New Report Indicates Need for Improvement in Addressing School Wellness

August 14, 2008 - A new report from Action for Healthy Kids indicates that, while progress is being made in improving school wellness, there are still significant hurdles to overcome.  

Progress or Promises: What’s Working For and Against Healthy Schools summarizes the status of efforts to improve nutrition and physical activity in schools.  It indicates that there are significant gaps in perceptions among different stakeholder groups about how school wellness efforts are progressing.  Some of these gaps involve perceptions about access to healthful foods and beverages, wellness policy implementation and effectiveness, nutrition education, and physical activity.  For instance, the report shows that most school administrators believe their schools provide quality food and adequate physical activity for students, whereas only 18% of parents thought schools were doing a good job offering nutritious food, and only 20% believed schools offer enough physical activity.   

The report also indicates that there are insufficient resources and significant barriers preventing school wellness from being achieved.  It suggests key stakeholder groups, including school leadership and parents, are currently not as engaged as they should be in working toward student wellness and underscores the need for broader, systemic changes.     

Findings were compiled through interviews with experts in the fields of public health, nutrition, education and child health; survey responses from more than 2,000 parents, teachers, administrators, school foodservice professionals and community health experts; and recent data from articles on national surveillance studies and school wellness practices.   

To access the full report and Executive Summary, please click here.    

Source: “Progress or Promises: What’s Working For and Against Healthy Schools,” Action for Healthy Kids, Fall 2008.