Running head: CESAR CHAVEZ LEADERSHIP ACADEMY SCHOOL

ASSESSMENT

Miriam Ramos
Cesar Chavez Leadership Academy
School Assessment
Arizona State University
PPE 310
February 1, 2016
Dr. Hesse

Running head: CESAR CHAVEZ LEADERSHIP ACADEMY SCHOOL

ASSESSMENT

Assessment Results
Overall Grade: F
During School: 60%
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: 75%
Great potential! How about some more nutritional education? A little more activity? Together,
these key Active & Healthy areas can deliver outstanding results.
After School: 100%
Way to go! You are a great example of the Active & Healthy environment in your community!
The first and most evident strength for Cesar Chavez Leadership Academy is the amount of
support the staff has for afterschool physical education programs. As proven above in the School
Assessment Tool results, Cesar Chavez offers multiple physical activity programs that run after
school. These programs are geared towards particular grade levels, depending on the program.
One example would be Girls on the Run. This after school program has two lead coaches
supporting the K-4 girl students. It meets once a week for an hour after school. Other examples
of afterschool physical education programs are basketball and football. These two sports meet
four times a week after school for two hours.
Another strength is their food menu. Cesar Chavez works hard towards promoting healthy food
choices. Everyday all K-8th grade students are offered a salad bar during lunch. This salad bar
includes vegetables and fruit alike. Within their regular lunch they are offered two choices to
choose from. The students can either choose the warm lunch option, which typically consists of a
main course meal (meat) and a side of vegetables. The second option is grab and go lunch bag,
this consists of granola bars, packed fruit, cheese and other healthy snack options packed all in
one bag.
One weakness is it implementation of a health conscious curriculum. The school maintains its
emphasis on academic the achievement of the students (math, reading, science and social
studies). Their health awareness is solely reliant on the physical education program and the lunch
menu choices. The school does not implement health within the curriculum because of the

Running head: CESAR CHAVEZ LEADERSHIP ACADEMY SCHOOL

ASSESSMENT

struggles the school faces as a whole. This school is located in an area where academic
achievements have been a struggle. Cesar Chavez has worked hard to get better test scores, thus
leaving health awareness to the hands of the physical education programs afterschool. Their test
scores provided from Great Schools are listed below.

Another weakness is that Chavez does not implement enough physical activities during the
school day. All K-8th grade students receive physical education classes just once a week. The
physical education class runs for about 35 minutes. The time during the week is shared with the
other specials teachers in the school. The students attend each specials once a week, art, library,
physical education and music. On days that there is no early release the select classes are
required to take physical education twice a week. However, the entire school does not have this
option and it only occurs when there is no early release Friday that week.
One way to improve policies at Cesar Chavez Leadership Academy is to offer physical education
more than once a week. This time is essential, Provide an adequate amount of time for physical
education classes. Schools should provide at least 150 minutes per week for elementary students
and at least 225 minutes per week for middle and high school students for the entire school year
(Arizona State University, 2004). The students that are not enrolled in any afterschool program
do not get as much exercise as the ones that are enrolled. These students have a hard and long
day in school, mentally exhausting their brains. Increasing the schools expectations of how
much time should be spent on engaging the students in physical activities would be a way to start
a change. If physical education classes were offered multiple times a week, it would make a great

Running head: CESAR CHAVEZ LEADERSHIP ACADEMY SCHOOL

ASSESSMENT

difference in the overall health of the school. The school could extend the school day an extra
30-45 minutes to implement more physical education time for the entire school. As of now the
only students that receive enough physical activity are those that choose to stay after school for
the sports that are offered. If adding 45 minutes after school is not feasible then school could
start 20 minutes early and end 20 minutes later, as a solution to the problem.
Another way to improve health in the school would be to include more health awareness in the
school curriculum. Students need to be aware of the wide range of choices that can be made in
order to become educated in their health consciousness. There are several skills students are not
familiar with, Nutrition-related skills, including but not limited to planning a healthy meal,
understanding and using food labels, and critically evaluating nutrition information,
misinformation, and commercial food advertising (Arizona State University, 2004). This would
be a great way to improve how students view their daily diets. Students can become educated on
how to read food nutrition labels during a math or science lesson. Tillman, K. G has several
lessons that implement learning how to read a food nutrition label as well as conducting surveys
that give students data of what food trends people are into and why they are unhealthy. Tillman,
K. G stresses, More and more research is indicating the importance of good diet at young age.
This is important not only for good health when young but also because the habit establishes a
pattern that stretches through the teen years into adulthood. Students becoming educated now
on what routes are best to take when it comes to their health will benefit them in the long run. By
implementing a health conscious curriculum students can begin to make that change and put a
halt to the rise in obesity.
The best way to include parents and administration in the lack of health awareness would be to
education the parents. Parents know what is healthy for their children, that is a give, but they are
now always aware of how truly healthy their children are compared to the rest of the nation or
even just the community. The parents being educated on the matter would greatly improve their
stance on the situation. By informing them how vital it is to include more physical education or
health awareness into the curriculum, it would deeply impact how they communicate their beliefs
with the administration. Educators serve as the role models for these students, School staffs are
encouraged to model healthy eating behaviors. Schools should offer wellness programs that
include personalized instruction about healthy eating and physical activity (Arizona State
University, 2004). Schools work towards meeting the needs of the community, therefore the
community knowing what should be met would change how things are run. By providing
information, such as that from the School Assessment Tool, all throughout the school hallways,
newsletters, during meetings, parents can get access to how Cesar Chavez scores in health
ratings.
Another way to include the administration and students of Cesar Chavez would be to compare
them to other schools in the community, city, state or even nation. Taking 15 minutes every
morning to watch the news that inform everyone of the health conscious changes that other
schools are making would inspire the administration and students alike. Both students and
stakeholders such as administration can be competitive, they would not want to come in last
when it comes to their own health. This would promote competitiveness to find unique and
achievable ways to become more involved in changing their health habits. This could even push
Cesar Chavez to become engaged in completive competitions with others schools around the

Running head: CESAR CHAVEZ LEADERSHIP ACADEMY SCHOOL

ASSESSMENT

community to make the biggest change in their health regimen. Community fairs, festivals, races,
or challenges of any time could be set up and used as motivation.
Through this information I can approach the struggle that Cesar Chavez has had in the most
perfect way. The school has taken such an emphasis on their academic education because they
would like better test scores. According to their AZ Merrit test scores below 25% of the students
have scored proficient or higher in their math and language arts. The signature assignment topic I
have chosen is academic performance, better physical health and self-esteem. This ties in to the
Cesar Chavez goal to be victorious in their goal. With healthier, more active students, the school
can grow to be more academically successful and thus improving their test scores.
I am currently completing my Bilingual/English as a Second Language undergraduate senior
year residency with Cesar Chavez Leadership Academy in Phoenix, AZ. This school is a part of
the Roosevelt School District and the current student enrollment is 424 students, according to
School Digger. The percent of students eligible for free or reduced lunch is 1.4%, making it a
public title I school. The teacher to student ratio is 24.2, with grades ranging from K-8th. This
school is located in an urban area of Phoenix, AZ. The school letter grade is a B despite its rank
of 472th out of 972 in the state and 2 star School Digger rating. The exact ELL data is currently
not found in School Digger. However, the school racial make up is 0.7% African American, 0.7%
American Indian, 0.9% two or more races, 2.8% White, and 94.8% Hispanic. Cesar Chavez
supports its community. There have been several family emergencies happen and the school
community has always come through when it came to supporting them. In a recent case a
students home was burnt to the ground and the school gathered donations from all over to help
replace all belongings that the family lost. The family is currently fully self-sufficient thanks to
the support from the school.

References

Running head: CESAR CHAVEZ LEADERSHIP ACADEMY SCHOOL

ASSESSMENT
Arizona State University (2004) Action for healthy kids, Arizona state team: Arizona healthy
school environment model policy. Retrieved from
http://epsl.asu.edu/ceru/Guidelines/CERU-0401-210-RCC.pdf
Cesar Chavez Leadership Academy. (n.d. ) Retrieved February 5th, 2016, from
http://www.greatschools.org/arizona/phoenix/516-Cesar-E-Chavez-CommunitySchool/quality/#Ratings
Cesar Chavez Leadership Academy. (n.d.). Retrieved February 6th, 2016, from
http://www.schooldigger.com/go/AZ/schoolrank.aspx
Tillman, K. G., Toner, P. R. (1990). How to survive teaching health: Games, activities, and
worksheets for grades 4-12. West Nyack, New York: Parker Publishing Company.