Running head: School Assessment.

Amynah Ramzan
School Assessment
PPE 310 Health Literacy for Schools
September 5, 2015

Running head: School Assessment.

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: 60%
Outstanding! Adding one or two after-school activities or a take-home newsletter can
make your school an Active & Healthy center in your neighborhood!

Running head: School Assessment.

Q1) what are at least two strengths and two weaknesses of your school?
Strengths:

Team Work: grade level work as a team. All teachers from the same grade meet
frequently and work as a team and discuss the curriculum before implementing it

to the kids.
Buddy Program: Another great strength that I noticed was their buddy program.
This is where kids from other classes and higher grades come together and read
with their buddy. For example a first grader might have a fourth grade buddy. A

buddy is also considered a mentor.

Classroom Size: The classroom size is another plus in my opinion. Each first
grade class has 20 students total. This is a good number as teachers as it allows
teachers to not get overwhelmed and they are able to give more time to individual
children when needed.

Weakness:

No Gym: The biggest weakness that I found is the school does not have a gym. A
school of this size uses their cafeteria if available as a gym or most times a small
classroom. This disturbs other classes that are going on next door. And the special
is on a four day rotations so the children get at times PE only once a week which

is about 35 40 minutes, which is not enough time.

Discipline Program; Another weakness is their discipline program is not
consistent with all the classes. Student behavior in the hallways most times can
get rowdy disturbing other classes.

Q2) Describe each strength and weakness based on your observation/experience as

well as your results from the School Assessment Tool.

Running head: School Assessment.

Strengths:

Team Work: grade level work as a team. All teachers from the same grade meet
frequently and work as a team and discuss the curriculum before implementing it

to the kids.
Buddy Program: Another great strength that I noticed was their buddy program.
This is where kids from other classes and higher grades come together and read
with their buddy. For example a first grader might have a fourth grade buddy. A

buddy is also considered a mentor.

Classroom Size: The classroom size is another plus in my opinion. Each first
grade class has 20 students total. This is a good number as teachers as it allows
teachers to not get overwhelmed and they are able to give more time to individual
children when needed.

Weaknesses:

No Gym: The biggest weakness that I found is the school does not have a gym. A
school of this size uses their cafeteria if available as a gym or most times a small
classroom. This disturbs other classes that are going on next door. And the special
is on a four day rotations so the children get at times PE only once a week which

is about 35 40 minutes, which is not enough time.

Discipline Program: Another weakness is their discipline program is not
consistent with all the classes. Student behavior in the hallways most times can
get rowdy disturbing other classes.

Q3) 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.

Running head: School Assessment.

Two ways to improve policy at school:

School Council: the school has a school council, which consists of parents,
teacher and administration. If there are any policy that a teacher or parent would
like to implement they go to the council meeting and bring the issue or suggestion
at hand and the team discusses it, goes over the pros and cons. If it is something
that really will affect the school in any way the committee than takes it to the
higher level which would be the district. I would expect for them to look at each
child and not just focus on academics but also their health. I would really like for
them to consider building a gym, where children can play basketball, kick ball

and other sports.

Another way is to join the PTO group. The PTO is a very strong group at this
school, and as a strong community is able to implement small changes. The PTO
is included in some of the meetings and actively gives suggestions to improve. I
would like the PTO to actively have certain programs at their school to focus on
eating healthy and exercising regularly. For example have a healthy food from the
world, where people from all cultures bring healthy food and people come on a
Saturday for fun. This day could include a talk on eating healthy and also we
might do a zumba class.

Q4) 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 would like to do a presentation for teachers and administrations regarding the

Running head: School Assessment.

need for eating healthy. This includes sending frequent flyers home so that parents

send healthy snack at school.

I will also give them the reasons why a gym would be a good idea and it will
allow children to take part in sports. Also I would like to emphasize the need for
increasing PE time, kids need to have room to move and run around. Having a
gym will allow kids to go and take part in school sport after the hard day of work.

Q5) how can the information obtained be used to support your potential topic for
the Signature Assignment?
I have not decided my topic yet, but I thin I would like to promote eating healthy and
most importantly exercising to stay fit. A need for a gym is very important in my opinion.
I would get the PTO involved in my vision and have them at least work with me to have
weekend programs such as healthy food from around the world.
Step 3:
The school that I am placed at is called Desert Trails Elementary, a public school;
and it is in Paradise Valley school district. This school starts from pre K to grade 6. The
total number of children that are enrolled at this school according to School digger.com is
483 as of 2014. The percentage of free /reduced lunch as of 2014 was 2.3%. It seems that
the percentage of kids getting free/reduced lunch dropped drastically from 2013 where it
was 15.6 %. The average class size at desert trails Elementary is around 19-20 students.
The teacher child ratio is 16: 1 as of 2014. I researched the websites and was not able to
find the number of total ELL students. I know that in my first grade we have two kids
who have been tested for ELL. I know that the other two classes also have children who
are tested for ELL but the percentage is low. There are 20 students in each first grade
class and there are three first grade classes. This school is located in a suburban area of

Running head: School Assessment.

Phoenix, Arizona. At Desert Trail elementary 81.8 % of children are White. 2.5% are
African American, 10.2 % are Hispanic, 4.9% are Asian and 0.6% is Pacific Islander.
Most of the families that live in the surrounding areas are living in single-family homes
(77.7%). Some families live in a condominium (15.37%). And we have a few families
living in other situations (7.37%). There are more families that own a home and Desert
Trails has about 39.34 % families that are currently renting their homes or staying in
apartments.
Desert Trails Elementary ranked 72nd out of 1051 Arizona Public schools. Their
average standard score was 89.84. The school does not take part in the letter grade, but is
planning to get assessed for the A+ status by spring of 2016. This is not a title school.

References

Schooldigger.com. (n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2015, from

http://schooldigger.com
Criteri
a
Assess
ment

School Assessment Rubric

Exemplary: Points (5)
Proficient: Points (3)

SCORE
:

A minimum of 2
strengths and 2
weaknesses were
described
Assessment was
completed online and
posted to your
EPortfolio
Suggestions to

A minimum of 1
strength and 1
weakness was
described
Suggestions to
improve school
policies were stated
but lacked sufficient
detail

Unsatisfactory: Points (1)

Assessment was not completed online

EPortfolio
Strengths and weaknesses were not, o
Suggestions to improve school policie
No suggestions to engage stakeholder

Running head: School Assessment.

School
Context

SCORE
:

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.a
ssignment#.course#
This rubric was
added to the last page
of the document
submitted

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

School context contained little detaile

grade levels
% free/reduced lunch
enrollment,
proportion ELLs
average class size
urban/rural/suburban,
ethnic makeup
state test scores
AYP status
Few of the following are listed in the
name submitted
Lastname.firstname.assignment#.cou
This rubric was not added to the docu