The Health Check has a careful design history and has been guided by the extensive experience its creators have both in independent schools and with surveys.  Unlike other surveys, the ISHC seeks to identify the factors that influence healthy, as well as unhealthy behavior. As such, it is particularly suited to the educational aims of schools and to the construction of programs that highlight  strategies for wellness, along with risk prevention.

The survey can also help a school distinguish between reality and perception. Research has shown that students and adults often misjudge the prevalence of various student attitudes and behaviors.  The Health Check helps ground discourse and decision-making in objective reality and offers students realistic social norms.

This 20 minute, 80 question survey has been specifically designed to reflect what is really going on with your students’ lives- - in and out of school —and to provide a global picture of their  thoughts, concerns and feelings about themselves and others. Many questions speak to areas particularly pertinent to independent school students—academic motivation, stress levels, and parental oversight.  Questions have evolved from work with student focus groups, and the instrument has been field-tested at three independent schools for validity and for ease of administration.

Questions from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey [Centers for Disease Control] are interwoven into the ISHC to provide some comparison national data.   The experience of the CDC and the Health Check designers has been that such surveys provide meaningful pictures of behavior. Because their confidentiality is completely protected, students tell the truth about themselves.

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