• Why should I care about Health Data?

• What School Health Data are available?

• Whom do I contact for more information?

---

Why should I care about School Health Data?

Research shows that data-driven decision-making leads to improved student outcomes. Data-driven decision making is the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting meaningful school improvement data and using it to guide decisions about curriculum, instruction, teacher training, and resource allocation to make a positive impact on student learning. Data must be aligned and tied to student performance goals at the classroom, school, and district level.

Data can help school leaders assess a myriad of student, family, and community health needs. The data help to paint a broad picture of the school community, and can be used to initiate discussions about health concerns locally.

 

back to questions

---

What School Health Data are available?

Rhode Island Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS)

• The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is an anonymous and voluntary survey conducted among random samples of high school students. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed the YRBS to monitor risk behaviors related to the major causes of mortality, disease, injury, and social problems among youth and adults in the United States. Numerous studies have been conducted reaffirming the validity and reliability of YRBS results. The survey includes questions on:

• Physical Activity,
• Nutrition and Weight,
• Sexual Activity,
• Alcohol and Other Drugs,
• Tobacco, and
• Injury.

In Rhode Island, the survey has been conducted bi-annually in high schools since 1997. The YRBS was also conducted in RI middle schools for the first time in 2007.

• "Health Risks Among Rhode Island Public High School and Middle School Students: 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey"

This document includes a summary of key 2007 data, ten-year trends (high school survey only), and breakouts by grade level related to all of the health topics. (The 2005 high school summary report is also available).

• Youth Health Risk Behaviors: How Rhode Island Schools Can Use Survey Data to Create a Healthy Environment for Students: 2007 Update
  This school-focused brief describes how schools and districts can use health data for school improvement and strategic planning. This document is intended to be used in conjunction with the Summary Report above (a combined document is also available). This is an update to the original 2003 briefs and the 2005 Update.

• Health Risks Among Rhode Island Public High School Students 1997 through 2005
  This set of 4-page topical reports incude key data and trends for each of the health topics, which are also available individually:
  • Physical Activity;
  • Overweight, Weight Loss, and Dietary Behavior;
  • Sexual Behavior;
  • Alcohol and Other Drug Use;
  • Tobacco Use;
  • Violence Related Behaviors; and
  • Personal Safety, Depression, and Attempted Suicide

• The YRBS Web Query System
  This is an interactive system that allows users to create custom tables and graphs of RI Youth Risk Behavior data. The system is publicly accessible and requires no sign-in or registration and allows users to obtain up-to-date information, view time trends, combine years in order to obtain stable estimates, and disaggregate data (e.g. by grade, age, sex, race/ethnicity).

• National YRBS Data
  National, Rhode Island, and other state Youth Risk Behavior Survey data are also available from the CDC's Division of Adolescent & School Health.

 

Information Works!

Information Works! is the annual report on public education in Rhode Island. Information Works! consists of a set of school report cards, a set of district report cards, and the state report card. Information Works! includes data from a variety of sources. School health-related data include:

• School Accountability for Learning and Teaching (SALT) student survey data, including questions on alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, sleep, nutrition, physical activity, the school environment and climate, and more;
• Student, teacher, and parent SALT survey data on family involvement; and
• Suspension data.

General school health data are available at the statewide, district and school levels

To access the data, go to the Information Works! site:

• For select statewide data:
1. scroll down and click on any of the links under "SAFE AND SUPPORTIVE SCHOOLS" or "ENGAGING FAMILIES" on the left sidebar.
• For select health data for a district:
  1. click on District Report Cards,
  2. select a district, and
  3. click on any of the links under "Safe and Supportive Schools."
• For select health data for an individual school:
  1. click on School Report Cards,
  2. search for a school, and
  3. click on any of the links under "Safe and Supportive Schools" or "Engaging Families and Community."

• For more detailed SALT Student Survey data on health risks behaviors and attitudes:

  1. Go to the Information Works! site;
  2. Click on SALT Survey Reports in the upper right-hand corner;
  3. Search for a school or district or select State of Rhode Island;
  4. Select a year;
  5. Select “Student Reports”; and
  6. Click on links to any of the charts.

Rhode Island KIDS COUNT

Rhode Island KIDS COUNT is a children's policy and advocacy organization that provides information on child well-being, stimulates dialogue on children's issues, and promotes accountability and action. The 2008 Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook contains information for all 39 cities and towns as well as statewide data, tracking the progress on 60 indicators of child well-being across five subjects:

• Family and Community,
• Economic Well-Being,
• Health,
• Safety, and
• Education.

School Health Profiles

The School Health Profiles (Profiles) is a survey developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is administered every other year in Rhode Island by the Department of Education. Profiles assists states and local education and health agencies in monitoring and assessing characteristics of - and trends in:

• school health education;
• physical education;
• asthma management activities;
• school health policies related to HIV/AIDS prevention, tobacco-use prevention, violence prevention, physical activity, and nutrition;
• food service; and
• family and community involvement in school health programs.

Two questionnaires are used to collect data — one for school principals and one for lead health education teachers in public middle and high schools. Results are weighted and are representative of all regular public secondary schools in Rhode Island. A summary of key 2006 data is available.  More detailed information is available for the principal survey and for the lead health educator survey.

School Health Policies and Program Study

The School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) is a national survey periodically conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess school health policies and practices at the state, district, school, and classroom levels. SHPPS was most recently conducted in 2006. SHPPS covers all eight school health program components: health education, physical education and activity, health services, mental health and social services, nutrition services, healthy and safe school environment, faculty and staff health promotion, and family and community involvement, as well as crisis preparedness and response. The CDC site inlcudes links to articles, fact sheets, state-level summaries, questionnaires, analytic data files and technical documentation, and archives of previous SHPPS studies.

Other RI Department of Health Data

The Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) provides a large amount of data related to the health of children, teens and adults. Much of it is available on the Health Data and Statistics page of the HEALTH website.

Data on specific health topics can be found on the pages for specific topics or programs at HEALTH, including:

• Physical Activity, Nutrition & Obesity,
• Diabetes,
• Tobacco,
• HIV/AIDS, STDs, and other communicable diseases,
• Injury (including violence, sexual violence, domestic violence, suicide, & unintentional injuries),
• Youth violence,
• Asthma,
• Lead poisoning,
• Disabilities,
• Immunization (KIDSNET),
• Oral health,
• and more.

Other RI Department of Education Data

The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) publishes most of its data on the Information Works! site. RIDE also provides other data on the RIDE Data page of the RIDE website, including:

• Frequently Requested Education Data (FRED) (enrollment, dropout, special education enrollment, teacher statistics, suspension data, etc.),
• In$ite (school financial data),
• New England Common Assessment (NECAP) reports and school report cards,
• and more.

 

National School Health Data

There are a great number of national school health and adolescent health data sources. Some key ones include:

• CDC/Division of Adolescent & School Health Data & Statistics
• CDC/Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS)
• CDC Data & Statistics
• CDC/National Center for Health Statistics - Data Warehouse

• CDC/National Center for Health Statistics – Fast Stats A to Z

• CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
• Healthy People 2010 - Leading Health Indicators
• Kids Count
• Childstats.gov
• Kaiser Family Foundation – State Health Facts

• Child Trends DataBank

back to questions

---

Whom do I contact for more information?

Midge Sabatini, Ed.D.
Manager, Coordinated School Health Program
Rhode Island Department of Education
401-222-8952
Midge.Sabatini@ride.ri.gov

Rosemary Reilly-Chammat, Ed.D.
Program Manager, Initiative for Healthy Youth
Rhode Island Department of Health
401-222-5922
Rosemary.Reilly-Chammat@health.ri.gov

Jan Mermin
Health Education Specialist
Rhode Island Department of Education
401-222-8954
Jan.Mermin@ride.ri.gov

back to questions

---