Word: districts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
South Carolina is the only state in the country that mandates a certain number of hours that schools must devote to sexuality education. In 2004, Jewels' school district in Anderson County decided to do even more. The district partnered with a local teen-pregnancy-prevention organization to implement an innovative relationship and sex-education curriculum that runs through all three years of middle school and into high school, as well as an after-school program for at-risk kids. And that's when the life of Jewels Morris-Davis began to turn around...
...Health Education Act, which requires sexuality education from elementary school through high school, including at least 12.5 hours of "reproductive health and pregnancy prevention education" at some point during a student's high school years. It doesn't limit teachers to abstinence-only lessons; rather, it allows each school district to make its own decisions about what sex education should involve. But with federal funding limited to abstinence-only programs, local districts have a powerful incentive to restrict their sex-education curriculum...
Burdette's arguments swayed school officials in Anderson District 3. With the help of friends, she raised $40,000 to hire a recent Clemson University graduate to be the district's dedicated sex-education teacher...
...comprehensive sex-education model used in District 3 is sometimes referred to as "abstinence first" or "abstinence plus" because it combines factual information about birth control and STIs with a strong message that kids should wait to have sex. From what Jordan and her colleagues have seen, it best fits the reality of most teenagers' lives. Most students won't wait until they get married to have sex, so they need to be told more than "Just say no." But with 66% of teenagers nationally saying they wish they had waited longer before having sex, they're also looking...
Jordan's approach seems to be working. During her first three years, teen birthrates in the district stayed steady, with 19 births to girls ages 10 to 19 in 2006. But in 2007 that number dropped to four and then last year dropped again, to two. School officials have been so pleased that they've talked about adding a sex-education requirement in 11th grade (most students take health during their freshman year). Other school districts in Anderson County that initially balked at the comprehensive approach now want Impact to go into their schools and replicate the program. The only...