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Trends for Cross-Sector Collaboration on State Level School Health
Education Activities, 2000-2012
Eric Conrad, Andrew J. Piazza and Lori Turner

ABSTRACT

Collaborative partnerships such as the WSCC Model assert the need to move beyond silos to leverage collective
capacity and improve student health outcomes. Engaging cross-sector partners at the state level can improve practice
and policy within the school and community environment. Data from the School Health Policies and Practice Study
were used to qualify collaboration between state agency health education (HE) staff and public, private, and nonprofit
organizations between 2000-2012. From 2000-2006, the number of states in which HE staff collaborated with other
state-level agency types increased, while remaining the same or decreasing from 2006-2012. Cross-sector
collaboration was prevalent in most states, however further alignment of policy and practice within the school
environment to cultivate student health is needed.

INTRODUCTION and policy within the school and community environment
(Lyn et al., 2013).
For decades, both the health and education sectors
have recognized the importance and utility of health With the emergence of the WSCC, cross-sector
promotion in schools. In 1987, a formalized effort from collaboration within school health is becoming more
the health sector came in the form of the coordinated prevalent, yet there is little research examining the context
school health (CSH) approach (Allensworth & Kolbe, of collaboration at the state level. One factor hypothesized
1987). Viewing effective health promotion as an to facilitate implementation of more comprehensive
interaction between the child, the school environment, and activities is the number of organizations or sectors
community-level influences, the CSH approach provided included in the collaboration. The primary aim of this
a framework by which schools can address health study was to examine collaboration trends between state-
promotion. A similar formalized effort from the education level and organizational participants addressing school
sector surfaced in 2007 in the form of the Commission on health education (HE) activities from 2000 to 2012.
the Whole Child and focused on many of the same tenets
as the CSH initiative (ASCD, 2007).
METHODS
In a more recent effort to create a unified model
supported by both sectors, the Whole School, Whole Collaboration was measured using data from the
Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model was developed 2000, 2006, and 2012 health education questionnaires in
to combine effective elements from the Commission on the School Health Policies and Practices Study (SHPPS)
the Whole Child’s model and the CSH approach. As the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC],
name implies, the WSCC emphasizes an ecological 2013). The SHPPS is a nationwide survey administered by
approach to health promotion where the whole school the CDC. Survey instructions directed state contacts to
utilizes resources and influences from the whole identify the most knowledgeable state-level staff members
community to address the multifaceted needs of the whole on relevant topics to complete the questionnaires.
child (Lewallen, Hunt, Potts-Datema, Zaza, & Giles,
2015). Collaborative partnerships such as the WSCC In the health education questionnaire for the year
model assert the need to move beyond silos through cross- 2000, a series of 11 items asked whether state-level health
sector collaboration to leverage the collective capacity to education staff worked with other state-level staff or
more effectively improve health outcomes (Mays & organizations on health education activities during the
Scutchfield, 2010). Engaging cross-sector partners at the previous 12 months. Questionnaire items also assessed
state level can serve to more effectively influence practice four other state-level groups including physical education,

8 THE HEALTH EDUCATION MONOGRAPH SERIES, Volume 34, Number 1, 2017