Evaluating health-promoting schools: steps to success

Evaluating the health-promoting school (HPS) and its effectiveness is crucial to its future development and sustainability. This paper attempts to outline the basis of approaches to evaluation which are sound, relevant, respond to the full array of elements which constitute the HPS, and satisfy the criterion of utility. It examines a range of research methods in order to illustrate pathways towards the evidence base for health promotion, considers the kinds of studies which are both feasible and useful for policy makers and professionals, and proposes approaches deemed most usefully provocative and cost-effective.