Project ECHO pilot enhances health, education in Oklahoma K-12 school communities

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Media Contact: Sydney Trainor | Communications and Media Relations Specialist | 405-744-9782 | sydney.trainor@okstate.edu

For K-12 educators, enhancing student wellness is crucial. Understanding its impact on academic and personal success, they seek resources to equip students with essential life skills.  

In January, through the Human Performance and Nutrition Research Institute, Oklahoma State University hosted a new Project ECHO line — Building Healthy School Communities — that concluded in May with plans to relaunch in September to reach more schools across the state.   

“At the heart of every community is its schools,” said Dr. Tara Jackson, OSU Project ECHO director, OSU Center for Health Sciences. “This was the foundation for this first-of-its-kind ECHO line. The ‘Building Healthy School Communities’ ECHO line was designed based on needs assessments from the schools to enhance the physical and health literacy of students and school staff. Project ECHO is honored to collaborate with HPRNI, the schools, state organizations, and our ECHO experts to provide guidance and knowledge in the areas of physical education, nutrition, psychology, and community engagement to help school leaders make the experience of a school day healthy, safe, and productive for both students and staff. We are incredibly grateful to TSET for funding this important ECHO line." 

The 10-week pilot program shared expert knowledge of best practices to build and maintain healthy school communities, reaching 89 attendees.   

Led by a team of experts from OSU, HPNRI and the Oklahoma State Department of Education, this is the first program of its kind nationwide that brings K-12 education and health care together in a hybrid platform.   

“Research shows there are connections between health and academic achievement,” said Shana Classen, OSDE director of health and physical education. “It makes sense to work outside of our silos and align the efforts of leaders in Oklahoma schools, government agencies, and communities who prioritize students’ health and wellness.”  

The program allowed for dialogue between school superintendents, counselors, teachers, administrators, athletic directors, coaches and subject matter experts for a more comprehensive approach to addressing various issues affecting students. 

“As I reflect on this pilot program, I believe the insights gathered will guide me in refining my current efforts and shaping future initiatives at the Oklahoma State Department of Education,” Classen said. “This experience illuminates the power of relationship building and collaboration that provides opportunities to braid ongoing initiatives that contribute to the creation of healthier and more supportive environments where students can flourish academically and personally.” 

The pilot cohort included five K-12 school districts from across Oklahoma ranging in size from 150-5,000 students, allowing the ECHO team to assess the needs of schools across the state and develop ways to provide resources to meet student and educator needs.   

“Schools have a broad scope of responsibilities related to educating the next generation of Oklahomans; one of which is providing a healthy environment in which students, and school employees, can thrive and be successful,” said Dr. Deana Hildebrand, OSU nutritional science professor and hub team lead. “The scope for this particular ECHO line was narrowed by authentically listening to school administrators and faculty members to learn about the health-related situations most impacting the local education context.”   

From there, the team developed curriculum to address local needs resulting in productive conversations across schools – truly an all teach all learn environment.   

“By connecting school leaders with health and nutrition experts utilizing skills-based approaches, we're equipping educators with the tools and knowledge to foster healthier environments for students,” said Melenda Knight, HPNRI associate director. “This initiative is just the beginning of a broader effort to support health and wellness in our communities, and I'm excited about the positive changes we're seeing already.” 

For Adair Public School Superintendent Mark Lippe, joining the pilot cohort was perfect timing as his district was beginning a health and human performance class for students. Adair wanted to teach that health and human performance was more than strength training by including information on nutrition and mental health, but they lacked the resources.   

With slightly more than 1,000 students systemwide, Adair is a rural community in northeastern Oklahoma that excels academically and through extracurriculars. However, Lippe said there’s always a need for more resources to improve students’ lives. 

“As school leaders, we're often focused on academic activities; everything we do is reading and math-driven,” Lippe said. “We say all the time, ‘If a student can read well, they can succeed in all subjects.’ At the same time, our bodies are a huge catalyst for our academic performance and if we don't take care of our bodies, we don’t perform as well. As our level of health rises, then our performance can increase on achievement in academics. It's really tied together.  

“This project, all in all, helped us see the correlation between healthy lifestyles and academics.”  

Lippe took information back to his district about mental health and nutrition, sparking conversations about what Adair is doing to address students’ mental health. These sessions also allowed Lippe to see what other schools are doing to improve nutrition and how those things could be implemented in his district.   

Lippe highly encourages other school districts to take advantage of the resources available through this program.  

“This was an invaluable tool for us to not just focus on academics, but it's that focus on the whole child in an approach leads to student success,” Lippe said. 

At Poteau Public Schools in eastern Oklahoma, Superintendent Scott Kempenich and Assistant Superintendent Diane Tillery joined the cohort to gain resources to address the specific needs of their 2,200 students.   

“We had two needs that we felt from the beginning were things we would like to have addressed,” Tillery said. "One being vaping, and it's just rampant usage among teens, and how to address that, how to try to make them not want to do that so badly and realize the effects that's going to have on their health later on. The other was nutrition, especially among our athletes, but really for everybody. We know that Oklahoma ranks very low in overall health for our population and the best way to counter that is to educate the students and the community as best you can on what they need to do to look healthy and live longer lives.”  

Tillery and Kempenich presented two case studies during the ECHO sessions, which allowed them to hear how other schools handled those challenges and about other concerns that might not have been their top priority.   

Across the state in northwestern Oklahoma, Dr. Jill Henderson— Cimarron Public Schools superintendent — joined the ECHO because she knows how important it is to network with other individuals and schools to establish resources to better serve her district’s 200 students.   

The Building Healthy School Communities cohort provided professional development opportunities for Henderson’s team to access nutrition, physical education and mental health resources.   

Henderson said it can be challenging for physical education teachers to attend professional development outside of coaching clinics. This ECHO allowed at least four members of her team to attend sessions and present three case studies that allowed them to receive feedback and implement strategies in their district 

“Project ECHO is the wave of the future,” Henderson said. “It is so difficult for educators to get away from the site, and it's difficult to get substitute teachers. This makes it easier to pull teachers, or pull instructors for an hour twice a month, and let them go into an ECHO session and then get back into the classroom. 

Henderson has been involved in different ECHO lines for the last five years and sees how impactful this work can be on future generations. She is appreciative of those who take time to ensure public schools have resources and connections to make students successful.  

“We can't do it alone. It requires partnerships, just like OSU and all the people who serve on this hub team who will give up their time each month to be a part of this and just connect us without ever being in the same room, never meeting face to face,” Henderson said. “I can't stress how critical it is and again, how appreciative we are that people will do that for us.”