Running head: COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAM

Comprehensive School Health Program

Yunan Niu
Arizona State University
Dr. Hesse
PPE 310

Assess Your School

Assessment Results

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAM

Overall Grade: F
During School: 20%
Let's get to work. The school day is the critical time for implementing the Active &
Healthy Schools Program, which can benefit students, teachers and staff. Let's look at
some steps for improving your Active & Healthy score during the school day.
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.

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAM

Based on the Assessment Results and my own reflections, an observed strength
of J.F Kennedy Elementary School is that the students can have plenty of recess time
after lunch. Im in a K-3 self-contained classroom right now, and my students always
have about 30 minutes recess time after their lunch. During these 30 minutes, my
students will play on the playground or ride a bike instead. Its a good opportunity to
release their extra energy in their body. Another strength that I found is that the school
will offer some after-school activities for students. PE teachers will have some kids
after school and tutor them some sports for about 1 hour. This kind of extra-curricular
is really helpful for students to maintain a healthy body and explore their personal
interest.
One of the weaknesses of J.F Kennedy Elementary School is that the school
lunch provided for the students is very unhealthy. Although the cafeteria will prepare
all kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables in the salad bar area, but the meals they
provided are barely healthy. The school always provided some processed foods and
fast food, like sandwich in bags and chips. Those kinds of high-calorie food will cause
the child obesity and malnutrition. The snacks provided for the students in the
afternoon are also never healthy. The teachers usually will offer some crackers and
golden fish to the students during the snack time. Another weakness is that J.F
Kennedy Elementary School only offers one P.E class per week. For my class, the
students can only have 45-minutes P.E class on every Tuesday, and it is far from
enough for students to work out.
One way to improve the policy in place at my school is to build complete
kitchens. It is difficult to serve children healthy, fresh food if a school kitchen is
limited in its resources. Simple kitchen remodeling in existing schools and smart
kitchen planning in new schools can enhance the health of students. Ensuring

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAM

adequate prep space and overall size of a school kitchen will allow for preparation of
the most nutritious meals (Weighing In, 2012). I believe that the reason why the
cafeteria cant provide healthy food is because the kitchens system of the school is
not very complete. There are no enough spaces and resources to cook healthy food, so
school has to get some frozen food and warm them up before serving to the students.
If the school can build more complete kitchens system, the cafeteria will be able to
cook some healthy meals for students during the lunchtime. Another way to improve
the policy in place at this school is to train health teachers who will be able to teach
health education across the curriculum to help their students learn how to lead healthy
life (Arizona State University). From the first weeks video, I learnt that teacher
would be the best model of their students to show how to have healthy behaviors
(Arizona State University). Therefore, if the school can provide some college-leveled
health education class for the teachers, they will influent their students in a positive
way and supervise them to have a healthy eating habit at school.
The way that I can use this information to engage parents in promoting more
healthful behaviors is to send home a letter to spread the importance of having healthy
eating habits and doing more physical activities. As health educators, we should
proactively involve parents in the health education of their children by sending
information home in a newsletter and designing activities in which the parents help
the children (Anspaugh & Ezell, 2013). According to the research, childhood obesity
afflicts nearly 18% of Arizonas children, with an additional 13% overweight.
Arizonas childhood obesity rate is now higher than the national average, placing
Arizonas children at severe risk for developing poor health (Weighing In, 2012). We
should include this information in the letter to tell the parents the current situation
they are facing right now, and to recommend them to make a plan about their daily

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAM

family activities, such as walk to church, have a walk after dinner, join in a health
club and so on. In addition, I can also use this information to engage the school
administration by writing a proposal. In that proposal, the negative effects of
unhealthy eating and lack of exercise should be explained very clearly, and the
solutions need to be enforceable. For example, to suggest the school to offer at least
two P.E classes per week and to develop some after-school physical activities
programs.
For my potential topic of the Signature Assignment, this information can help me
to know my school better. Through this information, I can have a broad view about
my schools active and healthy level, and it will also help me to develop some specific
plans for my school.
Information
Im currently in a first-grade self-contained classroom in the J.F Kennedy
Elementary School, which is a public elementary school that serves students in grades
K to 3. It is located in Phoenix, AZ in the Roosevelt Elementary School District. In
2014, it enrolled 542 students in grades 1st through 3 rd, and 6.5% of students received
free and reduced lunch assistance. In these 542 students, there are 86.7% Hispanic,
8.7% African American, and 2% White (John F Kennedy Elementary School, 2014).
According to Arizona Report Cards, the proportion of ELLs is 95%. Currently, there
are 35 regular classrooms, and three special education classrooms (John F Kennedy
Elementary School, 2014). In each regular classroom, there are about 25 students.
And for the special education classroom, there are about only 10 students for each.
John F Kennedy Elementary School is suburban, Title 1 school, which received a
letter grade of a D in 2014. According to the School Digger, the ethnic makeup in the
surrounding area is 21.9% White, 16.6% African American, 56% Hispanic, 2.2%
Asian, 1.4% American Indian, 0.2% Pacific Islander and 1.7% two for more races.

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAM

References
Anspaugh, D. J., & Ezell, G. (2013). Teaching todays health. (10th edition). Boston:
Pearson Publishers
Arizona State University (2012). Comprehensive School Health Programs: A
theoretical
Framework.
Retrieved
from http://asuteacherscollege.wistia.com/medias/crt95tfyzi
John F Kennedy Elementary School. (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2016, from
https://www.azreportcards.org/AcademicIndicators/Indicators
John F Kennedy Elementary School. (2014). Retrieved February 7, 2016, from
http://www.schooldigger.com/go/AZ/schools/0593000126/school.aspx?
t=tbStudents&st=tbSTR

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAM

Weighing In: Practical Steps Schools Can Take to Improve Student Health and
Academic Success. (2012, March). Retrieved February 7, 2016, from
https://myasucourses.asu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-12794529-dt-content-rid68181700_1/courses/2016Spring-X-PPE310-25966/xrestore/Weighing-in.pdf

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAM

Rubric

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAM