Running head: COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

Amanda Powell
Comprehensive School Assessment
Arizona State University
PPE 310
Dr. Hesse

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

One strength I have observed of my school is how much physical

activity students in grades K-3 get. My 3rd graders have P.E everyday for two
weeks and twice a week for the other two weeks in a month. P.E is 45
minutes and having P.E so often helps the students reach their 60 minutes of
physical activity a day. Students also have 25 minutes of recess each day.
This is why my school scored 75% in the Recess/Lunch category.
My school scored 20% in the after school category. I believe that this
20% comes from the schools second strength, which is after school activities.
The school offers basketball, soccer, and volleyball teams for boys and girls
in 6th-8th grade. 5th graders are allowed to join the teams for practices after

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

school but cannot be on the team. There is also a dance team that students
in any grade level can join. This helps kids to develop a skill that allows them
to be active and healthy. There is at least one physical activity every student
in every grade can choose to be a part of after-school. Admittedly the only
options for grades K-4th are the dance team.
While my school did score a 75% in recess and lunch category I
would say that a weakness is the healthiness of the breakfasts offered at my
school. Students receive breakfast each day at school. 95% of my students
take the free breakfast offered to them. Students receive breakfasts that
include mini bagels with cream cheese, muffins, fruit loops, Nutri-grain bars,
and juice boxes. The Pillsbury cream-cheese bagels have 13 grams of sugar
in a single serving (General Mills Food Service). The Fruit Loops have 18
grams of sugar in a single serving (Calories in Kelloggs Fruit Loops Single
Serving Bowl1.5 oz). This is a lot of sugar to consume in the morning for
breakfast. By having these breakfast choices students are missing the
chance to be introduced healthy breakfast choices, which should include fruit
and less sugary drinks and food.
Another weakness I have noticed is the lack of nutritious information
given to students. Hence the low score in curriculum and during school in
the online assessment. There are no posters or handouts about nutrition,
health classes, or nutrition classes provided at the school. I have students
that bring an entire bag of flaming hot Cheetos to eat with their lunch
everyday. Some students eat a bag of flaming hot Cheetos for breakfast.

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

Students are receiving no education how these eating habits can impact
their life. I believe that if students were informed about how the food they
eat impacts their life they could make better informed decisions about what
the choose to eat.
One way I can improve the policies at my school is to teach health at a
classroom level. It would be easy to take fifteen minutes out of each school
day and have teachers teach a short health fact or lesson. For example, a
teacher could share the fact that heart disease is the leading cause of death
for both men and women and then talk about different ways to prevent heart
disease (CDC, 2015). Students can then pick one thing to implement in their
lives that would decrease their chance of heart disease. By getting short
fifteen minute lessons students can be exposed to more information about
health and make educated decisions about what they eat and how they
spend their time.
Another policy change that should be made is to have physical activity
implemented in the classroom. There are a couple of ways to do this.
Teachers could have the class take brain breaks after each subject taught.
During these brain breaks students could do yoga, learn a new
stretch/exercise, learn the steps to a dance, etc. Teachers could use physical
movement when quizzing the students. For example, in my classroom
students had to understand that a fraction had to have equal parts. I had
different shapes on a PowerPoint with some divided evenly and others
unevenly. If a shape was split into equal parts and could be a fraction

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

students did a jumping jack. If a shape was in un-equal parts and could not
be a fraction students ran in place. This idea could be applied a variety of
ways. By having physical activity in the classroom students will be able to
work towards their 60 minutes of physical activity a day and they will be able
to pay better attention throughout the school day.
I believe that the school can hold community events to engage
administration, teachers, parents, students, and the community in more
healthy behaviors. Right now the school holds movie nights for students and
parents. Movie nights are not active and feeding parents and students
popcorn is not healthy. However, holding something such as a Zumba, Yoga,
or some other type of physical fitness class for the school community would
be fun and provide a way to introduce the community to different types of
physical activity. Another idea would be to hold a nutrition class for the
community where everyone could learn about the importance of eating
healthy and, get healthy recipes to take home and try.
Another way the school can help get the community involved in more
healthy behaviors is to send out information about what is available for
students and parents in the community when it comes to health. For
example, the school can send out information about community sports teams
that kids can sign up for. The school could also send home a monthly flyer
that talks about some health topic and where parents can go to get more
information. I also know that eating healthy can be expensive. However,
there is a program called Produce on Wheels that goes to different locations

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

in Arizona where you can get 60lbs of produce in Arizona for $10
(Borderlands Food Bank). Letting parents know about programs like this can
help parents incorporate and know about health.
All of this information will help me in my signature assignment. I am
able to see the strengths and weaknesses of my school in regards to health
and physical fitness. I am able to see that a main area of concern is just how
little health is incorporated into the curriculum and school day. This helps me
know where to start as I try to make my classroom more informed about
health and more active.
School Information
I teach 3rd grade at Sunland Elementary in the Roosevelt School
District. Sunland is a K-8 Title I public school with 582 students enrolled. It is
located in Phoenix Arizona in the suburbs just right outside the city. The
average class size is 22 students per teacher. However, in my classroom I
have 27 students. The school population is mostly Hispanic with Hispanics
making up 93.1% of the student body. African Americans make up 3.3% of
the student body and 2.6% of the student body is white. 1% of students
qualify for free and reduced lunch (Sunland Elementary School). The number
of ELL students in my school was unavailable. However, in my classroom I
have zero ELL students because they were all signed out of the program by
their parents. I had 10 students that were signed out by their parents this
year.

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

Sunland Elementary School is an A school. It is ranked 2nd in the

district out of the 14 schools. In 2015 40% of the school tested as proficient
for the mathematics portion of the AZ Merit test. The ELA results of the test
were not available (Sunland Elementary School).

References
Borderlands Food Bank. (n.d). Retrieved February 6,2016, from
http://www.borderlandfoodbank.org/POWWOW.html
Calories in Kelloggs Fruit Loops Single Serving Bowl1.5 oz. (n.d). Retrieved
February 06,

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

2016, from http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/kelloggs-fruitloops-single-serving-bowl-1-5-oz-73093371

CDC. (2015, August 10). Heart Disease Facts. Retrieved February 06,2016,
from
http://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm
General Mills Food Service. (n.d.). Retrieved Feburary 06, 2016, from
http://www.generalmillscf.com/products/new-products/breakfastentrees/mini-bagels/strawberry
Sunland Elementary School (n.d). Retrieved February 6, 2016, from
http://www.schooldigger.com/go/AZ/schools/0708000609/school.aspx

Link to Website: http://alpowell.weebly.com/school-assessment.html

Criteria

Exemplary: Points (5)

Assessment

SCORE:

School
Context
/Writing
Style
SCORE:

Proficient: Points (3)

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

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 EPortfolio 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

Ass
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No
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Stre
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Sug
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No
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Sch
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COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

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
Your document was in APA 6.0
format, including cover page, body
and reference section with no errors

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
Document was in APA, however errors
were found in formatting of the
sections

ave
urb
eth
stat
AY
Few
doc
Las
Thi
doc
AP