Who teaches health education in Texas secondary schools?

Although school health education now is seen as a national priority, little descriptive data on teachers responsible for delivering school health education have been collected. This survey provided baseline data on secondary health educators in Texas that, in turn, can be used to compare with data from other states. Questionnaires were received from 205 randomly selected secondary health educators in Texas. Subjects were sorted into two groups, full-time health educators or part-time health educators, based on the number of hours/classes spent teaching health education. Less than 50% of respondents held a degree in health education, 30% did not have a teaching certification in health education, and 10% had no academic background in health education. Those with no background in health education showed significantly less confidence and competence in their teaching ability than those with some background in health education. Almost all felt health education was as important as other courses, but slightly more than one-half felt their administration shared that view. Less than 36% felt other faculty members viewed health education as important as other courses.