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Public School Districts (public + school_district)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	71%

Selected Abstracts

Adolescents' Sleep Behaviors and Perceptions of Sleep

JOURNAL OF SCHOOL HEALTH, Issue 5 2009
Heather Noland MEd
ABSTRACT Background:, Sleep duration affects the health of children and adolescents. Shorter sleep durations have been associated with poorer academic performance, unintentional injuries, and obesity in adolescents. This study extends our understanding of how adolescents perceive and deal with their sleep issues. Methods:, General education classes were randomly selected from a convenience sample of three high schools in the Midwest. Three hundred eighty-four ninth- to twelfth-grade students (57%) completed a self-administered valid and reliable questionnaire on sleep behaviors and perceptions of sleep. Results:, Most respondents (91.9%) obtained inadequate sleep (, 9 hours) on most school nights of the week, with 10% reporting less than 6 hours of sleep each week night. The majority indicated that not getting enough sleep had the following effects on them: being more tired during the day (93.7%), having difficulty paying attention (83.6%), lower grades (60.8%), increase in stress (59.0%), and having difficulty getting along with others (57.7%). Some students reported engaging in harmful behaviors to help them sleep: taking sleeping pills (6.0%), smoking a cigarette to relax (5.7%), and drinking alcohol in the evening (2.9%). Students who received fewer hours of sleep were significantly more likely to report being stressed (p = .02) and were more likely to be overweight (p = .04). Conclusions:, Inadequate sleep time may be contributing to adolescent health problems such as increased stress and obesity. Findings indicate a need for sleep hygiene education for adolescents and their parents. A long-term solution to chronic sleep deprivation among high school students could include delaying high school start times, such as was done successfully in the Minneapolis Public School District. [source]

Implementing Evidence-Based Substance Use Prevention Curricula in North Carolina Public School Districts

JOURNAL OF SCHOOL HEALTH, Issue 9 2004
Melinda M. Pankratz
ABSTRACT: The Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (SDFSCA) provides funding for prevention education to nearly every school district in the nation. Recent federal policy requires SDFSCA recipients to implement evidence-based prevention programs. This paper reports the extent to which North Carolina public school districts implement evidence-based substance use prevention curricula. Results showed that while the majority of school districts use evidence-based prevention curricula, they are rarely the most commonly used curricula. Evidence-based curricula are much more likely to be used at the middle school level than at the elementary or high school levels. Urbanicity, coordinator time, and coordinator experience correlated with extensive use of evidence-based curricula in the bivariate analysis, but only time spent on prevention by the Safe and Drug-Free Schools (SDFS) coordinator significantly predicted extensive use in the multivariate analysis. Increasing district SDFSCA coordinator time is a necessary step for diffusing evidence-based curricula. (J Sch Health. 2004;74(9):353,358) [source]

The Politics of Sexual Orientation Issues in American Schools

JOURNAL OF SCHOOL HEALTH, Issue 3 2006
Barbara A. Rienzo
However, the controversial nature of sexual orientation programs and policies makes this a politically sensitive undertaking. This empirical study analyzes the extent to which public school districts across the United States have implemented policy recommendations and describes, according to 4 theoretical policy models, factors that influence their ability to do so. The survey found that most districts have not institutionalized recommended policies or programs. Recommendations for school health professionals based on factors found to be significantly associated with the implementation of programs are discussed. (J Sch Health. 2006;76(3):93-97) [source]

Implementing Evidence-Based Substance Use Prevention Curricula in North Carolina Public School Districts

PAY SATISFACTION AND ORGANIZATIONAL OUTCOMES

PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2005
STEVEN C. CURRALL
Using multi level and multi method data, we investigated the relationship between pay satisfaction and outcomes at the organizational level of analysis. Individual-level survey data on pay satisfaction (including satisfaction with pay level, satisfaction with pay structure, satisfaction with pay raises, and benefits) were collected from 6,394 public school teachers. Organizational-level outcome data, both survey and archival, were collected from the 117 public school districts employing these teachers. With respect to its influence on organizational outcomes, pay satisfaction was positively related to school district-level academic performance and negatively related to average teacher intention to quit. We also explored the relationship between district-level union satisfaction and pay satisfaction, which was found to be positive. We discuss implications of our findings for for-profit companies that are knowledge based and human capital intensive (e.g., the service sector) and address possible future directions for research on pay satisfaction. [source]

Evaluating Content Validity and Test,Retest Reliability of the Children's Health Risk Behavior Scale

PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING, Issue 4 2006
Susan K. Riesch
ABSTRACT Objectives: Describe the instrument development process and report the validity and reliability of the Children's Health Risk Behavior Scale (CHRBS), a scale designed to screen for health risk behaviors among youth aged 10,13 Years. Methods: Domain identification and item generation using the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and testing relevance and test,retest reliability among a target audience sample of 77 fifth graders in their classrooms in two separate public school districts. Results: Youth performed their tasks as expert item reviewers effectively. Twenty-one items comprise the CHRBS with a reading level determined to be at the third grade. Conclusions: We have developed a reliable and valid measure to assess late elementary youth's participation in health risk behavior. [source]

Entry into the Schooling Market: How is the Behaviour of Private Suppliers Influenced by Public Sector Decisions?

BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, Issue 4 2002
Thomas A. Downes
This research examines the location choice of private schools entering the California schooling market in 1979,80. We find that entrants are more likely to locate in public school districts with lower levels of per,pupil expenditure and higher fractions of public school students who reside in low,income households. In addition, we provide evidence of differences in the responsiveness of different types of private schools to the underlying conditions. Also, in comparing our results to those of previous research, we find that the determinants of the location choices of entrants appear to be the same as the determinants of the location pattern of incumbent private schools. [source]