D.C. fifth- and eighth-graders know more about communication and emotional health than they know about the human body and nutrition, according to the results of the city’s second-ever standardized test on health and physical education.
High school seniors, meanwhile, correctly answered nearly three out of four questions about sexuality and reproduction but were less well-versed in disease prevention and nutrition.
Citywide, students correctly answered nearly two-thirds of the questions on the 2013 D.C. Comprehensive Assessment for Health and Physical Education, according to results the Office of the State Superintendent of Education submitted to the D.C. Council.
The results showed no significant change in performance compared to 2012. But OSSE published only citywide averages, not school-by-school data, a disappointment to health-education advocates who argue that without individual schools’ results, it’s hard to know where to direct improvement efforts.
“OSSE is withholding information from parents and the public and groups like us who are very eager to help make things better,” said Adam Tenner, executive director of the community health organization Metro TeenAids.
Tenner said it is clear that there is room for progress. He said, for example, that a pregnant teen who sought help from MetroTeenAids last year didn’t know how she got pregnant or what she could have done to avoid pregnancy.
“The big concern is, without knowing more about the system, we don’t actually know if we’re creating a next generation of more health-literate citizens,” Tenner said.
OSSE officials said they provided each school with its own results, but do not plan to publicize those numbers until they get buy-in from all participants.
OSSE submitted the results as part of a report on compliance with the 2010 Healthy Schools Act, which showed that traditional and charter schools must more than double the amount of time they spend on physical and health education in order to meet new requirements that kick in next fall.
D.C. Council Member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), who sponsored the law, said she expects schools to seek permission to delay that new requirement.
“But they’ve known that this is coming,” said Cheh, adding that she would like OSSE to require each school to submit a plan for ramping up time devoted to physical education and health.
Advocates applauded last year when the District became the first jurisdiction in the country to administer a standardized health and sex-education exam, calling it key to beginning to address the District’s high rates of obesity, sexually transmitted disease and teen pregnancy.
OSSE officials developed the 50-question exam and administered it in the spring to more than 11,000 students in traditional and public charter schools. While all schools are supposed to administer the exam, eight schools opted not to, according to OSSE officials, who said they have no meaningful enforcement mechanism.
Fifth-graders answered 64 percent of the questions correctly, ranging from a low of 45 percent on questions related to the human body to 78 percent on communication and emotional health.
Eighth graders also answered 64 percent of all questions correctly, but got only half of the nutrition questions — and 59 percent of questions about human development and sexuality — correct. High school seniors answered 63 percent of all questions correctly.
There is no way to directly compare those results to math and reading results, which are reported in terms of the percentage of students who are proficient — a different measure than the percentage of questions answered correctly.
The test results come on the heels of D.C. Appleseed’s annual report card on the city’s progress toward tackling the HIV/AIDS epidemic. That report card criticized “the glaring deficiency of HIV/AIDS education within public charter schools,” faulting OSSE and the D.C. Public Charter School Board for failing to provide incentives to schools to improve health education.
The highest percentage of new HIV cases in the District is among young people ages 20 to 29, according to D.C. Appleseed. The largest increase in new chlamydia and gonorrhea cases is among teens ages 15 to 19.
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