Running head: SESSION 5: SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

Leslie Locke
PPE 310: Health Literacy for Schools
Session 5: School Assessment
October 4, 2015

SESSION 5: SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

Assess Your School

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: 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: 50%

Room for improvement. Help students get more out of your recess and lunch programs by providing additional
information and resources, or by rescheduling recess time for after lunch.

After School: 20%

Let's get to work. Take a look at a few simple changes your school can make to help create an Active & Healthy
environment, both at school and at home.

SESSION 5: SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

The school I assessed is Thatcher High School in the Thatcher Unified School District.
The enrollment in 2014 was 439 students in grades 9-12 with 22.6% of students receiving a free
or reduced lunch (School Digger, 2014). According to the school website there were eight
English language learners last year. The languages spoken by ELL students were Spanish,
German, Japanese, Tagalong and Guyarti (Thatcher Unified School District, 2015). The student
to teacher ratio at this school is 16:1, which is below the state average. Thatcher High School is
located in a very rural area where the minority enrollment is 23% with the majority of those
being Hispanic (Public School Review, 2015). The school has a B letter grade on Arizona
report cards (Arizona Report Cards, 2014). This school is also a Title 1 public school.
I thought Thatcher High School was a pretty healthy environment so I was surprised
when I saw that they got an F based on the Active and Healthy School quiz. I think one of their
strengths is that students are offered a variety of physical education classes to choose from. This
helps meet the interests of all students so they are more likely to take physical education as an
elective. Students can choose from classes like weights, lifetime sports, and fitness. This
provides them with an opportunity to meet their daily physical activity requirements. Another
strength of the school is the promotion of activities outside of school. A lot of students play
sports so they get activity outside of school. The school also allows students or people from the
community to use their track so you often see people out running or walking laps.
A weakness of the school would be that there isnt a program to promote health for the
staff. It could be a good idea to start a walking club or a biggest loser competition for the staff to
do so they are healthier. It is important for teachers and staff to set good examples for the
students and they can do this by living healthy lifestyles. Another weakness of Thatcher High

SESSION 5: SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

School is they dont offer evening or weekend programs to encourage family activity and healthy
eating. I think the focus of the school is more on the students rather than promoting healthy
habits at home. This is something the school can do to improve the health of the whole
community rather than just the students.
I think one way to improve the policies in place at my school would be to require
students to take more than one year of physical education. Requiring more physical education
gives students an opportunity to be active each day at school. Offering a variety of courses like
dance, weights, lifetime sports, and aerobics would help meet the interests of students and allow
them to pick something they would like to do. Another way to improve the policies at my school
would be to give students snack breaks. I remember always be starving by lunchtime because I
never had time to eat breakfast in the morning. I think it would be beneficial to set aside five
minutes for a mid-morning snack so students could refuel.
I can use this information to engage administration, teachers, parents and students in the
community by helping them realize that they are failing in creating a healthy school environment
and introducing ways to improve it. I could send home newsletters to parents with healthy meal
ideas and ways to be physically active as a family. I could also hold a family fitness night and
involve the administration, teachers, and the community. Families could come and play games
and get exercise while having fun and interacting with school staff.
My signature assignment topic is physical activity and academic performance in children.
This information can be used to support my topic because a healthier school community leads to
healthier students, which leads to improved academic performance. Promoting physical activity
and healthy eating habits during and outside of school will help students achieve goals
academically. A healthy mind and body will help them be more focused and ready to learn.

SESSION 5: SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

References
Active and Healthy Schools (2015). Assess Your School Quiz. Retrieved from
http://www.activeandhealthyschools.com/home/assess_survey.cfm
Arizona Report Cards (2014). Arizona Department of Education. Retrieved from
https://azreportcards.com/ReportCard
Public School Review (2015). Retrieved from
http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/3386
School Digger (2014). Retrieved from
http://www.schooldigger.com/go/AZ/schools/0841001110/school.aspx
Thatcher Unified School District (2015). English Language Learners. Retrieved from
http://www.thatcherud.k12.az.us/?
DivisionID=17843&DepartmentID=19384&SubDepartmentID=9686&ToggleSideNav=S
howAll

SESSION 5: SCHOOL ASSESSMENT