My name is Kristen Hayes and I am a
Psychology major, Law and Justice minor at The College of New Jersey.

My research centered on:

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SUMMARY:
"It is the growing belief that any future advances made in improving the nation's health will result not from spectacular biomedical breakthroughs. Rather, advances will result from personally initiated actions that are directly influenced by the individual's health-related attitudes, beliefs and knowledge,"
- The American Medical Association
(New Jersey State Department of Education, 1999)

The American Medical Association, as indicated by the statement above, surely feels as though education is the means by which to combat serious health and medical concerns now and in the future. Comprehensive health and physical education programs in the state of New Jersey's public schools have sought to answer questions such as how diseases are transmitted, how one can prevent disease or illness, and how responsible decision-making influences achievement of a healthy life.

Certainly, HIV/AIDS education has made great strides throughout the 1990s, gaining additional funding. The transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS is being taken more seriously by educators than in the late 1980's, early 1990's. HIV/AIDS education in New Jersey has followed under the mind set that high levels of achievement are accomplished by strictly adhering to the Core Curriculum Standards.

Once these standards are achieved, education will facilitate success through flexibility and innovation (New Jersey State Department of Education, 1999). In New Jersey, these standards have taken the form of an overall riding theme emphasizing six primary causes of major health problems deemed important enough to be implemented into the public school system.

Although each school district is allowed flexibility in the design of their programs, each district must meet the six standards listed in the "Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Standards." Those which embody HIV/AIDS include standard 2.1, "All students will learn health promotion and disease prevention concept and health-enhancing behaviors; and standard 2.4 "All students will learn the biological, social, cultural, and psychological aspects of human sexuality.

The standards mentioned above are as stated in the 1997 version of the Core Curriculum Standards set forth by the New Jersey Department of Education (New Jersey State Department of Education, 1999).

Implementing the standards set forth by the state is certainly a challenge, as became evident to me after I examined one particular school in my hometown: Westwood Regional Jr. Sr. High School located in Bergen County, New Jersey. After speaking with the school's program coordinator, it became clear to me that although we have made tremendous strides in our attitudes of HIV/AIDS, the difficulties in implementing such educational programs are vast.

There must be a strong commitment to bettering public school education by
health care professionals, the administration, parents, and students. And, hopefully, this commitment with will strengthen the role of education as an effective vaccine against the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

FACTOIDS:
Currently, estimates regarding teenage sexual activity state that over fifty percent of teens are sexually active, of which twenty five percent regularly use condoms.
-Stine, 1999

Available data suggests teens have not greatly changed their sexual behaviors/attitudes in response to the HIV/AIDS
education offered in their schools.
-Stine, 1999

HIV/AIDS school based education began in 1987, when the Center for Disease Control initiated a program intended to reach 90 percent of the nation's school children.
-United States General Accounting Office, 1990

In a report to the United States Senate, the US General Accounting Office reported that educational professionals were having difficulty identifying what students already knew about HIV/AIDS. Further, training available for teachers regarding HIV/AIDS education was tremendously limited by financial and time constraints.
- United States General Accounting Office, 1990

In New Jersey, there are two Core Curriculum Standards directly related to HIV/AIDS education; they include standard 2.1, "All students will learn health promotion and disease prevention concept and health-enhancing behaviors; and standard 2.4 "All students will learn the biological, social, cultural, and psychological aspects of human sexuality."
- New Jersey Department of Education, 1999

At Westwood Regional Junior Senior High School, HIV/AIDS education is limited to grade 8 Health and Physical Education classes. HIV/AIDS is again mentioned in eleventh grade as a Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD).
- Westwood Regional Junior Senior High School Board of Education, 1998

REFERENCES:

Bergen County Department of Human Services. (1998). Teen handbook (Rev.ed.) [Brochure]. Hackensack, NJ: Author.

Brucker, B. & Hall, W. Teachers' attitudes toward HIV/AIDS: An American national assessment. Early Child Development and Care, 115, 85-98.

Hayes, D. (1992). Toward the development and validation of a Curriculum coordinator role-efficacy belief instrument for sexuality education. Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, 18 (2), 127-135.

New Jersey State Department of Education (1999). About Region III [On-line]. Available: http://ceee.gwu.edu/states/nj/nj.htm

New Jersey State Department of Education. (1988). Doing the right thing: Teaching About AIDS. (Report No. H 434/1988g). Trenton, NJ: Author.

New Jersey State Department of Education. (1988). Facts about AIDS and the public schools (Report No. H 434/1988g). Trenton, NJ: Author.

New Jersey State Department of Education (1999). HIV policy and practice [On-line]. Available: http://www.state.nj.us/njded/hiv/hivintro.htm

New Jersey State Department of Education (1999). New Jersey core Curriculum content standards for comprehensive health and physical education [On-line]. Available: http://www.state.nj.us/njded/cccs/07hpeintro.html

Stine, G. (1999). AIDS Update 1999. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Prentice Hall.
United States General Accounting Office. (1990). AIDS education: Public school programs require more student information and teacher training (GAO/HRD-90-103). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Offices.

MY SPIN:
My advice to everyone regarding HIV/AIDS Prevention Education can best be summed up in the following Ethiopian proverb:

It is important to remember that no matter where you go in life, regardless of the subject matter, you are going to be faced with incredible challenges.

What I have learned from this capstone course has been that a little bit of knowledge can go a long way, and knowing how to use that knowledge can be one of your greatest skills in life.