Session 3 Assignment 1

Leyla Shill
September 10, 2015
PPE 310 Mon 7:30-10:15

Assess Your School

Assessment Results
Overall Grade: F
During School: 40%
Room for improvement. Some simple changes can have a tremendous impact on
your Active & Healthy score, from point-of-decision signage to additional physical
activity after lunch.

Curriculum: 60%
Looking good in some key areas. Keep up the great work!

Recess / Lunch: 50%

Room for improvement. Help students get more out of your recess and lunch
programs by providing additional information and resources, or by rescheduling
recess time for after lunch.

After School: 20%

Let's get to work. Take a look at a few simple changes your school can make to
help create an Active & Healthy environment, both at school and at home.

What are at least two strengths and two weaknesses of your school?
Two strengths that my school has is one, they offer a lot of
extracurricular sports outside of school to kids, and two, the students that
take P.E. they have it every day. Two weaknesses is one: that there is
little to no posters or signs about health and fitness at the school, and two:
there are no snack options at school.

Describe each strength and weakness based on your observation/experience as

well as your results from the School Assessment Tool.
A strength that my school provides is a lot of extracurricular sports.
A majority of our students participate on the sports teams, and the variety
definitely helps students choose a sport to play that they are interested in.
The coaches of the sports teams also regularly encourage their members
to participate in community sporting events, such as running in a 5k that is
put on by the community at the local park. Another strength that my
school has is that they offer P.E. to students as an elective, and it is
offered everyday. Students love it because they chose to be there, but at
the same time that means that the student who are not enrolled in P.E
have significantly less physical movement during the school day than
those students who do take the class.
A weakness that my school has is that there are little to no health
posters and signs at the school. I have observed two bulletin boards in
the Multipurpose Room that contain health and fitness information, but
there is nothing else around the school. The other weakness is there are
no snack options available to students. There are no vending machines
that students have access to or any other snack options that the students
have. However, they are allowed to bring their own snacks to school to
eat throughout the day, the their teacher will let them eat in the classroom.

What are at least two ways to improve the policies in place at your
school? Explain detailed information for each way and what you expect from
each way.
The first way we can improve the policies in place at my school is
post more bulletin boards and posters promoting health and fitness
throughout the entire school. Doing this would help bring more awareness
to students and with a variety of posters about topics students can learn
something new that is relevant and meaningful to them.
The second thing that my school can do to improve its policies is
consider adding snack options at school. One way of doing this is by
adding a vending machine on the campus. By only offering healthier
snack options, would help students to have food available to them, but
eliminate high fat and sugar foods. It could also help students from
packing unhealthy snacks. Also, eating food is very important at the
middle school age, and giving kids snacks can help them to focus better in
school.

What are at least two ways that you can you use this information to engage
administration, teachers, parents, students and the community in promoting more
healthful behaviors? Include a specific description for how to use the results from
the School Assessment Tool as well as your ideas for improvement.
I think that educating our student about healthy choices is important
so that they can make educated decisions for themselves. I think that if
teachers and parents realized how little health was being promoted
around the school on a general basis they would be more than happy to
make the necessary changes. My school also has a huge amount of
parent involvement so I think that is something that they as a PTA would
want to take on and support. I think the biggest part of this problem is the
lack of awareness of the deficit and bring that awareness would help solve
the problem in itself.
I am not quiet sure how to solve the problem of the lack of snacks
available than simply informing others of the problem. My suggestion for
fixing the problem was to get a vending machine with healthy snacks. In
order to do this I would have to get a vending machine, and that is where I
would have to talk to the PTO. After that the rest would be easy to stock
the machine, and to get students excited about using the machine.

How can the information obtained be used to support your potential topic for the
Signature Assignment?
This information is very valuable to help me with the potential topic
of my signature assignment. First of all, I am now aware of my schools
strengths and weaknesses, and areas that I can help out to improve the
health and fitness of my students and the rest of the school. I do not think
that I will do my signature assignment on any of the topics I talked about,
but it makes me understand the importance of evaluating my school, and
seeing how I personally can make it better.

School Information

School Name, District: Ward Traditional Academy, Tempe Elementary

School District
% free/reduced lunch:26.6%
Enrollment:477
Proportion ELLs: not available
Average class size and grade levels: Teacher to student ratio: 19:1 k-8
Urban/rural/suburban: Suburban
Ethnic makeup and any demographic information of the surrounding
community infrastructure:
White: 54.3%
African American: 5%
Asian: 5.5%
Hispanic: 28.1%
Native American:1.5%
Pacific Islander: .8%
Two or More: 5.7%
School Letter Grade (A,B,C etc): A
Title 1 (Yes/No): N0
Public/Charter/Private: Public
Any pertinent information as it relates to your chosen topic for
the Signature Assignment (i.e. data collected on number of suspensions,
absenteeism, visits to nurse, prevention programs, health initiatives, family
and community involvement in building healthier schools, district-wide
adopted programs that support sustainability, etc.)
97% attendance
98% pass rate

References:
Arizona Report Cards. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2015 from
https://azreportcards.com/ReportCard?school=81057&district=-1
Ward Traditional Academy. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2015 from
http://www.schooldigger.com/go/AZ/schools/0831003112/school.aspx

Criteria

Exemplary: Points (5)

Assessment

SCORE:

School
Context
SCORE:

Proficient: Points (3)

A minimum of 2 strengths and 2

weaknesses were described
Assessment was completed online
and posted to your EPortfolio
Suggestions to improve school
policies were clearly stated
At least 2 suggestions to engage
stakeholders were provided

School context contained detailed

information on
grade levels
% free/reduced lunch
enrollment,
proportion ELLs
average class size
urban/rural/suburban,
ethnic makeup
state test scores
AYP status
All of the following are listed in the
file document name submitted
Lastname.firstname.assignment#.cou
rse#
This rubric was added to the last
page of the document submitted

A minimum of 1 strength and 1

weakness was described
Suggestions to improve school policies
were stated but lacked sufficient detail
At least 1 suggestion to engage
stakeholders was provided
Assessment was completed online and
not in your EPortfolio

School context contained some

detailed information on
grade levels
% free/reduced lunch
enrollment,
proportion ELLs
average class size
urban/rural/suburban,
ethnic makeup
state test scores
AYP status
Most of the following are listed in the
file document name submitted
Lastname.firstname.assignment#.cours
e#
This rubric was added but not at the
end of the document submitted