Examples from School-Based Health Center Student Encounter/Visit Data
Students with five (5) or more visits to the school nursing office show significantly lower test scores over time. The graphs below show both Acuity Language Arts and Acuity Math scores from students with five (5) or more visits versus students with less than five (5) visits. Data was collected by the PHDP team and was used by the client to provide additional support to the students.
The data is from 584 students over three academic years (2014-17). Individual students contributed 1-3 sets of data for a total of 934 sets of test scores. Based on definitions found in the research literature (Shannon, Bergren & Matthews, 2010; Joost et al. 1993; Sweeney & Sweeney, 2001) the data was dummy coded by a total number of visits to either “infrequent visitors to the school nurse” (4 and below) or “frequent visitors to the school nurse” (5 and above). All differences were significant at .05 by analysis of variance.
The Research Methodology used by PHDP is Patent Pending by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Educational Outcomes Inform Life Outcomes
As the research base for this project grows, the cross-sector data sharing in the health and education industries are creating a movement that clearly outlines a pathway for navigating a child’s health alongside school readiness. We call this cross-sector view of a child their “Academic Health”.
The PHDP process leverages existing school academic data alongside school health data (from visits to a school nurse or health aide). In the initial year of the program, baseline health and academic data is collected from participating schools. In the second year, schools move to implementation, which initiates a series of health, social-emotional, and academic supports (in the RTI/MTSS model) for students showing health encounters that present an elevated risk. This allows for proactive work during the school year that connects the health and academic efforts supporting the child.
