Q&A
Addressing low participation in professional development for sexual health education
1:09:37
·
3 min
Council Member Farah N. Louis raises concerns about the low percentage of instructors attending professional development training for sexual health education. The DOE representatives explain the current situation and their efforts to improve participation.
- Only 14% of instructors assigned to health courses attended at least one professional development training on sexual health education
- The total number of instructors (14,162) includes many elementary teachers who teach one health class, inflating the figure
- DOE conducts targeted outreach to teachers who haven't attended training, providing resources and encouraging participation
- Challenges remain in ensuring the effectiveness of information sharing with teachers who don't attend in-person training
- The upcoming task force meeting will address strategies to improve training participation and effectiveness
Farah N. Louis
1:09:37
Thank you.
1:09:38
One last question.
1:09:39
According to the most recent report submitted to the Council on Local Law, Local Law 15 of 2016, of the 14,162 instructors assigned to health course to a health course during the 2023, 2024 school year, only 1,998 or 14% attended at least one professional development training on sexual health education provided by DOE during the school years of 2022, 2023, and 2023, and 2024?
1:10:12
What steps is DOE taking to address the low percentage of instructors attending professional development training on sexual health education?
Despina Zaharakis
1:10:21
So let me talk a little bit about the 14,000 teachers because that's a little bit of a shocking figure.
1:10:27
Right?
1:10:28
And I just wanna put it out there.
1:10:31
The data captures anyone who is teaching a health education class, one class.
1:10:37
So at the elementary level, many classroom teachers also teach health education.
1:10:43
So if an elementary school has, you know, 70 teachers, each one of them teaches their class health education, you'd have 70 health education teachers.
1:10:54
So that's a lot of the data when you look at the sort of grade breakdown in the report is really about, elementary grades where we have the most teachers.
1:11:05
Now in terms of training, this is over time.
1:11:09
Right?
1:11:10
So, training is, as you said, over 2 years, but then they might have been trained 3 years ago, and they're not captured in that training.
1:11:21
Our push to train teachers, anyone who is teaching, health ed, is huge.
1:11:27
We pull data on anyone who is teaching a health ed class, and we directly email that person and that person's supervisors, the principals, and say, hey, come to training.
1:11:39
We have information in our systems on who has attended training and who has not.
1:11:44
So we're able to provide direct targeted outreach.
1:11:49
Excuse me one second.
1:11:55
Okay.
Farah N. Louis
1:11:57
Because it says 14% attended.
1:11:59
So for those that are not participating, how are we addressing that to ensure they can comprehensively provide the information to students?
Despina Zaharakis
1:12:08
I'm gonna have to try to
Rita Joseph
1:12:10
Yeah.
Narrator in Shown Video
1:12:10
Yeah.
1:12:11
So I think one is I I mean, as Despina mentioned, we're constantly doing outreach to to target those those teachers who haven't attended a training
Rita Joseph
1:12:19
in the
Narrator in Shown Video
1:12:19
past.
1:12:21
And then in all of our communications, we include all of our standard resources.
1:12:26
So even if a teacher hasn't attended our training, they have our scope and sequence, they have our guidance materials, they have our recommended curricula.
1:12:33
We want them to come to trainings.
1:12:34
We are we are constantly trying to recruit more teachers and get, you know, get every single teacher in the city trained, and also, that over communication of resources, I think, is is key.
1:12:44
So that, you know, even if a teacher has a trend attended training 4 years ago, they still have the most up to date information on what the curriculum looks like.
Farah N. Louis
1:12:52
And how are you ensuring that there's some effectiveness with that information being shared with them being that they're not coming to the initial training?
Narrator in Shown Video
1:13:00
Yeah.
1:13:00
It's, that's a really good question.
1:13:03
Okay.
1:13:05
You know, I think it's
Farah N. Louis
1:13:11
I think it's something that you guys need to discuss on December 9th and make sure
Narrator in Shown Video
1:13:14
Absolutely.
1:13:15
I mean, that's part of that's part of what we're so excited about the new task force.
1:13:18
Right?
1:13:18
Is how how in such a in such a vast system with such different needs, do you know what's happening everywhere and how to give people what they need everywhere?
1:13:27
So, yes, completely agree.
Teacher in Shown Video
1:13:28
Alright.
1:13:29
Do you have any
Farah N. Louis
1:13:29
chair Joseph, I'll hand it back to you.
