Health education and reading skills of lower SES students

Abstract

Students exposed to the SHCP did not achieve significantly different (p=.01) reading comprehension mean scores than students not exposed to the program. However, the gains measured in this research covered only a nine week period, and if the reading comprehension mean score gains were projected over the academic year, the difference would be significant. The experimental students achieved significantly higher posttest vocabulary mean scores than students receiving their regular health instruction. Since there was no difference in mean scores by sex, it was concluded that the special prototype health-education curriculum in combination with the process used by the teachers appeared to have some impact on the experimental students' vocabulary mean scores. Since the total sample used in this study was small, there is a need for further studies with larger samples to further investigate the effects of the SHCP, as well as other prototype programs on the basic skill development of lower SES students.