Healthy Living:America's Healthiest

Healthiest Schools: How We Chose Our Winners


By Tracy Minkin
From Health magazine

Education officials in every state were asked for school nominations based on food and nutrition, fitness and activity, health education, and healthy building materials and practices. We used rigorous criteria from the state of Wisconsin and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program framework to score nominees. The top-10 schools were reviewed by our expert panel, and each panelist awarded a score to each top-10 school; these scores were added to each school’s first-round score to yield our final ranking.

Additional Reporting by Brittani Tingle


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Last Updated: October 30, 2008
Filed Under: America's Healthiest
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Comments (4)

The following content represents the opinions of Health.com users. It is not editorially reviewed for medical or factual accuracy. It does not constitute medical advice. See your doctor for medical advice.
  • Patrick

    I find it interesting that the criteria apparently do not include the actual health of the students. It seems like the score is really a measure of political correctness.

  • Mark

    This is an encouraging article. However, I am disappointed that the only comment posted thus far is a negative one. I am not sure what ‘political correctness’ has to do with the desire to improve academic performance, classroom behavior, and the physical fitness of students. Isn’t that everyone’s goal?

    In our current testing-obsessed academic culture–thanks, NCLB–we now have, these brave teachers and principals should be commended for finding time for mandatory physical activity during the school day. Aren’t schools supposed to look after the mind AND the body?

  • SV

    Even thought the ultimate goal is to get kids healthy, I think it’s a good thing that student’s health isn’t necessarily an indicator of the healthiest school. It’s important for schools to be recognized for creating environments that will contribute to a child’s overall health. If winners were chosen based on how healthy students were, we’d lose sight of the point Health magazine is trying to make - that setting the stage is vital to getting the outcome you want.

  • jacqueline

    great article! nice to see that schools continue to move in the right direction. For information on eliminating junk food from schools and current health policy updates, please visit: http://www.nojunkfood.org

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