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WestEd Research Links School Academic Performance and Progress
to Student Health and Resilience
(10.02.03) Research conducted by WestEd, a nonprofit research, development, and service agency, shows a strong connection between high school students' academic achievement and their overall health and well-being.
The research, highlighted in an article released today in WestEd’s newsletter, R&D Alert, and detailed in two reports available at http://www.WestEd.org, demonstrates “a significant relationship between secondary school standardized achievement scores and a variety of nonacademic factors.” These factors include substance use, exposure to violence, exercise, nutrition, school climate, and safety.
“Our longitudinal research reveals that schools with higher percentages of students who are less engaged in risky behaviors, more likely to eat nutritiously and exercise, and report caring relationships and high expectations at school made greater progress in raising test scores,” write Thomas Hanson and Greg Austin of WestEd's Health and Human Development Program. “This indicates that youth development and learning are complementary processes that must be addressed in concert to support student and school success.”
Supported by a grant from the Stuart Foundation, the research is based on analyses of 1998-2002 data from over 1,700 schools that conducted the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS). The CHKS was developed by WestEd for the California Department of Education (CDE) with WestEd providing ongoing survey technical assistance. To be in compliance with Title IV requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the CDE requires all school districts in California to administer the survey every two years.
WestEd’s research has important implications for policymakers and educators: The data suggest that policies and practices that address the health and developmental needs of youth are critical components of any comprehensive strategy for improving academic performance.
“With the academic accountability requirements in NCLB, improving test scores has become imperative for many schools. WestEd's report on the relationship between academic performance and learning support underscores the importance of risk and youth development factors to academic achievement,” said Wade S. Brynelson, Assistant Superintendent Learning Support and Partnerships Division, CDE. “Schools seeking to improve the academic performance of their students cannot ignore the role that health, school safety, caring relationships in the school, low rates of alcohol and drug use, nutrition, and exercise play in their overall efforts.”
For Further Information
Read the WestEd R&D Alert article in Vol. 5, No. 2. Fact Sheets for the two WestEd reports are available online: Student Health Risks, Resilience, and Academic Performance in California (PDF) and Health Risks, Resilience and the Academic Performance Index (PDF). Full reports are also available online.
About WestEd
WestEd, a nonprofit research, development, and service agency, works with education and other communities to promote excellence, achieve equity, and improve learning for children, youth, and adults. WestEd serves the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah as one of the nation's Regional Educational Laboratories, but its work extends throughout the United States and abroad. WestEd has 15 offices nationwide, from Washington and Boston to Arizona, Southern California, and Oakland. Its corporate headquarters are in San Francisco.
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