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Noncontiguous school attendance zone boundaries (AZBs) have a unique, relatively uncommon shape that assign two or more non-adjacent residential areas to the same school. Given their ability to shape school enrollments by taking advantage of residential sorting, noncontiguous AZBs have historically been linked to explicit efforts to both segregate and desegregate schools. In this paper, we use a novel, longitudinal dataset of AZBs and descriptive quantitative and geospatial methods to understand how the relationship between noncontiguous zones, school diversity, and neighborhood demographics changed from 1990-2020 in two southwestern school districts--Tucson Unified School District, Arizona and Fort Bend Independent School District, Texas. Each district has a unique legal history and demographic context that informs their use of noncontiguous AZBs. We find noncontiguous AZBs are more strongly associated with racially diverse schools and are more likely to bring together neighborhoods with different compositions in Tucson compared to Fort Bend. However, the association between Tucson's noncontiguous AZBs and racially diverse schools has waned since 1990, as the district has negotiated the end of its court-ordered desegregation plan. Our findings provide insight into when and how noncontiguous AZBs can effectively contribute to ethnoracially diverse schools.

Sports and Physical Education (SPE), like any other discipline, contributes to students' education. These students, for a good acquisition of teaching content, should be invited to take notes of the theoretical and technological knowledge conveyed by Physical and Sport Activities (PSA), subject of teaching. This quantitative and qualitative study aims to identify the usefulness of the implementation of theoretical knowledge and note-taking of the information taught in the training of students in Physical Education classes at the secondary school level. To achieve this objective, certain key concepts from "The Anthropological Theory of Didactics" by Chevallard were employed. In accordance with this theoretical framework, a methodological approach was adopted that focuses on administering questionnaires to students in the second cycle. These students meet the criterion of regular attendance at physical education courses in two secondary colleges. This approach includes recording three sessions of physical education courses and conducting interviews with each teacher at the course's conclusion. The results indicated that the students do not have a favorable relationship with the theoretical knowledge transmitted in PE during the practice of the different Physical and Sports Activities (PSA). This is due to the fact that the teacher does not focus the student's attention on what he or she has really learned and what he must retain in order to facilitate the practice of the different Physical and Sports Activities. To summarize, the essential finding derived from this study was that students in PE would greatly benefit from an introduction of theoretical courses combined with written documentation of the pedagogical information provided. The integration of both elements could foster the development of citizens who are proficient both physically and intellectually.

Advances in technology have significantly augmented the potential of online education, particularly during crises, such as COVID-19, earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods. This qualitative survey study ascertains 150 English-as-a-foreign language (EFL) learners' perceptions of the efficacy of online language education in a preparatory school of a state university after the Kahramanmaras earthquake in Türkiye in 2023. Data were gathered via an online survey with open-ended inquiries to elicit favourable and adverse experiences and recommendations from students. In order to ensure the thorough and systematic analysis of the collected data, a rigorous methodological approach was employed. Specifically, the data were analyzed through content analysis, facilitated by the MAXQDA. The research outcomes revealed that the participants appreciated online language education for its time-saving nature, comfort, ease of attendance, access to recorded sessions, teacher support, and cost-effectiveness. However, some students also considered online education ineffective and reported challenges, such as technical issues, diminished concentration, lack of motivation and discipline, limited interaction, and class participation. EFL learners also provided suggestions for improving the curriculum, assessment methods, and instructors' teaching approaches.

This research examines the reasons for school dropout occurring at varying education levels in the Turkish education system (TES). To this end, research on school dropouts pertaining to TES has been targeted. The systematic data analysis method was used in the research. 47 studies suitable for the purposes of the study were analyzed through content analysis. A total of 290 coding processes were carried out. The results suggest that the family factor emerges as the main factor for school dropout in primary education in TES. The inadequacy of families' financial situation and low interest in education are effective. At the high school level, students' academic failure, absenteeism, peer pressure, and indifference of families appear as the causes of school dropouts. In higher education, difficulties learners experience in adapting to novel social environments, academic failure, financial problems and the thought of being a misfit for the selected department seem to be among the causes of school dropout. In the other group, the reasons for dropping out are determined as academic failure, financial difficulties, early marriages, dislike of school, indifference of family, negative effects of friend groups, and indifference towards school.

The study aimed to investigate the Effect of Academic Stress on Students' Academic Achievements and Its Implications for Their Future Lives. A correlational research design was employed through stratified random sampling (n[subscript i] = 270, where female = 80 and male =190) to collect pertinent data through a questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed. Firstly, academic stress highly affects students' academic achievement, with females being more stressed (65.20%) than males (59.60%), which leads to a high dropout rate and low graduation rate. Secondly, about 69% were accustomed to drinking alcohol, chewing Khat, absenteeism, and smoking whereas about 31% were regularly engaging in unsafe sex, physical fights, smoking shisha, and poor personal sanitation. Thirdly, there were significant positive relationships among sex, age, academic batch, and student's cumulative grade point average. To conclude, academic stress hinders good academic achievement, increases college dropout rates, low graduation rates, and lack of self-confidence. It leads to drinking alcohol, absenteeism, chewing khat, reduced academic morale of students, and failure in completing assignments on time. Therefore, university authorities should ensure a good academic environment for the students and minimize academic stress through appropriate course load, appropriate lecture hours, proper lecture schedules, and non-congested lecture halls.

Compulsory attendance in communication skills courses offered at colleges of engineering seems to be a problematic issue for many students because it prevents them from performing well in such courses. Many students believe that time spent on these courses comes at the expense of focusing on core courses and worsens their overall performance in these courses. As such, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between attendance and students' overall performance in communication skills courses for the sake of providing suggestions that would enhance students' performance as well as allowing them to allocate more time to the core courses they are enrolled in. Making students' life easier would not only improve their status at the educational level but would also create a feeling of comfort and satisfaction in their surroundings, particularly among family members and friends. Participants in the study are university students enrolled in the college of engineering at a Middle Eastern university. The study yields significant results showing that compulsory attendance has no significant relationship with students' overall performance in communication skills courses. Relaxing attendance regulations might provide some margin of freedom for students to focus more on the engineering core courses without compromising their success in communication skills courses. The study provides significant recommendations that stakeholders can utilize to motivate students to perform well in communication skills courses while addressing any concerns they might have regarding the core courses they are enrolled in.

The purpose of this research was to investigate if the addition of extra credit affected the overall rate of attendance to synchronous lectures in an online asynchronous course, compared to courses in which no extra credit was offered. Further I investigated if the amount of extra credit made a difference to the rate of attendance. I collected data from 10 courses and found that offering low levels of extra credit led to more students attending lectures. This could lead to students having better interactions with peers and instructors, enjoying their classes more, and/or achieving better academic results.

Learning a second language (L2) is dependent upon numerous external and internal factors, among which motivation plays a relevant role. In fact, motivation has been recognized as crucial in the L2 learning process (Ushioda, 2012). Such has been its importance that interest in L2 motivation has led to the development of theories such as the L2 motivational construct, and the L2 motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009). Nevertheless, despite the academic focus on L2 learning motivation (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2013), the impact of additional L2 lessons on students already engaged in formal L2 instruction at an official educational level (e.g., Higher Education) remaines vastly underexplored. Thus, this study aims to bridge this gap by analyzing the differences between 118 undergraduate EFL students who attended extra L2 lessons and those who did not. Considering the complex nature of the motivational construct, a Bayesian network analysis was used, categorizing motivations into two modules based on attendance of additional L2 lessons. This allowed us to observe the different factors of motivation as a whole construct, and not individually. The findings revealed that students who attended extra lessons are internally motivated toward self-improvement, whereas those who do not attend extra L2 lessons are influenced by external pressures and career aspirations.

Student absenteeism is a prevailing issue for schools, impacting academic performance and social-emotional development. This article explores the definitions, rates, and causes of absenteeism. Through analysis of existing literature, it proposes a comprehensive approach to address the problem. Drawing on concepts of trauma-informed education and Response to Intervention (RtI), the author endorses a framework with a tiered structure of supports to create safe and supportive environments, alongside a more targeted approach to address individual root causes. By combining trauma-informed practices with the tiered approach of RtI, schools can address absenteeism and promote well-being.

In higher education institutions, many faculty members are hired because they are experts in their field of study, but not necessarily individuals who are trained in how to teach. This quantitative quasi-experimental study examined college faculty member's level of methodology training in relation to student satisfaction, current course performance, attendance, the belief in the need for training, and a faculty member's sense of efficacy in teaching. In other words, does having a college professor trained in how to teach matter? The researcher found statistically significant results for student satisfaction, current course performance, and attendance. The faculty member's belief in the need for teaching methodology training showed that 96% (n = 87) of the faculty surveyed felt there was a need to be trained to teach at the college level. Faculty members want to be trained and great things can happen when faculty members develop the skills in "how to teach."

School leaders must make decisions and implement strategies to improve a school climate and student achievement, and it benefits them to understand which areas of school climate have the greatest impact on student achievement. The State of Georgia measures school climate and student achievement with its school accountability measure, the College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI). This study employed a quantitative research design using archival data that was publicly available from CCRPI data for a two year span to examine the relationship between school climate and student achievement statewide in the middle grade sector. Findings revealed that all four components of school climate (i.e., Survey Score, Discipline Score, Safe & Substance-Free Learning Environment Score, and Attendance Score) were significantly related to student achievement. Additionally, the Survey Score and Discipline Score were the most significant predictors of student achievement. These findings provide school leaders with essential information to strategically make decisions involving processes and procedures that impact these areas. Future research is needed to determine whether the relationship between school climate and student achievement is similar for elementary, middle, or high schools. In addition, separating the data into rural, suburban, and urban schools and running similar analyses may also help administrators improve school climate and student achievement.

The purpose of this case study was to understand how attending an undergraduate academic conference contributes to a student's sense of belonging, not only within their institution but also in the larger academic community. This research was informed by the literature on club participation in conferences and faculty/student connections. Through in-depth interviews with three community college students and observational data collected throughout a four-day conference, their engagement with each other and with students from other colleges was explored. The findings include the faculty's role as a catalyst for student involvement, the growth of within-group dynamics, increased student appreciation for their college, and increased involvement of students in the academic community.

This paper is framed by Nick Zepke's, Vicki Trowler's, and Paul Trowler's concept of student engagement being "chaotic", suffering from "indigestion" and "fuzziness". This study was conducted at a UK higher education institution that recently moved to a "block and blend" delivery approach. We investigated what students and staff think engagement looks like in an intensive block and blend learning context. Data were gathered from students and staff via an online survey, which consisted of both scaled and open-ended questions. Findings are synthesised in an elemental map, providing a comparison of students and staff perceptions of engagement. Specifically, students and staff thought engagement in an intensive block and blend context entailed participation and active learning; a mindset that included enthusiasm, interest, focus, and enjoyment; timely completion of assessments; relationships with peers and tutors; doing more than required, such as completing extra readings; and accessing help and support. Participants also identified attendance as an indicator of student engagement and determined that the university has a responsibility to create learning environments to foster student engagement. Overall, the study findings point to elements of student engagement that may be designed into intensive block and blend learning environments. These approaches are also relevant to other similar intensive learning contexts.

Course policies around attendance and submission deadlines have documented impacts on student outcomes within college courses, yet our understanding remains limited of instructors' own motivations behind the policies they adopt. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 43 college instructors, we find that faculty emphasize both student-centered and instructor-focused considerations. Pedagogically, they create policies they believe will enhance student success, promote equity and inclusion, and enable students to account for the realities of life. But they also design policies they believe will make their job easier, positively impact students' perceptions of them, and align with gender role and tenure expectations. These findings have implications for faculty development and university efforts to support student success.

The beginning years of a teacher's career can be an overwhelming experience, and combined with being in an isolated, fly-in community, particularly during a pandemic, can be debilitating. This qualitative research is aimed to support and account for the story of a Black Afro-Caribbean, early career teacher (ECT) in a Northern Ontario First Nation (FN) community over a three-year teaching placement. The goals were to use her stories for reflection, inspiration, and guidance to support other ECTs, and to provide recommendations to teacher-education programs to lessen attrition and increase retention among ECTs in FN school placements. An autoethnographic method was used to identify key themes in her narratives to better understand her experiences of surviving and thriving. Although this ECT was significantly tested about her decision to become a teacher, support, empathy, resiliency, and governing one's practice with clearly defined moral and ethical principles rooted in the belief that every child can learn helped her survive and thrive. The conclusion was that ECTs in FN school placements need, among other things, a willingness to be vulnerable and resilient.

Background: Disparities in school attendance exist for children with medical complexity (CMC) due to COVID-19. Longitudinal changes in family-reported school safety perceptions and predictors of full-time, in-person school attendance are unknown. Methods: This was a prospective, longitudinal cohort study with 3 survey waves (June 2021-June 2022) among English- and Spanish-speaking families of CMC aged 5 to 17 years and pre-pandemic school attendance. Changes in Health Belief Model perceptions and full-time in-person school attendance were estimated using multivariate generalized linear modeling with repeated measures. Results: Among 1601 respondents (52.9% of 3073 invited), 86.8% participated in all 3 surveys. School safety perceptions improved with time; however, perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 increased. Full-time in-person school attendance rose from 48.4% to 90.0% from wave 1 to 3 (p < 0.0001), and was associated with motivation, benefits, and cues. For example, families with low compared to high motivation for in-person attendance had 76% versus 98% predicted probability for child's school attendance, respectively at wave 3 (p < 0.0001). Implications for School Health Policy, Practice, and Equity: Probability of full-time in-person school attendance was associated with several health belief model perceptions. School health policy and programs may benefit from promoting family motivation, benefits, and cues during future respiratory illness epidemics including COVID-19. Conclusions: In-person school attendance improved for CMC over time. Opportunities exist to continue optimizing in-person attendance and family-perceived safety for CMC at school.

The dual-factor model of mental health proposes that high wellbeing and low distress are necessary to define mental health. This study used latent profile analysis to identify mental health profiles in a sample of 3,587 Australian grade 6 students and explored the association between mental health profiles and school outcomes measured in grades 7 and 9. Six mental health profiles were identified: complete mental health (i.e. high wellbeing and low distress; 30%), moderately mentally healthy (i.e. average wellbeing and low distress; 18%), symptomatic but content (i.e. high wellbeing and above-average distress; 19%), vulnerable (i.e. low wellbeing and below-average distress; 6%), moderately troubled (i.e. below-average wellbeing and high distress; 19%), and troubled (i.e. low wellbeing and high distress; 8%). After statistical adjustment for potential confounders (gender, language background, socio-economic status, and geographical remoteness), students with complete mental health showed significantly higher academic achievement and school engagement one and three years later compared with students with all other mental health profiles. Students with vulnerable and troubled profiles experienced the poorest school outcomes sustained over time (grade 7 and grade 9). Implications for school-based interventions to support the mental health and wellbeing of students are discussed.

U.S. public schools provide substantially different educational opportunities to students--even within school districts, where attendance zone boundaries (AZBs) shape most children's access to schools. The (re)drawing of AZBs is therefore a highly consequential policy decision. In this paper, I study how AZB changes in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area affect children of different races between 2000 and 2020, including how they alter children's travel times to school and access to school-level educational opportunities. Findings are starkly unequal, with rezoning disproportionately negatively affecting Black and Hispanic children. Results highlight the need for educational leaders to explicitly consider how AZB changes will redistribute opportunity within their districts.

Leveraging publicly available data about schools" absenteeism from the New Jersey Department of Education, the present study examined how neighborhood-level resource deprivation and violent crime related to chronic absenteeism in Passaic County's elementary, middle, and high schools. Results highlighted geographic disparities in Passaic County, New Jersey, whereby predominantly racial/ethnic, under-resourced, communities of color have significantly greater levels of resource deprivation and threat. Additionally, greater neighborhood-level resource deprivation and neighborhood violent crime were associated with higher rates and trajectories of absenteeism across three academic school years. These findings highlight the importance of considering neighborhood context in absenteeism prevention programs.

In this study, we use estimated public transit routes for high school students in Baltimore City to predict the number of days they are late during the school year. We find that after adjusting for individual and school characteristics, school preferences, and neighborhood fixed effects, total travel time and transit use are not predictive of tardiness, but requiring a bus transfer is. These estimates do not vary by student or school characteristics, indicating that this is a general phenomenon that has more to do with system-level reliability than individual motivation or school climate. These findings highlight the hidden costs imposed on some students who wish to leave their neighborhood and travel across town for better educational opportunities.

A strong connection between schools and families is vital for student success and well-being. Previous studies on school-family relationships found that open communication between parties may aid in supporting students' needs and ability to attend school. In this paper, authors analyze how leveraging relationships to gain an increased understanding of a family's attendance barriers is more beneficial than relationships built on accountability. From interviews with 38 caregivers, 29 students, and 40 staff members in an urban school district with high rates of chronic absenteeism, authors found that efforts to build relationships with families focused on accountability and caregiver education about their children's attendance and the importance of attending school. Families sometimes perceived these efforts as superficial and ineffective. Authors discuss how school districts and key school personnel, such as social workers, can intentionally use the power of relationships to identify student and family needs and connect them with resources.

Contribution: This article provides evidence on the influence of serious games (SGs) in software engineering (SE) education on students' scores, exam attendance, and chance of passing. It also highlights the impact of teachers' experience with the implementation of SGs as a learning approach on the aforementioned metrics. Background: Although there are previous studies validating SGs in SE subjects, examining the effects that SGs and the expertise to implement them can have on students' academic achievement by means of rigorous scientific methods is lacking. Research Questions: Do students achieve better academic results when SGs are used? Are the exam attendance and chance of passing higher among students enrolled in courses that use SGs compared to those following a traditional approach? Does the teachers' expertise with SGs have an impact on students' achievement? Are students satisfied using SGs in SE courses? Methodology: A controlled experiment was conducted on undergraduate students who were enrolled in an SE course during the years 2012/2013-2013/2014 and 2021/2022 to compare the effects of SGs with traditional teaching on students' achievement in this subject. The students from the academic year 2012/2013 attended traditional lectures only, while the students from the academic years 2013/2014 and 2021/2022 had SGs incorporated within their lectures, led by teachers without and with expertise to deploy SGs, respectively. Findings: Students' scores are higher when SGs are used compared to traditional teaching. Teachers' experience and expertise are key factors to improve the chances of attending and passing the final exam when SGs are used.

An approach to action research of innovative and disruptive socioecological understandings of young people's wellbeing, resilience, and engagement in middle school was piloted with a coalition of school principals, lead teachers, police, and community development professionals by an RMIT research team. This coalition was built around the Hume-Whittlesea Local Learning and Employment Network and the Whittlesea Youth Commitment Committee in outer northern Melbourne, Australia. Action research facilitated the collaborative design of interventions for reducing middle school disengagement. These were then expressed in logic model terms to guide implementation and subsequent evaluation. Logic models clarified how local innovations, situated in an authorizing environment, can develop promising practices that contribute to system reform. Our project involved characterizing ecologies of young people's engagement, resilience, and wellbeing as part of a place-based strategy.

Dropout is a global crisis and an affliction in the United States. This study analyzes graduation rates based on prior academic achievement, attendance, and behavior at an urban American high school in Virginia over 4 years to identify who is (not) graduating and why. Using a correlational, nonexperimental design, four cohorts of graduates were compared. As found, Latinx male English language learners were overrepresented and had dropped out following exclusionary discipline or failure on standardized tests. Examining predictive indicators can clarify why some students do not complete on time or quit. Implications for practice, policy, research, and preparation are considered.

Online may not be the ideal format for a mathematics enrichment event, but in some circumstances, it may be the only option available. This article considers a mathematics enrichment programme consisting of a series of masterclasses which were held live online for secondary students in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. The series of masterclasses were part of the Royal Institution of Great Britain's Mathematics Masterclass Programme which runs annually across the UK. In this study, we investigate how and to what extent students were able to engage with this series of online masterclasses. Learner engagement is researched through in-session observations, student work, attendance data, participant feedback and interviews. While the online masterclass series lost some of its traditional in person features, such as hands-on live social interaction and a university environment, it appeared that the participants perceived the online sessions as interactive enabling them to both enjoy the sessions and enjoy learning mathematics in the sessions. The evidence found suggests that the participating students could engage behaviourally, emotionally and cognitively in online mathematics enrichment. However, constructing mathematical knowledge in online sessions can be difficult for some students and social interaction may need to rely on existing social groups among school friends.

In recent years, online education has been given more and more attention with the widespread use of the internet. The teaching procedure divides space and makes time for online learning; though teachers cannot control the learners accurately, the state of education calculates learners' learning situation. This paper explains that the discourse analysis method is utilized to examine the online teaching behavior of teachers and student behavior like class attendance, how many are active in class, and learning behavior in online education. Also, discourse analysis will optimize and enhance the classification of the text understood according to their language. After pre-processing, feature extraction was done by utilizing Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency, and feature selection was calculated via utilizing chi-square examination for teacher discourse like learning behavior, languages understood by students, and language types. Moreover, the machine learning-based classification technique Support Vector Machine (SVM) is considered to analyze the teacher discourse in class automatically, and results are compared with existing techniques.

Student-faculty interaction (SFI) is an important indicator of student engagement that positively associates with academic achievement and retention. Quantitative information regarding the impact of emergency remote teaching (ERT) during COVID-19 on SFI is limited. This retrospective, observational cohort study tests the hypothesis that COVID-19 ERT negatively affected SFI in a gender-dependent manner. Electronic records of office hour (OH) appointments, used to measure SFI, for first-year medical students across three time periods, before, during and after COVID, were obtained and analyzed. A concerning, marked decline in SFI during and after the COVID-19 pandemic is noted. Before COVID, significantly more women (75.20%) made at least one OH appointment compared with men (40.54%). During COVID, the proportion of women making an OH appointment (69.71%) was statistically indistinguishable from women before COVID-19. In contrast, significantly fewer men during COVID (10.34%) than before COVID made an OH appointment. On return to face-to-face teaching, no rebound effect was observed. Compared with before COVID gender-matched peers, fewer men and women after COVID made OH appointments. Discipline-based analyses show that for all three time periods physiology emerged as the content area in which students made most OH appointments. The reduction in SFI observed, combined with the consistency with which the participants in our study indicated a need for assistance with the physiology discipline, emphasizes the importance of active promotion of faculty support and deliberate efforts to reconnect with students in the post-COVID context.

There has been little attention to personality in research on school refusal (SR). This study examined personality traits among 41 adolescents receiving cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) during participation in a School Refusal Program in the Netherlands. Traits were examined via clinical scales and 2-point code types derived from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory--Adolescent. The influence of personality traits on treatment outcome was examined at post-treatment and 1-year follow-up. At pretreatment, eight of the 10 clinical scales were disproportionately skewed toward the "high to very high" range relative to a norm group. Social introversion and depressive symptomatology were significantly increased relative to the norm group, and nearly one-half of the adolescents were characterized by code type 2-3/3-2 (depression/hysteria) or 2-0/0-2 (depression/social introversion). Adolescents characterized by a 2-0/0-2 code type were almost twice as likely (odds ratio = 1.78) to be treatment responders at post-treatment. There was no relation between personality traits and treatment outcome at follow-up. The small sample size limits generalization of the study's findings. If the results are replicated, personality traits may provide useful indications for personalizing treatment when employing interventions recommended in CBT manuals for SR.

Adolescents spend approximately one-third of their day at school. With the growing prevalence of adolescent asthma, 1 in every 10 adolescents copes with asthma throughout the day, including in the school environment. Yet, little is known about the school experiences of adolescent students with asthma. Guided by the social-ecological model, this study aimed to explore the links between asthma and school experiences in middle and high school as perceived by students with asthma. In-depth interviews were conducted with 20 adolescents with asthma aged 12 to 17 who attended middle or high school around the mid-west area of Florida. Students shared insights on their school experiences and academic performance. Data were analyzed and interpreted using thematic analysis. Four overarching and intertwined themes shaped the school experiences of students with asthma: 1. Asthma control and management; 2. Social support; 3. Asthma knowledge and awareness; and 4. Accommodation of health and academic needs. Study findings suggest addressing the school disparities of adolescent students with asthma through a comprehensive, multi-level approach. Schools should create asthma education opportunities, improve the school system and environmental accommodations, enhance asthma control, and increase continuous social support by peers and school personnel.

There is a high prevalence of adolescent girls with ovulatory menstrual (OM) dysfunction, which is associated with school absenteeism and mental health challenges. Low menstrual health literacy among this group has evoked calls to review OM health education. This qualitative study sought to explore gaps in current OM health education and to validate a holistic school-based OM health literacy program named "My Vital Cycles"®. Findings are based on 19 written reflections, six focus group discussions and three interviews conducted with 28 girls aged 14-18 years from 11 schools, and five mothers. Six themes compared current OM health education with "My Vital Cycles"®: understating health, comprehensiveness, resources, teaching, parents and cycle tracking. Future refinements to the program comprised: inclusion of the complete reproductive lifespan, use of visual media and developing a mobile application. These findings inform future research in a whole school approach, strengths-based teaching and changes in the health curriculum.