Q&A
Assessment of sex education curriculum effectiveness in NYC schools
1:48:08
·
168 sec
Council Member Hanif inquires about schools exceeding minimum sex education requirements and how the curriculum's effectiveness is assessed. DOE representatives discuss a recent research project that evaluated the connection between health education practices and student health outcomes.
- A grant-funded research project from 2021 to 2023 examined the relationship between health education practices and student health outcomes.
- The study found correlations between certain practices (e.g., teacher training, consistent health education) and positive health outcomes.
- This was a one-time, standalone research project due to resource constraints.
Shahana K. Hanif
1:48:08
And then the city requires that sex education be a part of 1 semester of health education, which you mentioned.
1:48:15
To your knowledge, are any public schools teaching more sex ed than, that minimum requirement, For example, by teaching a stand alone sex education class or by including sex ed in health classes that occur more than once in middle school and once in high school, and if so, how many schools are exceeding that requirement?
Despina Zaharakis
1:48:36
I I don't have that information.
1:48:38
I don't have that data.
Shahana K. Hanif
1:48:40
And but do you think that that's something that's happening?
Narrator in Shown Video
1:48:43
I'm not sure.
1:48:46
I think in some cases, I don't think it's, super widespread, but I think that's something we could look at if the how many schools are going above and beyond the, the expectations.
Shahana K. Hanif
1:48:55
Yeah.
1:48:55
I'd be curious to to understand, and I I'm curious, like, how you're assessing, like, you know, the efficacy of this curriculum in terms of, like, any kind of parameters being met around has school bull bullying dropped?
1:49:11
Have, there been less conflict among, students in relationships or etcetera?
Narrator in Shown Video
1:49:20
Yeah.
1:49:21
And that's the the the report that you all have, that that we handed out.
1:49:24
So that was the result of a research project that we did, which is not something that we are able to do regularly because it does require a lot of resources.
1:49:32
This was from a grant that we received from the New York Community Trust, where we were actually able to, do a research project with an external evaluator on the connection between the health education practices that schools were doing and the health outcomes of students.
1:49:44
So we did see some, some data points around bullying, around, other I I can I can I can take a look, but you but but there were certain practices that we saw, like, teachers attending training, like teachers, teaching health year after year, that we saw did in fact correlate with, with certain health outcomes?
1:50:06
We can't prove causality, again, and this isn't an evaluation that we do regularly because it does require significant resources, but that was one attempt to at least look at what data we have.
Shahana K. Hanif
1:50:16
And how long did that research take at the
Narrator in Shown Video
1:50:19
It was from, 2021 to 2023.
Shahana K. Hanif
1:50:23
And was that the is that the only report, or is that will there be a a a second part to this, or how frequently are we
Narrator in Shown Video
1:50:33
This is this was a this was a standalone grant.
1:50:35
This was a a one time, thing.
1:50:38
It is available online.
1:50:40
So you all have the handouts, but it's also we can we can share the the links So
Shahana K. Hanif
1:50:43
outside of this, there isn't sort of this kind of No.
Despina Zaharakis
1:50:46
That was a grant.
1:50:46
Guide that we used for.
Shahana K. Hanif
1:50:47
Yep.
1:50:48
I mean, I think it's helpful to
Despina Zaharakis
1:50:49
be able
Narrator in Shown Video
1:50:50
to Yeah.
1:50:50
Grant.
1:50:51
Definitely.
Despina Zaharakis
1:50:51
I agree.
Shahana K. Hanif
1:50:52
Put on the New York, Community Trust first.
Narrator in Shown Video
1:50:54
Yes.
1:50:55
We appreciate that.
