Programs for Schools
National Sexuality Education Standards
The goal of the National Sexuality Education Standards: Core Content and Skills, K–12 is to provide clear, consistent and straight forward guidance on the essential minimum, core content for sexuality education that is developmentally and age-appropriate for students in grades K–12. The development of these standards is a result of an ongoing initiative, the Future of Sex Education (FoSE). PPSWO utilizes the National Sexuality Education Standards to inform our programming.
National Health Education Standards
| Core Concepts (CC) | Standard 1 Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health. |
|---|---|
| Analyzing Influences (INF) | Standard 2 Students will analyze the influence of family, peers, culture, media, technology and other factors on health behaviors. |
| Accessing Information (AI) | Standard 3 Students will demonstrate the ability to access valid information and products and services to enhance health. |
| Interpersonal Communication (IC) | Standard 4 Students will demonstrate the ability to use interpersonal communication skills to enhance health and avoid or reduce health risks. |
| Decision-Making (DM) | Standard 5 Students will demonstrate the ability to use decision-making skills to enhance health. |
| Goal-Setting (GS) | Standard 6 Students will demonstrate the ability to use goal-setting skills to enhance health. |
| Self Management (SM) | Standard 7 Students will demonstrate the ability to practice health-enhancing behaviors and avoid or reduce health risks. |
| Advocacy (ADV) | Standard 8 Students will demonstrate the ability to advocate for personal, family and community health. |
Each of our programs incorporate the following essential topics and skills for K-12 sexuality education:
- Anatomy and Physiology (AP) provides a foundation for understanding basic human functioning.
- Puberty and Adolescent Development (PD) addresses a pivotal milestone for every person that has an impact on physical, social and emotional development.
- Identity (ID) addresses several fundamental aspects of people’s understanding of who they are.
- Pregnancy and Reproduction (PR) addresses information about how pregnancy happens and decision-making to avoid a pregnancy.
- Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV (SH) provides both content and skills for understanding and avoiding STDs and HIV, including how they are transmitted, their signs and symptoms and testing and treatment.
- Healthy Relationships (HR) offers guidance to students on how to successfully navigate changing relationships among family, peers and partners. Special emphasis is given in the National Sexuality Education Standards to the increasing use and impact of technology within relationships.
- Personal Safety (PS) emphasizes the need for a growing awareness, creation and maintenance of safe school environments for all students.
Visit https://advocatesforyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/josh-fose-standards-web.pdf to read more about the National Sex Education Standards for each grade level.
Get Real
Get Real is a comprehensive sex education curriculum developed by Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. Get Real emphasizes social and emotional skills as a key component of healthy relationships and responsible decision making. It promotes abstinence from sex as the healthiest choice for adolescents; provides a comprehensive understanding of sexual health, sexuality and protection methods; and supports parents as the primary sexuality educators of their children through family activities that encourage dialogue between students and the caring adults in their lives about sexual health topics. Get Real is available in both middle school and high school editions. Each session is 45 minutes. While we encourage you to complete the entire curriculum, we can modify the schedule to fit your needs.
Table of contents for each grade level are below:
Learn more about the Get Real curriculum.
Violence Prevention
Our violence prevention programming focuses on healthy relationships, consent and bystander intervention as well as aspects of the Get Real curriculum. See the Get Real section for more information on lessons. Violence prevention programming is based on needs of each school/individual and is NOT a set curriculum.
Making Proud Choices!
Making Proud Choices! is an evidence-based curriculum that provides adolescents with the knowledge, confidence and skills necessary to reduce their risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), HIV and pregnancy by abstaining from sex or using condoms if they choose to have sex. The intervention is based on cognitive-behavioral theories, focus groups and the authors’ extensive experience working with youth. The School Edition is designed to fit a school schedule with sessions lasting 45 minutes. Making Proud Choices! is also available in a Community Edition, serving community organizations and out-of-home youth.
View the table of contents below:
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