Advocates and Researchers Working Together to Improve School Health Education

Purpose: This article discusses the need for continued evaluation of health education interventions/curricula and provides tools and resources to facilitate the selection of appropriate, evidencebased interventions/curricula for school health education programs. Methods: We review the literature related to the evaluation of school health education programs, provide a review of the basics for understanding evaluation design and results, and identify resources for selecting effective curricula. Conclusions: There is a need for additional rigorously designed evaluations of school health education programs. School health educators and other advocates for school health education must have a basic understanding of evaluation design and how to interpret research results. Recommendations: Advocacy efforts should encourage the adoption of health education programming based on research efforts demonstrating its effectiveness. Advocates and university researchers should work together to ensure rigorous evaluations of programs are undertaken, and to advocate for resources and funding to conduct these evaluations.