SOPHE - Recognized by CAEP as a SPA for Health Education Teacher Preparation
Society for Public Health Education
April 30, 2021 Volume 1, Issue 5
Table of Contents
  • Chair Update
  • SPA Newsletter
  • Hot off the Press
  • Trainings
  • Resources
  • Calendar
Message from the CEO Elaine Auld, MPH, MCHES®
SOPHE Chief Executive Officer

The SOPHE 2021dX virtual conference featured some 300 presenters, 250 presentations, and 100 posters, including a special track addressing school health education. On Friday, April 9, Donna Harris-Aiken, Department of Education (DE) Senior Advisor for Policy and Planning, briefed participants on the newly released DE guidance for re-opening schools safely during COVID-19. Harris-Aiken and additional panelists Kayla Jackson, AASA (School Superintendents Association), and Vito Borello, National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE), discussed the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on students of color, LBGTQ students, students with disabilities, and those from low-income, rural areas, and other backgrounds.

As districts and schools re-open to in-person learning, the panelists also stressed the importance of meeting students’ social, emotional, mental, and physical health needs exacerbated by the pandemic and the unprecedented move to virtual learning, as well as supporting the well-being and stability of teachers and staff. A variety of strategies for re-engaging students, families, administrators, teachers, school counselors, nurses, and many other stakeholders in the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model were also offered. 

Health education teacher candidates entering this “new” 2021 school environment must be adequately equipped to address the many challenges presented by COVID-19. Dealing with students’ SEL needs will be tantamount, as well as ensuring the nascent teachers have the pedagogical theory base and skills for distance education. As faculty, you also must ensure candidates have the advocacy and communication skills needed to use this “teachable moment” in history to underscore the importance of school health education to key stakeholders. School and community health educators have no better opportunity to stress the foundation of school health education for students’ life-long health literacy and health decision-making.
 
SOPHE looks forward to continuing to support health education faculty and teachers by providing ongoing pre-service and in-service tools and resources. Be sure to see details below on our upcoming SPA Training on June 14th and 21st. Access to the 2021dx plenary session recording and slides, as well as other school health presentations during the conference, will soon be made available for purchase on SOPHE’s eLearn Center for Online Resources and Education. Stay tuned to this newsletter and the SOPHE website for further information.  
Creating Rubrics

When applying for recognition as a nationally recognized health education teacher preparation program, an application must include 6-8 “Assessments” as evidence of alignment with the national standards. An “Assessment” includes

  • a description of an assignment required of all health education teacher candidates sometime during the four-year course of study
  • a copy of the instrument used to evaluate the assignment,
  • rubrics used for scoring the instrument, and
  • data from administration of the instrument.

Rubrics need to parse each factor considered in assigning a score. They also need to define clearly what acceptable and unacceptable performance would look like. Some faculty use a 3-point scale, some a 5-point scale, and others might use some other scale. The sample below from the guidance document prepared by SOPHE (Look under “Resources” for how to order a copy) could be used for either a 3- or 5-point. It might be used in a lesson plan or other similar “Assessment” that provided opportunities for candidates to demonstrate that they had mastered Standard 3a:

  • STANDARD 3: PLANNING. Candidates use needs assessment data, health education standards, and principles of learning to plan cohesive, sequential lessons and units that include ways to accommodate students’ differing strengths and needs and that use 21st Century technology in order to support students’ acquisition of functional health knowledge, health-related skills, and health beliefs. *Component 3a: Candidates apply data to guide prioritizing and planning health instruction that addresses identified strengths and needs of learners within the classroom, school, and home or community context.
Any assignment such as a lesson plan might address multiple standards and components, with each one being identifiable in the rubrics. The sample (below) shows how an Assessment’s rubric might address multiple Standards and components. 
Notice, that the headers for the columns in the two samples use different adjectives to define levels of performance. Any similar designation is acceptable. Rubrics should be specific to the assignment and the instrument, not generic. The SOPHE Guidance document is intended to provide generic samples, not rubrics to copy unless they fit the specifics expected of candidates for a given assignment. 


Call for SPA Reviewers

One or more of the following qualifications:

  • K-12 health teacher with a degree in health education + teaching experience
  • Secondary school health teacher with National Board Certification in health education
  • K-12 District-level health education coordinator, with a master’s degree in health education + health education teaching experience
  • Graduate degree in health education + experience with health education teacher preparation 
  • (M)CHES® +master’s degree in health education + experience in school health education
  • (M)CHES® +expertise in curriculum development + master’s degree in health education

Training and CHES credits provided for reviewers

New Emergency Management Virtual Toolkit for Institutions of Higher Education

Preparation for SPA Recognition
SOPHE’s 2019 Health Education Teacher Preparation Manual is a guidance document for institutions seeking national recognition of their health education teacher preparation program. It includes a detailed description of the knowledge base underlying each of the six HETP standards and 28 components, information on the required assessments to show that teacher candidates can demonstrate the expected knowledge and skills, sample rubrics, exemplars and templates, and information on SOPHE’s SPA process. The manual is essential for faculty overseeing health education teacher preparation programs and can be useful for states and policymakers concerned with health education teacher performance.

Other Resources
Additional resources to assist professional preparation programs:

ASHA Schools Connect 2021
Don't miss this curated, comprehensive, and convenient online experience focused exclusively on all things schools.

We have been holding highly rated online conferences for more than a decade, providing convenient, comprehensive, and interactive learning. Whether you've attended Connect before or this is your first time, join us online July 14–26, 2021, for an enhanced Connect experience!

Education and Connection

For 13 days, you will have access to on-demand and live sessions as well as online posters—all available for CE credit! Take away practical, apply-today strategies and tools on an array of topics directly relevant to your work in schools and your interactions with students, teachers, parents, paraeducators, administrators, and others. 

Via text discussion boards as well as real-time video discussions, you will connect with expert presenters and fellow SLPs who experience the same challenges and share your passion for working with children. You will also connect with product and service providers in the virtual exhibit hall.

Registration opens April 12, 2021
IUHPE CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Under the conference theme “Promoting policies for health, well-being and equity”, the call for abstracts is now open for the 24th IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion – IUHPE 2022, being held in Montréal (Québec) Canada from 15 to 19 May 2022. Submissions can be made in English, French and Spanish.

We invite all abstract submitters, including individual contributors, to interact and collaborate with other presenters and participants wherever possible. Participatory, collaborative and non-traditional session formats will be given priority in the selection process.

Abstracts can be submitted in eight different formats: 1) symposium, 2) workshop, 3) research oral/poster presentation, 4) innovation in policy and practice oral/poster presentation, 5) round table discussion, 6) alternative showing/new technology, 7) alternative showing/art, and 8) lunch with an author. For additional information on each of these formats, please visit IUHPE.

For instructions on how to submit an abstract and all guidelines, please see the call for abstracts.

The deadline to submit an abstract is Friday 17 September 2021. Registration and hotel reservations for the 24th IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion will open in May.

We look forward to welcoming you to Montreal in May 2022. For any questions, please contact the IUHPE 2022 Conference Secretariat – JPdL (iuhpe2022@jpdl.com).
Information
  • Two 2-hour sessions with assignment.
  • For teams of 2-3 people who will be working on an application for national recognition of a health education teacher preparation program.

Registration: 
  • $175 for National member on the team
  • $275 No team members are National members

Includes one copy of the SOPHE guidance manual. Register Now!