WS WC 2 Develop National Minimum Standards for Water Safety Education Curriculums
Develop and implement national minimum standards, benchmarks, and evaluation criteria for evidence-informed, land- and water-based water safety education curriculums.
Spectrum level: Changing Organizational Practices Influencing Policy and Legislation
Evidence level: Low
Implementation levels: National
Rationale:
Water safety experts suggest the development of national common standards, benchmarks, and criteria to help increase foundational knowledge and standards across all groups and ages.
Developing these standards will help to align water safety curricula. Using standard criteria, an evidence-based curriculum could then be created to meets the needs of target populations, and, or local contexts.
Anticipated Impact:
After implementing this recommendation, you can expect to experience the following outcomes.
- Developing and implementing national minimum standards, benchmarks, and evaluation criteria for evidence-informed, land- and water-based water safety education curriculums: - leads to greater knowledge and higher standards across all groups and ages. - leads to greater alignment of curricula for both private and public use. - provides a foundation on which local, context specific curricula is developed.
Evidence:
In searching for standards across water safety education, using current resources, there was a number of items of note: - Fragmented system with little coordination - Curriculums/Programs have little basis in research or alignment to national Health and PE (HPE) or other educational standards - There is no comprehensive curriculum across all age groups or targeted groups - Curriculums/Programs exist in different stages of development - No common delivery methods (Dr's office, schools, youth programs) - Building education starts with awareness of the importance of learn to swim and includes resources that go beyond basic skill development for further participation and potential careers in aquatics (i.e. lifeguard, swim instructor, aquatic director, etc.)
Evidence Sources:
Healthy Schools - Characteristics of an Effective Health Education Curriculum that was produced by the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environment (sponsored by the CDC) as a guide to develop the National Water Safety Education Standards. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/sher/characteristics/index.htm
Fire Prevention and Life Safety In Schools by Jason Monk 2011 National Water Safety Education Standards. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/sher/characteristics/index.htm
Fire Prevention and Life Safety In Schools by Jason Monk 2011
High Risk Populations Addressed:
All populations can benefit from implementation of this recommendation.
Everyone
Evaluation Metrics:
Indicators of long-term impact:
- Water safety practices become more common place
- Positive societal and cultural norms around water safety grow
- Drowning rates reduce over time
Indicators of intermediate impact:
- Water safety knowledge levels increase among students exposed to standards based curriculum.
- Increase in the number of public and private schools, child care centers, camps, and community organizations that teach the standards based water safety curriculum
Indicators of initial impact:
- More public schools teach water safety at all grade levels
- Greater numbers of children receive water safety education at all grade levels nationwide
- Greater numbers of teachers and adult caregivers receive training to teach water safety education curriculum
Implementation:
Consider the following recommendations to ensure successful implementation.
- Ensure that the water safety standards align with other educational standards, and whenever possible there is a coordinated effort to train and implement.
- Use the Healthy Schools guide as a model to develop the National water safety education standards. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/sher/characteristics/index.htm
Challenges to Implementation:
When implementing this recommendation, you might encounter challenges related to the following factors.
- Funding and infrastructure to create educational standards may be limited.
- Funding and resources to update the education system with new standards once they are created may be lacking.
- Overcoming the historic lack of importance put on water safety education.
- Educators may lack the knowledge to teach water safety
Potential Facilitators:
The following factors might facilitate the implementation of this recommendation.
- Trained lifeguards, swim instructors, swim coaches, and swimmers, may provide support in delivering the curriculum to schools.
- Standards based curricula may be more likely to be adopted by schools.
GAP Recommendation:
Currently there is no standard criteria for what should be learned in wet or dry water safety curriculums. Many of the current programs use historical traditions and expert opinion to devise the lessons.