Lindsay Godfrey

School Assessment
PPE 310
September 4, 2015

Assessment Results

Overall Grade: F
During School: 20%
Let's get to work. The school day is the critical time for implementing the
Active & Healthy Schools Program, which can benefit students, teachers and
staff. Let's look at some steps for improving your Active & Healthy score
during the school day.
Curriculum: 0%
Let's get to work. The Active & Healthy Schools Program is committed to
creating programs that schools can successfully implement and maintain.
Let's look at some possibilities for your PE program.
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.
While my school earned a letter grade of an F using the assessment
tool, there both strengths and weaknesses to the health education in this
school. One strength is that we provide two recess breaks for the students of
about 15 to 20 minutes each. According to the assessment tool, we earned a

50% for recess and lunch. I have found that the students really enjoy their
recess time and seem to use it all running around and playing. Their first
recess is before lunch but their second one is after lunch, in the afternoon, as
recommended by the assessment tool. However, it suggests providing
information and resources for the students so that they can better
understand the importance of getting their recess break to be physically
active. There are some students who prefer not to engage in activity during
recess but if they were more informed on the benefits, they may be more
interested in participating.
Another strength of my school is they offer some healthy snack and
breakfast options for the students. We provide breakfast to the students who
want it and it often includes some fruit like apples or bananas and fat free
milk. There are often many healthier choices for the students to take and
many of them do choose to have the fruit and milk. However, one of my
schools weaknesses is that they also offer a lot of not so healthy or
nutritious options for breakfast and lunch as well. While they do offer fruit,
they also often have things such as frozen chocolate chip pancakes and
waffles for the students. Often times students will take both of these options
for breakfast. For lunch, there seems to be a lack of nutritious options as
well. There is a salad and vegie bar but most students rarely partake in that
area of the lunch room. The offer things like pizza, burritos, and chicken
nuggets on most days. Because of these poor and unhealthy choices at

breakfast and lunch, the score for recess and lunch dropped to 50% on the
assessment tool.
One other weakness is the lack of an educational health program at
the school. Not all students have P.E. throughout the year. Most have it for a
quarter of the school year and then they switch to a different special area.
Some students can choose not to participate in P.E. at all the whole year
long. I think this lack of physical education in the school can be detrimental
to the students. Having a schedule that rotates the special area classes
would be a more effective way to get the students active the whole year.
Depriving them of activity and health education for most of the year and not
implementing a healthy and active school curriculum earned us a score of
20% from the school assessment tool.
I think there are many things we can do to improve the health
education our students are getting at my school. By taking out some of the
less healthy breakfast and lunch options offered and replacing them with
something more nutritious but still something the students like, we can help
to eliminate the sugary and fatty foods they eat at school. Considering
portion control and how much the students should be eating and what food
groups can help to make this a little easier. We can also change the special
area classes schedule so that all students will have the opportunity to
participate in P.E. at least two to three times a week. By having them
engaged in physical activity more often throughout the school day, they will
be able to learn about health education and be actively participating as well.

Implementing school programs that encourage physical activity are key to

improving our students health.
Another key component to improving our schools health program is by
including an after school program for staff, teachers and parents to
participate in a healthy lifestyle as well. We cant just tell our students to be
involved and active if their teachers and parents are not doing the same. It
is important to get everyone on the same page and apart of the healthy
lifestyle initiative. According to the school assessment tool, staff members
should be actively participating in these health programs if we want our
students to become better educated about their health. A lot of parents and
staff are most likely not aware of their childs school low rating for being a
healthy and active school. I think it is important to inform them on these
issues and get them involved so that they can play a role in this movement
as well. If we inform parents, we can not only start after-school fitness
programs but also have the students being active at home. There are many
resources that parents and students can use at home to help continue a
heathy lifestyle at home. Introducing them to things like choosemyplate.gov
where they can learn about the things they should and should not be eating,
they can be better informed as a family on how to be healthy.

The school I am at is Tres Rios Elementary School which is a public

school in the Littleton School District. As of last year in 2014 there were 925

students enrolled to the school. A large percentage of the students enrolled

are Hispanic, in fact 728 students or 78.7% of the school is documented as
being Hispanic according to schooldigger.com. White students make up
8.9% of the school, African American make up 7.7%, American Indian is
1.2%, Asian ethnicities are 1% and two or more races is 2.5%. There is a
similar trend of ethnic makeup in the surrounding neighborhoods. They also
found that 87.1% of the students qualify for a free or reduced lunch in the
school (Tres Rios Elementary School, 2015). This number has risen slightly
since previous years, as has the enrollment at the school. While they broke
down the students enrolled by race, there was no information available on
the proportion of ELLs at the school. From my observations and discussions
with other teachers and staff, I would say that a good portion of the students
either are considered and ELL or have once been in the program but tested
out. This school teaches grades kindergarten through eighth grade and the
class size varies depending on the grade level. In the second grade
classrooms, the average is about 23 students per class. The school is
located in a suburban area surrounded by many homes and other buildings.
There are also a lot of farm areas and open land near the school. According
to Arizona Report Cards (2013), Tres Rios earned a letter grade of a B, for
the year 2013. However, they also reported that they did not meet their
annual measurable objectives during this year. Tres Rios is a Title I school
and receives funding for their status. The latest information available for
attendance records was in 2013 where they had a 95% attendance rate (Tres

Rios Elementary School, 2015). There are no health initiative or after-school

programs held at the school and the students rotate their special area
classes quarterly, meaning that most students only have physical education
for one quarter of the school year.

References
Arizona Report Cards. (2013). Retrieved September 5, 2015, from
https://www.azreportcards.org/AcademicIndicators/Indicators.
Tres Rios Elementary School. (2015). Retrieved September 5, 2015, from

http://www.schooldigger.com/go/AZ/schools/0444002908/school.aspx.

PPE 310 Healthy and Active Schools, Assessment and School

Criteria
Assessmen
t

Exemplary: Points (5)

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#.course
#
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#.course
#
This rubric was added but not at the
end of the document submitted

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