developing a coherent message about school health: communicating with policymakers, local officials...

Developing a Coherent Message About School Health:

Communicating with Policymakers, Local Officials and the Public

Nora L. Howley, MA, CHES

Council of Chief State School Officers

Session Objectives:

• Gain an understanding of the process of message development in support of coordinated school health programs.

• Identify the tools available to help in message development and delivery

What is the message?

• Need to communicate what people need to know.

• Not what we believe/think/feel.

• Message development is about “selling” school health.

• Appeal to what matters

Who is the audience

• Who do you need to influence?– State policymakers

• Governor• Legislators• State Board• Agency Heads

– Local policymakers• Local Boards• Mayors• Council members• Local agency heads

Who is the Audience

• School Personnel– Teachers– Principals– Other school staff

• Families and community members

What do we want?

• Widespread adoption of coordinated school health at the state, district and school level

• Integration into school and community networks

• Sustained implementation

Principals of Marketing

• Know exactly who your audience is and look at everything from their point of view

• Your bottom line: the audience’s action is what counts

• Marketing is about an exchange: to succeed in getting people to do something you want, you must offer something they value.

Principals of Marketing

• There will always be competition for your “product.” Be aware and plan with the competition in mind.

• The marketplace is constantly changing: base decisions on evidence and keep checking in.

Marketing is an Exchange

• Both parties must receive something they want– “What’s in it for me?”– Must offer benefits that matter to the audience– Must minimize barriers

What we have learned

• What matters to schools?– Academic achievement– Improved academic outcomes– ??

How to Work with Schools: Key Issues Confronted by Schools

• Education Reform Focus– High Stakes Standards– High Stakes Accountability

• Individual Student / Teacher Level

• School Systems Level

– School Finance / Funding– State vs. Local Control

How to Work with Schools: Key Issues Confronted by Schools

• Ready to Learn Issues– ‘Non-Academic Barriers to Learning’

• Changing Demands, Expectations, Perceptions About Public Education

• Sustaining Support for Public Education

What Matters to….

• Governors?

• Legislators?

• Health Departments?

What do we know about messages?

• Messages must be clear and concise

• Messages must be relevant to the specific state or local system

• Need to be relevant

• Need to be realistic-don’t promise the moon

• Must address the audience

A Framework for Message Development

• BEHAVE– Target audience– Actions you want them to take– Benefits and barriers– Activities to reach them

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

• The School Health Starter Kit– Developed by CCSSO and ASTHO in response to the

needs of our members

– Target Audience• People who work in schools

• Administrators

• Teachers

• Other school staff (e.g. nurses)

• Parents who are already active in school issues

– Messages to resonate across fields

Healthy Kids Make Better Students, Better Students Make Health

Communities.

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

• Building Business Support for School Health– Developed by the National Association of State

Boards of Education (NASBE)– Target Audience

• Public particularly business leaders, employers and employee groups

• Business as a driving force in education reform

Healthy Children, Ready Learners

Coordinated School Health

Programs (CSHPs)

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

• American Cancer Society– Community based mass market/awareness campaigns

• jeanine.bade@cancer.org

• American School Health Association– Making change at the school level

• www.ashaweb.org/

• Education Development Center– Health is Academic and Making Health Academic

• www.edc.org/HIA

Contact Information

• Nora Howley– Norah@ccsso.org 202.336.7033

• Amy Greene– Agreene@astho.org 202.715.1617

• Carlos Vega-Matos– Carlosv@nasbe.org 703.684.4000

THANK YOU !!!!