Jill Miller

School Assessment
PPE 310
September 12, 2015

Assessment Results
Overall Grade: B
During School: 100%
Congratulations! It looks as though your students and staff are getting plenty of physical activity and using it well, the first step to
creating an Active & Healthy environment.

Curriculum: 40%
Room for improvement. Studies show the importance of an effective PE curriculum to overall student health and academic
performance. A stronger emphasis on PE can go a long way toward creating an Active & Healthy environment.

Recess / Lunch: 100%

Terrific! With a solid nutritional program and sufficient physical activity, students acquire the habits of the Active & Healthy Program
and can provide a positive example to others.

After School: 100%

Way to go! You are a great example of the Active & Healthy environment in your community!

 What are at least two strengths and two weaknesses of your school?
According to the assessment results above, Marley Park is strong when it comes to providing a
recess break for students within the school day and healthy lunch and breakfast options for students
to choose from. On the other hand, Marley Park also shows some areas of weakness. For example,
there is a need for incorporating more physical activity into the actual classrooms. The health
assessment also shows the need for a stronger emphasis on PE.
Describe each strength and weakness based on your observation/experience as well as
your results from the School Assessment Tool.
Taking a closer look at the strengths, Marley Park scored high in the category of recess and lunch.
Students are given a twenty minute recess every day after lunch. During this time I have observed
students using the gym equipment on the playground, participating in different sports, and playing
games like four square. Marley Park also serves both breakfast and lunch. The meals that are served
are considered to be balanced and nutritional. There are also posters displayed throughout the
hallways of the school promoting physical activity, teamwork and respect for one another.
Looking at the weaknesses based both on my observations and the results from the school
assessment tool Marley Park scored low in the curriculum category. As I stated above one of the
areas that are in need of improvement is the need for incorporating physical activity into the
classroom. Since starting at Marley Park I have observed long spans of time where students are
expected to stay in their seats and engaged in a lesson. I also noticed that students are only
attending PE one out of every four weeks for thirty minute classes. I believe that this shows that
Marley Park is not putting a strong emphasis on Physical Education as part of the curriculum.
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.
One of the ways that I feel would improve the policies that are currently in place at Marley Park is to
add an additional physical activity break into the school day. With all the budget cuts the school
district is going through I feel that this is a solution that would not affect the current budget or create
a need for additional resources. This extra physical activity break could be built into the teachers

everyday schedules by grade level. For example, if second grade goes to lunch at 10:30 am then the
additional physical activity break would take place later in the afternoon. If eighth graders go to
lunch at 1:00 pm then their additional physical activity time would be during one of their morning
classes.
Additionally, this does not mean that students are going to be losing any instructional time. Adding
this second physical activity time into the daily schedule could be implemented into whatever
content is being taught during that time period. Maybe this means playing some sort of game during
a math lesson to get students up and moving around, or having students doing something active as
they spell there vocabulary words of the week. I believe that you can take any content area and
include physical activity into it.
The second way that I would improve the policies is to add a snack time into the school day. Even
though the school rated high when it comes to lunch I dont feel that students have enough time to
eat their well-balanced meal. I also observed that some grade levels have a large gap between lunch
and the end of the school day. For this reason I feel that having healthy snacks available would help
keep students alert and engaged. I know when Im hungry it is very difficult for me to concentrate on
anything.
I believe the best way to implement this is to encourage students to bring in a healthy snack from
home. I realize that this will not be an option for all students. My idea for students that may not
have the option to bring in their own healthy snack would be to have an area in the cafeteria for
students to put their breakfast and lunch items that they are not going to eat. Every day I watch kids
throw full trays of food away without even thinking a second thought about it. This might be a way to
make sure students are getting enough to eat throughout the school day.

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.
One way that I can use this information to engage administration, teachers, parents, students, and
the community is to present the results from the School Assessment when the administration and
teachers get together during professional development. This would allow me to present the results

and my ideas. If I can get the administration and teachers on board I would then draft up a letter to
be mailed or emailed out to parents in the community explaining our ideas about getting the
students at Marley Park more active during the school day.

How can the information obtained be used to support your potential topic for the Signature
Assignment?
The information obtained could be used to support my potential signature assignment by allowing
me to see the areas at Marley Park that might have a need for improvement. Looking at the results
from the School Assessment you can see that Marley Park could use the most help in the area of
curriculum. Seeing the results of the assessment allows me to focus my signature assignment topic
on finding a way to create a healthy and active environment that is built into the curriculum.

Marley Park sits in a suburban neighborhood in Surprise Arizona. Marley Park Elementary is a public school
A+ rated school in the Dysart Unified School District. According to Schooldigger.com, Marley Park
currently has 1091 students enrolled. The school is not classified as a title 1 school at this time with only
30% of the students receiving free/reduced lunch. The demographics of Marley Park are 65% white, 21%
Asian, 4-5% African American and Hispanic, and 4% are considered two or more races. Out of these
students 10% are considered English Language Learners.Schooldigger.com lists the student to teacher
ratio at 20.5 students per teacher for 2014 however, due to the override not passing in the Dysart District
class sizes have increased 30-35 students per classroom. The website also stated that the physical
education budget was a part of these cuts also. This tells me that it is even more important for teachers to
incorporate activity into their classrooms to increase the amount of activity students are getting in the
school day.

References

AssessYourSchool.(2015).RetrievedSeptember8,2015,fromhttp://www.activeandhealthyschools.com/home/assess_survey.cfm
2015DysartOverrideFactualInformation.(2015).RetrievedSeptember8,2015,fromhttps://www.dysart.org/Sites/Default.aspx?
pgID=4548
SchoolDigger.com.(2015).RetrievedSeptember8,2015,fromhttp://www.schooldigger.com/

Criteria
Assessment

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#.cou
rse#
This rubric was added to the last
page of the document submitted

Unsatisfactory: Points (1)

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

Assessment was not completed

online or in your EPortfolio
Strengths and weaknesses were not,
or poorly described
Suggestions to improve school
policies were not stated
No suggestions to engage
stakeholders were provided

School context contained little

detailed information on
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
file document name submitted
Lastname.firstname.assignment#.course#
This rubric was not added to the
document submitted