Running head: COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

Kendall Palos
Comprehensive School Assessment
Arizona State University
PPE 310
February 1st, 2016
Dr. Hesse

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

Assessment Results

Based on my assessment and from my time spent at Esperanza Elementary, I have seen
two core strengths that I see a lot of potential in for promoting healthy and sensible lifestyles.
One of these strengths I have witnessed is teacher initiative. Seemingly every week, I hear about
a group of teachers who attend workshops, classes, or other informative sessions that will better
their instruction in the classroom. While I am well aware that most teachers need a certain
amount of hours of professional development each year, the excitement and motivation that I

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

hear in the teachers voices when speaking about these events makes it seem as if they would still
go even if they werent required to. With this type of initiative, paired with health based
workshops or classes, the teachers at Esperanza could be incredible health educators in the
classroom. My own mentor teacher went to a workshop hosted by University of Arizona that was
health based, and one of the things she received was a container full of lesson plans educating on
healthy eating ranging from kindergarten to middle school along with the necessary materials.
With this knowledge, I think that if teachers are informed about these kinds of workshops, they
too could receive the right information and materials to embed health into many different
lessons.
The second core strength I have seen since the beginning of the year is the closeness and
the strength of the community around Esperanza. The school is tucked away by a neighborhood
in which many of the students live. Many students walk or ride bikes to school because of how
close they live. In addition to this, many of the teachers and faculty also live close by to the
school, making it very easy to have parent-teacher communication when needed. In fact, many of
the teachers who have been at the school for many years are friends with some of the parents and
stay in contact outside of school. This has built a very strong and welcoming community. A
benefit I see from this is the ease and strength of promoting health inside and outside of the
classroom. Given the rapport that most of the teachers have with the parents and students,
encouraging health around campus along with sending home informative flyers about exercise,
eating healthy, and programs that students can be enrolled in could be a huge step in increasing a
healthy and active environment at Esperanza.
After two and a half quarters at Esperanza, and after reviewing the score of the school
assessment, I believe there are two main weaknesses the school possesses. The first weakness is

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the lack of afterschool programs that promote physical activity. Even though Esperanza has a
plethora of wonderful academic enrichment programs after school, I dont believe there are any
fitness or health related classes. I think that including more of these types of clubs would not
only improve the health of a lot of students, but it would also motivate them to participate in
more physical activity outside of school.
Another weakness I observed was the lack of physical activity and brain breaks
embedded into classroom instruction. Esperanza has a great curriculum from National
Geographic that promotes many progressive ideas and insights into healthy lifestyles, however I
never see the placement of actual physical activities into the lessons. In addition, given the ELD
title of some classrooms, there is a massive focus on the strict four-hour block and making sure
language development and fluency are constantly enforced in everything. This fact can
sometimes make it very difficult to incorporate physical activity.
After observing the two weaknesses, there are obviously many things that could be done
in order to start moving forward. One small step in this direction would be to start an afterschool
class or club that focuses on physical activity. This could be any type of club from a nature club,
focusing on spending time outside and practicing alternative ways of working out, all the way to
having an extended PE, where students who love the special could have an extra hour to fortyfive minutes of physical activity time. Most of the teachers at Esperanza work with a small group
of students by choice after school for academic enrichment, so the same concept applied to
fitness would be perfect at the school. This would not only improve physical health, but it could
also potentially improve grades and test scores. A study done from 2008-2010 in the state of
Mississippi showed that there was a significant rise in math and language arts when paired with
more and improved physical activity curriculum during school (Blom, 2011). Not only that, but

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the percentage of students with excessive absences went down about 8% as well as the incidents
related to behavioral issues. If more of an effort was made to create programs that promote
healthy activity or improve the physical education curriculum, there is no doubt that it would
have a positive affect in more ways that one.
Another step I believe the school could take in order to promote healthy lifestyles with
the students would be making it a habit in each classroom to have physical activities or mini
health education lessons embedded throughout instruction. One thing that we have done in my
classroom is starting the day off with a quick video from GoNoodle.com. GoNoodle is a website
that has kid-friendly characters to navigate through the website and a huge variety of videos
ranging from stretching and breathing exercises to zumba dancing with a positive and healthy
message. In addition, the website rewards points to the class after each video watched, adding in
a sense of motivation to complete more. On the days that I have my students participate with the
videos, I notice a positive difference in how attentive they are. I think that if this were
implemented more throughout the day, maybe twice a day, a big difference would be visible
across students. GoNoodle along with many other similar websites and videos accessible through
the internet are great resources to use in the classroom as a way to assist learning through
physical activity, have brain breaks, or even to reward the students.
One way that I could use this information to engage the school and community about this
would be to simply promote something like an after school fitness club or other resources.
Sending home a flyer can make a huge difference if they have the information and a number or
email to contact for more questions. These kinds of flyers are done for all of the other afterschool
classes and would also be an efficient way to promote clubs. Another way I could engage the
community and school is to show them the facts. There have been countless studies done in

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addition to the study looked at on this assessment, that show the correlation between physical
fitness and academic achievement. I think that by simply showing the numbers, it will at least get
minds thinking and motivated about wanting to make a change to the policies. This kind of
motivation may not lead to a change right away, but it could lead to rallying, fundraising, and
generally getting the word out to everyone that this is an important change to policy that needs to
happen. I think that the main factor in this is making sure the families, students, community, and
administration are informed and not kept in the dark.
I think that the information I have obtained in this assessment could help me with my
signature assignment about the harmful effects of caffeine on the body and mind. Being fit is not
just about exercise, but it is also about what a person consumes. Caffeine is in so many food
products that children eat on a daily basisinforming students from a young age of its
unfavorable effects can make a difference as they grow into teenagers and young adults.

Information
I am currently finishing off my last semester as a teacher candidate at Esperanza
Elementary. It is a K-5 school, and the average class size is about 20 students per room. Each
grade has about three classes and there are two classes that have mixed grades; the Little
Explorer program combines K-2, and a 4th/5th grade combination class. According to School
Digger, in 2014, there were 421 students enrolled at Esperanza. Out of those students, 98% of the
student body was Hispanic, roughly 0.01% was African American, and the rest, white or Native
American.

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Esperanza is a Title I, urban public school where all of the students receive completely
free breakfast and lunch. School Digger has different data that lists this percentage as 99.3% in
2014, but after speaking with my mentor teacher, I know that in fact the whole school gets free
meals. According to AZReportCards.org, Esperanza has a 96% attendance rate and has a letter
grade of a B.

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References
Gopher. (n.d.). Retrieved February 06, 2016, from http://www.gophersport.com/resources/activehealthy-schools/
Hudson, G. M., PhD, Alzarez, J., PhD, Blom, L. C., EdD, Zhang, L., PhD MBA, & Kolbo, J. R.,
PhD. (2011). The Association between Fitness and School Test Scores, Attendance, and
Discipline among Mississippi Students. The Association between Fitness and School Test
Scores, Attendance, and Discipline among Mississippi Students. Retrieved February 3,
2016, from http://movetolearnms.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/HYPER_Article03.pd
Esperanza Elementary School. (n.d.). Retrieved February 03, 2016, from
http://www.schooldigger.com/go/AZ/schools/0396001542/school.aspx
(n.d.). Retrieved February 03, 2016, from https://www.azreportcards.org/

PPE 310 Healthy and Active Schools, Assessment and School Context
Criteria

Exemplary: Points (5)

Assessment

SCORE:

School
Context
/Writing
Style
SCORE:

Proficient: Points (3)

A minimum of 2 strengths and 2

weaknesses were described
Assessment was completed online
and posted to your E-Portfolio
A direct link was placed at the end of
your document to the assignment in
your E-Portfolio
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

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 E-Portfolio
A link was provided to your EPortfolio to this assignment, however
it wasnt a direct link to this
assignment
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

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COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

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This rubric was added but not at the
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Document was in APA, however errors
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