each student. Students should practice and integrate each of the skills using relevant materials, including the most appropriate technology and literature, with multiple paths to challenge them.
Ultimately, health education is achieved through a partnership of all stakeholders: teachers, students, families, administrators, schools, and community. The task of the Beaverton School District is to create a learning environment in which all students are valued for their diversity, fostered in their wellness development, challenged, and motivated to continue learning and leading a healthy lifestyle throughout their lifetime.
Summary of Comprehensive Sexuality Education in BSD
The BSD Health Education Program is designed to offer information that results in inclusive spaces and learning environments for all of our students. It is not designed nor intended to exclude anyone. Rather, it offers information that affirms the identities and experiences of all of our students. The Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment team welcomes the opportunity to provide details toward any questions or concerns. Please reach out to Brian Sica for any additional information.
Teachers have access to board-adopted materials that “serve as the major instructional vehicle...for use by all teachers with all students.” In 2017-2018 the BSD Board adopted:
The Great Body Shop
McGraw Hill Health textbook
Rights, Respect, and Responsibility (3R’s)
Youthline, and Signs of Suicide (SOS)
Sexual Assault Resource Center
McGraw Hill Health textbook
Rights, Respect, and Responsibility (3R’s)
Youthline, and Signs of Suicide (SOS)
It is significant to note that the 3R’s Materials are only used at the secondary level. The specific 3R’s lessons that are used are directly linked from the BSD website. The curriculum identifies specific guidance for teachers to explicitly ensure that they support state standards.
Families have multiple ways to preview the materials, in addition to those that are online. Materials are available during “back to school nights”, at the main office of the school (by appointment), and at the district office (by appointment). Appointments are necessary at the school and district office for a variety of reasons including general school safety, requirements for translation, and availability of staff. Families arriving without an appointment will be accommodated as best as possible, however should expect significant wait times. However, students and families are NOT REQUIRED to preview the materials in order to opt out.
Students needing to earn high school credit in Health have additional opportunities. One possibility would be to simply work outside of the classroom during the CSE unit of their in school health course. Provided the student sufficiently demonstrated proficiency on all other targets, they would still earn credit. Online possibilities are available for students wishing to opt out of taking the in-school BSD Health course.. BSD Flex offers both full Health 1 and 2 courses, as well as Health 1 and 2 without CSE. The BSD Flex option is provided at no cost to the student or family. Additionally, the BSD staff has worked closely with the BYU Online High School to align their coursework with Oregon State Standards. Through an intense collaboration with BYU, we can demonstrate how BYU can be used to meet both Health 1 and Health 2 standards with supplements. The challenge is that BYU Health, through their own analysis, omits 34 of Oregon's Performance indicators, and insufficiently addresses additional standards both within and outside of CSE (mostly due to the “knowledge vs application” level of their work). However, using BSD Flex, we have developed BYU Supplemental courses that students can complete online along with their BYU course. These alternative options have been communicated to parent groups, all health teachers, administrators, counselors, and registrars.
Duration of CSE Unit
Secondary - Sexual Health Learning Targets are explicitly taught and addressed over the course of approximately 10 lessons (45 min lessons at the middle level & 90 min at the high school level). This timeframe may vary depending on the school and teacher. There may be overlap of the Sexual Health Learning Targets within other health units. For example, the topic of consent is addressed during Health 1 in both the Drug Prevention and Sexual Health Units.
Standards and Progression through Age
Role Play - “Role-playing cultivates perspective and empathy. Students strive to understand the experiences of others, even if they do not agree with them. Students imagine the narrative, transform a text into three dimensions, create alternative scenarios and see the impact of their choices.” - United Federation of Teachers.
Guidance for Secondary Role Play:
See Link to the Secondary Guidance on Role Play (also found within the Secondary Comprehensive Health Guides)v