The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #47563

Deborah Feldman, Research and Analysis Services, 5732 - 17th Ave. N.E., Seattle, WA 98105 and Mary E. Miller, MN, ARNP, Department of Labor and Industries, P.O. Box 44510, Olympia, WA 98504-4510, 360-902-6041, dfeld@seanet.com.

Washington State’s Department of Labor and Industries supported a pilot project to disseminate and test the utility of a workplace health and safety curriculum geared towards high school students. More than 75 teachers in 60 schools statewide voluntarily piloted the four-lesson curriculum. Not only were project funders interested in whether students increased their practical understanding of workplace health and safety issues as a result of being exposed to the curriculum. (Preliminary results indicated students did substantially increase their knowledge.) They also wanted to learn more about the curriculum dissemination and implementation process itself. What were some of the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum itself? What were the barriers and supports to effective utilization of the curriculum and how might utilization be broadened in the future? Through systematic analysis of teacher and administrative staff interviews, internal project documents and student pre-post test results, the evaluation revealed some important lessons. First, teachers demonstrated high levels of satisfaction with the content and format of the curriculum. In particular, the inclusion of games and hand-on learning activities appeared to be one of the important selling points for both teachers and students. Second, the project’s grassroots marketing strategy appeared to be a key strength in obtaining teacher buy-in and successful implementation. Finally, collecting data across decentralized pilot sites proved to be a central challenge to the evaluation. Having project staff who were able to communicate effectively with pilot site teachers was an important support to obtaining student outcome data and critical feedback from teachers.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify at least two common barriers to utilization encountered by the new curriculum
• Describe factors that appeared to support effective utilization of the new curriculum
• Describe characteristics of the curriculum that appeared to have contributed to successful learning gains.

Keywords: Youth at Work, Occupational Safety

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Department of Labor & Industries (WA State; Youth at Work Project
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Employment