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As a West Virginia House of Delegates subcommittee studies the reasons behind the state's dramatic increase in teen birth rates, State Superintendent of Schools Jorea Marple said ensuring student self-esteem is key.

Speaking at the Committee on Education's Subcommittee studying health CSOs (content standards and objectives) for middle and high schools, Marple said the education system must take a holistic approach to curbing the teen birth rate.

"It's going to require more than one reaction to address this issue," she said.

Marple said schools need to establish behavioral foundations and build systems that ensure student success.

"In order to do that, you have to expand your curriculum," she said. "You have to offer a broad curriculum where students can find opportunities for success."

Part of this includes incorporating more arts education. According to Marple, research shows that students who take arts courses do better in other courses and are less likely to drop out of school.

The behavioral foundations Marple mentioned are intended to make students feel better about themselves. Past presenters who have testified before the subcommittee have said many teen girls purposely get pregnant because they don't feel loved. Marple said teaching students proper nutrition and wellness will increase their self-esteem.

"Feeling good about yourself means you are healthy and you are well," she said.

However, the health curriculum across the state is not uniform. Mary Weikle, coordinator with the West Virginia Office of Healthy Schools, said students in middle school should receive 18 weeks of health education that must cover all content standards and objectives, while high school students should receive one unit, whether that is a semester or full-year course. However, she said, health classes are not held to the same standard as math, science and other core classes.

"It needs to be core," she said. "It needs to be valued."

Many schools offer family and consumer science classes, which often teach parenting skills. Weikle said these courses are "very valuable," but are often taught as electives, meaning students can choose to take them.

Members of the subcommittee discussed how health education classes fit in with high school graduation requirements. Marple said the idea that adding more health classes is counter-intuitive because curbing teen pregnancy depends more on the structure and content of the health courses, not adding more requirements.

"It's about going deeper," she said.