Curriculum Analysis

The Curriculum Analysis page includes guidance and tools for carrying out a systematic and thorough assessment of health education curriculum. Before beginning, it is recommended users read Using HECAT Online to Perform a Curriculum Analysis, found on the Curriculum Analysis page, to understand necessary steps before initiating and following completion of an assessment. Overall coordination and organization for carrying out a complete examination of a health education curriculum using HECAT Online requires both personnel and time.

The user can create a new project by pressing the NEW PROJECT button or select an existing project by clicking on the SELECT link.

The analysis includes several components accessed through buttons displayed on this screen. Each section includes further instructions. On pages where information is entered, the user must press the Save button to save entered or change information. The Close button can be used to return to the main Curriculum Analysis page without saving entered information. Care must be taken to ensure the SAVE button is selected to avoid losing entered or changed information.

The column to the right of the page indicates the status for each component.

The component status will be one of the following:

• Not started — This component has not been started.
• Started — This scoreable component has been started but has not been scored.
• Scored: n — This component has been scored and may be complete; the "n" value will be the score.
• Entered — This non-scoreable component has been started; since all fields are optional, it may also be complete.

The Curriculum Analysis components

• General Curriculum Information provides guidance and a template for collecting descriptive information about the curriculum, including the developer and the year of development, topic areas, and grade levels.
• Preliminary Considerations provides guidance and tools to appraise the accuracy and acceptability of curriculum content, feasibility of curriculum implementation, and affordability of the curriculum materials including cost of implementation.
• Curriculum Fundamentals provides guidance and tools to appraise fundamentals of a health education curriculum including learning objectives, teacher materials, curriculum design, culturally responsive and inclusive characteristics, instructional strategies and materials, and promotion of norms that value positive health behaviors. Also included are appraisal criteria for assessing the continuity and uniformity of a comprehensive health education curriculum.
• Summary Forms provides directions and templates for summarizing ratings scores for the appraisal of a single curriculum or comparing scores across curricula, using the analysis items from multiple components and health topic modules.
• Health Topic Modules provide guidance and tools for appraising specific health curricula based on Characteristics of Effective Health Education Curricula and the National Health Education Standards.

Health Topic Modules

A module is included for each of the following ten health-related topics:

• AOD — Alcohol and Other Drugs
• FN — Food and Nutrition
• MEH — Mental and Emotional Health
• PHW — Personal Health and Wellness
• PA — Physical Activity
• S — Safety
• SH — Sexual Health
• T — Tobacco
• V — Violence Prevention

When performing the curriculum analysis, the user selects the health topic module(s) included in the health education curriculum by checking the box next to the module title. After the initial selection of health topic modules, only those selected will be displayed. To change the module(s) selected, the user can click on the CHANGE MODULE SELECTIONS button. Module descriptions can be seen by checking the SHOW MODULE DETAILS box. Further details on each module can be found in links found on their individual pages, and under the FORMS menu option.

Each health topic module can be accessed by clicking on the corresponding button, which will display the instructions for completing the details of that module's analysis. The status marker in the right column indicates whether information has been added for that module.