FoSE Accomplishments
- Developed the first-ever guidance on the minimum core content and skills young people need to master by grade groupings, National Sexuality Education Standards: Core Content and Skills, K–12. Initially released in a special report of the Journal of School Health in January 2012, a 2016 study by the CDC revealed that 41% of the schools surveyed now rely on the NSES to guide the sex education they implement. In 2020, FoSE released the National Sex Education Standards, Core Content and Skills, K-12 (Second Edition).
- Developed the National Teacher Preparation Standards for Sexuality Education and corresponding article “Improving Sexuality Education: The Development of Teacher Preparation Standards” published in the Journal of School Health in June 2014. The Teacher Preparation Standards helped to call attention to the importance—and dearth–of pre-service training in sex education and led to improvements in the course content offered physical and health education teacher-candidates at 21 institutes of higher education in 15 states.
- Released numerous tools to support the implementation of the National Sexuality Education Standards and National Teacher Preparation Standards for Sexuality Education as well as the FoSE Toolkit, designed to assist state and local organizations to convene a sex education strategic planning summit in their communities; a Public Education Primer, School Health Primer, a Glossary of Education Terms, and Addressing Sexual Health in Schools: Policy Considerations.
- Commissioned the development and publication of Broadening the Evidence for Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Education in the U.S. in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, which provided an expanded view of the evidence for sexuality education including research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, gender, and economic inequalities and health.
- Authored the publication Building a Foundation for Sexual Health Is a K–12 Endeavor: Evidence Underpinning the National Sexuality Education Standards to demonstrate the evidence upon which the National Sexuality Education Standards were built and provide communities with assistance advocating for and supporting comprehensive sex education.
- Conducted administrative advocacy within the Obama and Trump administrations to win improvements to federal teen pregnancy, sex education and HIV programs supported by the Office of Adolescent Health; Family and Youth Service Bureau; and CDC/DASH
- Spearheaded the creation of the Sex Education Collaborative in an effort to build consensus for a shift in teacher training strategy from one focused on curriculum specific to one focused on improving educators’ knowledge and skills independent of the curricula or grade taught.