Within a whole-of-school approach to student wellness, comprehensive school physical activity programs (CSPAPs) offer opportunities for physical activity before, during, and after the school day. However, to successfully influence behavior and fully reap the physical, cognitive, and psychological benefits of an active lifestyle, schools must…

Policy, systems, and environmental change are now widely accepted as critical to sustaining improvements in community health. Evidence suggests that such systems-level change is most effective when driven by community-based partnerships. Yet, after more than three decades of building community-based partnership work, health inequities have…

Schools can work toward achieving safe, positive environments by integrating a behavioral support framework for students with a systematic approach to identifying students in need of mental health services. This study of the U.S. Department of Education's School Climate Transformation Grant (SCTG) program examined how participating states and…

The Now is the Time initiative, introduced following the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012, includes among its goals making schools safer and increasing access to mental health services. To address these aims, the U.S. Department of Education launched its School Climate Transformation Grant (SCTG) program, which aims to promote more…

Background: The relationship between physical activity (PA) and academic achievement has received much attention given the recent push to increase children's PA levels through Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs (CSPAP). Methods: In this study we followed 214 urban elementary students through an 8-month healthy school transformation…

A comprehensive school and community wellness plan was developed and implemented to transform "Lemon Grove Academy" for the Sciences and Humanities, an urban school, where student achievement and faculty satisfaction has soared. The school has become the center for the local neighborhood where culture, language, and equity are valued.…

Sustainable happiness is "happiness that contributes to individual, community and/or global well-being without exploiting other people, the environment or future generations" (O'Brien, 2010a, n.p.). It underscores the interrelationship between human flourishing and ecological resilience. At the national and international levels,…

A study of over 5,000 students in 13 high-achieving public and private middle and high schools in the United States found evidence of disengagement and poor physical and mental health. The students in the study were exhausted, many getting significantly less than the recommended nine hours of sleep each night. More than 70% of the high school…

In this paper, the author provides a buffet of ideas to make a coherent case for a democracy in which citizens can be truly sovereign by becoming the agents of their own destiny. He traces the history of various trends which threaten the development of civic agency: technocracy, specialism, and a consumer-view of the citizen, among others. He also…

Background and Objective: Successive governments have promoted local action to address food components of public health. This article presents findings from research commissioned by the (then) London NHS Office, scoping the range of food projects in the London area, and the potential challenges to public health practice. Methods: Research followed…

This paper reports on a project to develop and implement an interdisciplinary, thematic high school curriculum combining instruction in Spanish language and four arts disciplines. Additional targeted skills included: accessing and using new information effectively; thinking critically about art; development of global responsibility and…