Health: Curriculum Project Team

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

Background and Purpose of this document

This document summarizes the key points and practices within the Beaverton School District Health Program, specifically, those curricula associated with Comprehensive Sexuality Education, Sex Abuse Prevention Education, and Gender Studies. 

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.

Comprehensive Sexuality Education as defined by the State of Oregon

The Oregon Department Of Education (ODE) requires schools to use Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) as opposed to abstinence only.  BSD adheres to this guidance while maintaining an abstinence-preferred approach. In July of 2015 the Oregon Legislature passed SB 856 (Sex Abuse Prevention Instruction, also known as Erin’s Law) which requires schools to provide child sexual abuse prevention instruction every year in kindergarten through grade 12.  All students in BSD receive at least four specific lessons per year, K-12.  

Progression of Standards

All BSD courses must follow the standards adopted by the Oregon Department of Education, including Health classes. The State (ODE) has eight Health Standards that are identical in grades K-12.  However, they use performance indicators to describe the depth at which a student will study each of the standards; those indicators progress in depth and application as the student moves up the grades. The performance indicators reflect medically accurate and age-appropriate content for each grade level from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

BSD Curriculum and Resources

Through the Quality Curriculum Cycle, BSD has applied these statues, guidance materials and standards to develop a Position Paper, Best Practices Document, Comprehensive Health Guides, and Health Units with specific learning targets. These serve as the curriculum that teachers are required to follow. It is important to note that a central tenet of these documents is: “In all areas, parents and guardians are a child’s first and most influential teachers. Parents, guardians and schools share a common goal: we want students of all ages to be healthy in all aspects of their lives.” Additionally, these documents give teachers guidance on BSD’s Abstinence statement, on how to answer difficult questions, and guidelines for classroom role play. (See notes below for specific language.)  

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:

For elementary-aged students: (See BSD Website under resources)

• The Great Body Shop 

For middle-school aged students: (See BSD Website under resources)

• Cares Northwest

• McGraw Hill Health textbook

• Rights, Respect, and Responsibility (3R’s)

• Youthline, and Signs of Suicide (SOS) 

For high-school aged students: (See BSD Website under resources)

• 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. 

Opting out and alternative credit options

Students and families may opt out of Sexuality Health Education with or without previewing the materials. Specifically, the CSE standards (a subset of the overall health standards established by the State) are the only state standards that a student can fully opt out of, as opposed to meeting through alternative activities.  Students that opt out work with their teacher and administration to determine how they will spend their time during the units or activities that they have opted out of.  

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

Elementary - The Human Sexuality lessons may take approximately 6 - 10 days (45 minute lesson per day) throughout the school year. This includes the required 4 lessons on sexual abuse prevention. This duration may vary by teacher.

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.

Supporting Documents 

Additional supporting documents can be found on the BSD website through the Curriculum & Instruction Department or through a variety of links below.

1.  ODE Supporting Sexuality Education Document

2. Standards and Progression through Age 

   • Oregon Health Education Standards and Performance Indicators,

   • ODE Appropriate Topics by Age/Development

   • 3 Rs Age Appropriate Document 

   • BSD Health Education Standards/Targets

     • Elementary Health Education Standards

     • Middle School Health Education Standards

     • High School Health Education Standards 

3. Comprehensive Health Guide (Elementary, Middle School, High School)

• 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 Elementary Role Play:The Great Body Shop Role Play Guidance (also in the Elementary Comprehensive Health Guide)

• Guidance for Secondary Role Play:

  • See Link to the Secondary Guidance on Role Play (also found within the Secondary Comprehensive Health Guides)v