Office of Curriculum, Technology, & Assessment

Health Education: Conclusion

The South Dakota Health Education Standards give direction for moving toward excellence in teaching health education. Teachers and policy-makers can use the standards to design curricula, to allocate instructional resources, and to provide a basis for assessing student achievement and progress. The Health Education Standards identify knowledge and skills that can be assessed. They furnish guidance to all that are interested in improving health instruction, including local school districts, teachers, universities, state education and health agencies, parents, communities and national organizations.

Although the Health Education Standards identify what knowledge and skills students should know and be able to achieve, they leave precisely how this is to be accomplished to teachers and curriculum specialists who formulate curricula. The Health Education Standards are broad and flexible to accommodate the strengths and needs of students, families and local communities in South Dakota.

It is the growing belief that any future advances made in improving the nation's health will not result from spectacular biomedical breakthroughs. Rather, advances will result from personally initiated actions that are directly influenced by the individual's health-related attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge. School health education can make a valuable contribution in areas such as these and can play an important role in improving the quality of living.

American Medical Association