RUNNING HEADER: School Assessment

Alexa Carrasco
Highland Park Elementary School Assessment
Arizona State University
PPE 310: Health Literacy for Schools
February 7, 2016
Professor Mary Dean

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Assessment Results

Overall Grade: D+
During School: 80%
Keep going! You're already well on your way to an Active & Healthy Schools environment. Get
teachers and staff involved, perhaps introduce some additional activities, and you'll be looking great!

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: 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: 80%

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

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Assessment Overview
The report may reflect this school in negative light, but I see many
positive physical and academic implementations around this school that
keeps the message of strong health. One of the strengths of this school is
their Parent Teacher Organization and how well they coordinate fundraisers.
The fundraiser they are currently using is a Jump Rope for Heart program.
The students receive donations and jump rope to raise awareness of heart
disease. It is educational and benefit students. This year, 300 students have
raised money and will be jump roping and doing activities for 30 minutes. All
of these events happen during school, which is why there is a solid 80% on
the rubric.
Another unique and positive aspect of this school is its after school
running club. As an extracurricular, Highland Park has an after school club
dedicated to running. To keep it competitive and fun, the school travels to
meet with other schools to see who can run most as a team. Thanks to the
dedicated parents and staff, these students now have a gateway to a healthy
lifestyle. Another reason for this school to have an 80% for after school
healthy learning on the assessment.
Of course with strengths, come weaknesses. I love how the school
pushes to eating healthy and has all the children have at least one vegetable
or fruit when they purchase their lunch. However, the school has a
friendship box which is a box where students put unwanted sides in the
box for other students in the cafeteria. Although this is great for the students

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who do not have enough to eat, the box is often full of fruit and vegetables,
leaving the students without the fruit and vegetables they need. This is what
brings down the during school portion of the rubric. This school could have
100% in that area if they change.
Additionally, the school could be educating these students better about
their diet. It is not in the curriculum for students to learn about the essential
food groups and the importance of a healthy lifestyle. Although the staff
encourages healthy choices, they do not plan lessons around it to show
students the consequences of unhealthy living. Perhaps if they did this, the
friendship box would not overflow with carrots. This would also bring their
assessment grade up considering curriculum is their lowest scoring part of
the rubric. At 0%, curriculum bringing down this school that should be a B or
an A.
There are many simple fixes for this school to bring up their score
drastically. The first one would be to make healthy eating and exercise part
of the science and physical education curriculum. This school does not have
any curriculum specifically geared towards health. These are concepts
students may not learn until high school. By provided a unit plan geared
toward healthy lifestyles, students would be better informed and the
assessment score of Highland park would rise to a more respectable level.
Another thing to improve would be to do away with friendship box and
finding a better way to make sure the nutrients make it into the students
bodies. I think adding steamed vegetables inside of the hot lunch would

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make it easier to distribute vegetables. Also, the students love apple and
orange juice; a nice sweetened vegetable juice can also be sold at the
school.
In order to make this information and opportunities available to the
community, Highland Park must take advantage of their strength: the PTA. By
presenting these issues and data to the parents and staff they can now be
aware and come forth with ideas to strengthen the school. For example, no
more sweets in the vending machines or bringing low sugar food on
birthdays. These parents can also help provide after school curriculum and
events focused on healthy living.
One event that is lacking and provides exercise is Race for the Cure.
Many families are affected by cancer. Raising money and bringing out
competitive sides will encourage students, staff, and parents to walk and run
to raise funds. By bringing in this event, the after school aspect of the rubric
will also bump up.
Using the data collected, my signature assignment can focus better on
the eating habits of students and how it correlates with their lack of
curriculum. My signature assignment is focused on obesity and overweight
students in general. By discussing with students how and why they make
their health choices, I can help find direct correlations between their
responses and the data collected.

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School Overview
The school where I am serving as an Arizona State University iTeachAZ
teacher candidate is Highland Park Elementary School. It is located in the
Gilbert school district and has around 900 students. The White population of
the school makes up about 79.8%. The other ethnicities go as follows:
African-American: 2.1%, Asian: 3.3%, Hispanic: 12.2% and two or more races
is at 1.9%. Both American Indian and Pacific Islander ethnic groups represent
less than half a percent of the school. It is a public school and not a Title I
school.
Because of the area, the lack of diversity, and similar socio-economic
status within the school, most of the statistics of the school will weigh
heavily on one side. For example, only 0.6% of the students have free or
reduced lunch. Although the proportion of English Language Learning
students is unavailable through online resources, the bilingual teacher at the
elementary school states she has 13 students she sees. With the amount of
teachers in the school the proportion and average class size should be 18.
Realistically, there are about 27 students per one teacher in each general
education classroom setting.
The surrounding neighborhood of this school where the students live is
suburban. More than 90% of these students live in suburban homes near the
school. Other students live in condos or apartments; some are near and
others are farther out. The demographic makeup of the neighboring towns is
similar because it is Gilbert, Arizona. Almost 90% of Gilbert lives in single

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family homes. The difference between this school and nearby schools, such
as Greenfield Elementary, is similar.
There are no current letter grades for Highland Park Elementary, but it
is ranked the 82nd best elementary school in the entire state of Arizona.
When it comes to academics and state testing (AZMerit) this school ranks
above their district average and the state average. They are a good thirty
points above the state average. Test scores that are not available online
were given at a 2016 staff meeting. From first to second quarter, Highland
Park Elementary School has shown growth in every category for the ATI. In
fact, the third grade language arts standards at Highland Park were recorded
to show the most growth out of any school in the entire district. The letter
grade may not be available online, but in my unbiased opinion I would score
this school an A based on their data driven methods to improve student
achievement and growth.
For more information, please go to
http://avcarrascoportfolio.weebly.com/healthy-leadership.html

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