A School District - University Collaboration to Address Childhood Obesity

This presentation describes a community-university partnership focused on childhood obesity to build at the state and school level to implement school-health policies and identify evidence-based interventions.  

In response to the issue of obesity, the Washington, DC City Council passed the Healthy Schools Act (HSA) – a major piece of legislation to improve the school health environment leading to improved student health and academic achievement.   American University’s School of Education, Teaching & Health (SETH) partnered with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to provide expertise and technical support to implement and evaluate the outcomes of the legislation.

 American University’s (AU) strategic plan includes a goal to “act on our values through social responsibility and service.”  AU has a dynamic commitment to the city and students.  For over a decade, SETH has supported OSSE in the pursuit to improve teacher quality through education programs and to address the student health needs. 

 AU and OSSE have been partners to actively plan, implement, and evaluate the HSA. AU has been awarded over one million dollars to implement programs, assess the role of teachers in student health, and evaluate the implementation and impact of the HSA. 

This presentation describes the characteristics of this partnership and how the model can be applied to other districts.  The results of this collaboration provide evidence that universities can contribute in meaningful ways to the communities where they reside and school districts can use new ideas to address both education and health issues.