Health Ed Program Gets NCATE Approval

Sam Houston State University’s health education program recently became the third program in the state to earn accreditation by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and the College of Education’s 10th program to earn the distinction.

The program earned the highest recognition by NCATE, “nationally recognized,” after being previously “recognized with conditions,” and will retain the designation until the fall 2008.

“This is the highest honor that a professional education unit could receive,” said Alice Fisher, chair of the health and kinesiology department. “The ‘nationally recognized’ status for the health education program informs the public that Sam Houston State University has yet another professional education unit that has met state, professional, and institutional standards of the highest educational quality.”

The national accreditation means that the program has met all of the seven standards set forth by the field’s governing agency, the American Association for Health Education, according to Rosanne Keathley, assistant professor of health education, who worked with faculty members Martha Bass and Bill Hyman in the accreditation process.

“We basically went through and revamped and restructured our programming and our assessments in our classes (to be) very, very tight,” Keathley said. “In all of our NCATE-sanctioned health courses, we made sure that the professors in there were dealing with the assessments that are going to ensure that our students are competent in these seven areas of responsibility in health education.”

In addition, the NCATE report showed SHSU as having eight areas of strength in the program, including its stressing of the importance of the Certified Health Education Specialist certification exam, providing multiple opportunities for field experience, the application of standards applied in all health classes, and for its “good foundation courses for education and pedagogy.” Keathley, Bass and Hyman also received “kudos” for their job in preparing the report, according to the NCATE response.

Currently, the SHSU health education program is a small one, with anywhere from one to 10 students majoring in health education annually because of a relatively small need in the education field for teachers with the degree.

“In the field of health—if you think back to when you were in high school and how many health teachers you had in the whole school—it’s not like it’s English or PE, which is unfortunate,” Keathley said.

“It’s not like it’s just a college or university problem, it is a public school problem, which is really ironic because health is the most important class these kids are going to take,” she said. “They need to learn how to do things, take care of themselves, prevention and that sort of thing.”

However, Keathley said she feels the demand for health educators will soon grow due to an overall national trend of obesity, the growing rates in type-two diabetes, and the increasing need for students to be educated on those topics, as well as alcohol, drugs and sexually transmitted diseases.

“There is a (political) push right now (for better education), but that push takes time to make that happen,” she said.

“A few years ago, the Texas Department of Agriculture and Susan Combs modified what public schools serve in the cafeteria; that was an important step in the state of Texas,” Keathley said. “It’s really been a landmark, great, great, great move. That one thing that she did really did spark an interest and an awakening in type-two diabetes, focusing on health and wellness, not just in high school, but in the early ages as well.”

Only 10 other education departments from universities across the state of Texas have received NCATE accreditation, including Baylor, Prairie View A&M, Stephen F. Austin, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Trinity University, University of Houston, University of Houston—Clear Lake, University of North Texas and University of Texas at Arlington.

Of those, only UNT and SFA have NCATE-accredited health education programs.

SHSU’s College of Education has been NCATE accredited on the initial level since Jan. 1, 1954, according to the NCATE Web site.

Other NCATE accredited programs at SHSU include principal, role 6 reading specialist, school library media specialist, school psychology, special education-educational diagnostician, special education-generic (bachelors), physical education, supervisor and superintendent

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SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
Sept. 28, 2006
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