Running head: COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

Catherine Davies
Comprehensive School Assessment
Arizona State University
PPE 310
February 6th, 2016
Dr. Lineberry

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

Assessment Results

A strength that I have observed in my placement school, Webster Elementary, is that there
is a conscious effort of the school trying to become healthier. I have noted this when students are
given a variety of healthier foods at lunch as a choice or for snack. During the announcements
every morning, the principal will discuss a healthy fruit available for the day (offered for snack
or at lunch) and some facts about that fruit. Often these fruits are ones that children arent
familiar with, which I believe is a wonderful way to get the students interested in healthy food.
Another strength I have found as healthy choices in my placement school is the amount
of time students are given active time during the school day. Webster received a 75% in the

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

assessment provided above for recess/lunch, and rightly so. Students in my class have two days
of P.E. and two recesses during the day (after lunch and an afternoon recess). Although there is
stillroom for improvement, I believe that students are in the school are given a fair amount of
time to run outside.
A weakness of my schools healthy habits that I have observed is the modeling of healthy
habits by the staff of the school. There is no program or resources available to teach teachers or
staff members how to lead a healthy lifestyle, and I have not seen any teachers, in the classes I
have been in, try and be healthy for the benefit of their students. For the during school
category, my school received a 40%, and I believe this contributed to this score.
Lastly, a weakness I have witnessed in my school is that the curriculum does not
acknowledge healthy habits that students should learn/perform. If there are any classrooms that
make physical activity a part of their lesson or as homework, that added activity is an action done
because the teacher feels it to be important lesson to learn, not because it is mandated by the
school or district. My school received a 20% in the assessment above for curriculum, which is
the lowest score out of all of the topics.
Two ways that the school could improve policies put in place is that teachers could be
required to involve physical activities between or in their lessons, and also that that students
should be have physical activity as homework, either given for homework for PE or in the actual
classroom. In the classroom, there could simply be 3 required brain breaks to be added between
lessons each day, a list of possible examples provided by the teachers. For homework, the PE
teacher could give students a log that required a certain amount of activities each week, with
example activities provided.

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

These are both practices that I have not noticed need improvement and would also be
beneficial to the school community as a whole. Many teachers may be reluctant to add another
required responsibility to their already full plate as a teacher, but I believe that this would be well
worth the work. As a matter of fact, adding activity could even bring up grades and improve
focus. It has been found that Short physical activity breaks during the school day may increase
physical activity, improve student behavior and on-task behavior, and improve some measures of
health. (Do Short Physical Activity Breaks in Classrooms Work, 2016)
Two ways that the school can engage the community in promoting healthy behaviors is
by educating the community on the importance of promoting healthy behaviors, and holding
community events that gives important resources to empower the community to be healthier.
Educating the community could involve having homework that involved students teaching their
parents what they learn or having resources on the school website that parents, students, and
teachers are able to access. Community events that the school could hold could include fun runs,
healthy meal cook off, or having guest speakers come to that promote healthy habits after school
for anyone to attend.
The information learned from the school assessment quiz could definitely be used as
conversation starter for the importance of implementing these kinds of programs in the school.
The research for why healthier students perform better overall in school is already well
researched and known in the educational community, but proving to the school that they are one
of those schools that needs refining in that aspect is where I feel the real battle lies.
The information obtained for this assignment can be used to help better individualize my
Signature Assignment to tailor to the needs of the school. All the information, especially the
statistics, will be used in my Signature Assignment as data to support my actions.

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

Information
I am currently student teaching for Webster Elementary School in the Mesa Unified
School District. This is a public school that has grades kindergarten through 6th, and is located in
an urban area in Mesa, Arizona. According to School Digger, enrollment in the school year of
2014 2015 was 628, with a majority, 397 students, being Hispanic. The school last year was
63.2% Hispanic, 17.5% white, 6.2% African American, and 9.6% American Indian (Webster
Elementary School, n.d.). This school is 90.8% free and reduced lunch, which qualifies it as a
Title 1 school (Webster Elementary School, n.d.). For 2015, for the AZ Merit Test, there was
21% proficient for mathematics (Webster Elementary School, n.d.).
The proportion of ELL students, as stated by the office, is 101 students or 15%
As stated by the office, this year there are 101 ELL students in the school, which is about 15% of
the school population. The class size is, on average, 28 students per classroom (Webster
Elementary Home of the Cougars, n.d.). For the 2014-2015 school year, the school received a
letter grade of C, or average performing (Mesa AZ Schools 2014 - 2015 Letter Grades, n.d.).
School Assessment
http://daviesppe310.weebly.com/healthy-leadership.html

References

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

Do Short Physical Activity Breaks in Classrooms Work? (2016). Active Living Research.
Retrieved February 7, 2016, from
http://activelivingresearch.org/files/ALR_Brief_ActivityBreaks_Feb2013.pdf
Gopher. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2016, from http://www.gophersport.com/resources/activehealthy-schools/
Mesa AZ Schools 2014 - 2015 Letter Grades. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2016, from
http://www.samelam.com/Web/AR422641/CustomContent/index/5117704
Webster Elementary Home of the Cougars. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2016, from
http://www.mpsaz.org/webster/
Webster Elementary School. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2016, from
http://www.schooldigger.com/go/AZ/schools/0497000418/school.aspx

Criteria

Exemplary: Points (5)

Proficient: Points (3)

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

Assessment

SCORE:

School
Context
/Writing Style
SCORE:

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 file
document name submitted
Lastname.firstname.assignment#.course#
This rubric was added to the last page of
the document submitted
Your document was in APA 6.0 format,
including cover page, body and reference
section with no errors

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 E-Portfolio 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 file
document name submitted
Lastname.firstname.assignment#.course#
This rubric was added but not at the end of the
document submitted
Document was in APA, however errors were
found in formatting of the sections

Asses
E-Por
No di
your
Stren
descr
Sugge
stated
No su
provi

Schoo
inform
grade
% fre
enroll
propo
avera
urban
ethnic
state
AYP
Few o
docum
Lastn
This r
subm
APA