Assessing the School Environment

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Assessing the School Environment

• Developed by the Marin Nutrition Wellness
• Physical Activity Collaborative

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Step 3 of Roadmap

• School Health Council meets to
• gather/review their existing district health
  policies
• assesses the school environment
• summarize results

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Why make the effort?Reasons to do a formal
assessment

• Gives structure so you know what you are looking
  for and can determine who is doing what
• Identify strengths and promote them
• Identify weaknesses to improve them
• To provide objective data to the School Board
• To justify recommended policy
• Provide rationale for funding
• To identify your core resources to build on
• To share resources to avoid duplication
• or re-inventing the wheel
• Stimulate new ideas about student wellness
• Makes the next steps a lot easier

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For Support dataon the education and health
status of youth in your state

• The CDC's data on obesity trends
• http//www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/trend/
• The CDC's Youth Risk
• Surveillance System http//www.cdc.gov/HealthyYo
  uth/yrbs/index.htm
• Action for Healthy Kids'
• State Profiles for Action http//www.actionforhea
  lthykids.org/state.php

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Assessment Tools

• USDA Team Nutrition Changing the Scene, a
  tool kit designed to address improvements in the
  school nutrition environment. The State of
  Michigan modified this improvement checklist (a
  link is available from this website) to help you
  measure progress as you take action.
• http//www.fns.usda.gov/tn/Resources/changing.htm
  l
• Centers for Disease Control/Healthy Youth
  School Health Index, a self-assessment and
  planning guide that enables schools to identify
  strengths and weaknesses of their health policies
  and programs, develop action plans for improving
  student health, and involve teachers, parents,
  students, and the community in improving school
  policies, programs, and services. This
  assessment tool is now available to schools
  online and includes online tools for summarizing
  results.
• (Recommended by the Collaborative)
• http//apps.nccd.cdc.gov/shi/

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School Health Index
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SHI Format

• ? No Cost
• ? Completed by school health teams
• Meets Section 204 requirement
• Members should represent each school in district
• Involving youth in the process is highly
  desirable
• ? Two separate versions
• Elementary School
• Middle School/High School

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SHI Format

• ? Self-Assessment
• Consists of 8 modules which follow the
  Coordinated School Health Program model
• 4 of 8 relate to Local School Wellness Policy
• ? Worksheets lead to development of a Plan for
  Action for improvements
• ? Well tested and frequently used

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Supports the philosophy of educating the whole
child to meet high academic standards no
curriculum is brilliant enough to compensate for
a hungry stomach or a distracted mind
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Implementing SHI

• Participate using paper format or online
• pdf download or order printed copies
• Online version allows
• multiple users
• calculates, prioritizes and stores results
• printable reports and tables

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Implementing SHI

• Only some Modules relate to Section 204 Local
  Wellness Policy requirements
• Module 1 School Health and Safety Policies
• Module 3 Physical Education and Physical
  Activity Programs
• Module 4 Nutrition Services
• Module 8 Family and Community Involvement

Area specialist Coach, Food Service, etc.
Principal and Administration
Teachers Students Parents
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Implementing SHI

• Ideally those answering questions should include
  representatives from each school in the district
• Some questions may not be relevant
• Answer NA or re-interpret to be relevant

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Planning Report Includes Priority Rank

• Each identified action item is evaluated on five
  dimensions to assist in prioritizing for
  developing action plan
• Importance
• Cost
• Time
• Commitment
• Feasibility
• Scale of 1-5 (5 being very important)

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Keep in Mind

• Answer questions as accurately as possible. This
  is a self-help tool, not an instrument for
  evaluating staff.
• There is no passing grade. This is designed to
  help you understand your school, not to compare
  your school with other schools.
• Expect to get at least some low scores. Low
  scores can help you build awareness of areas that
  need improvement

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Why go the extra mile?

• Good nutrition and health are necessary for
  effective learning.
• Healthy productive youth become healthy
  productive adults.
• The school system is one place where most of our
  nations youth can be reached.

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Practice

• http//apps.nccd.cdc.gov/shi/default.aspx