Teacher

School Site Assessment

For my school site assessment I visited K.D. Markley elementary school in Malvern, Pennsylvania. During my assessment I visited with five people from all different areas of the school. I talked to the assistant principal, Mr. Chris Pickell, whom filled out the forms for school environment and Nutrition services. I spoke with Ann Marie Lorine, the health and physical educator on those particular areas, and used her as my main resource on how much the school followed the Coordinated School Health Program. I had Nanette Allred, the guidance counselor; fill out the form from the counseling area. Mrs. Siwula, the school nurse filled out the nursing form, and finally Kristin Keating, a second grade teacher filled out the form on family and community involvement.

During my observations and data that I collected from KDM I found that this school followed the Coordinated School Health Program in many ways, and scored at the lowest in the mid eighties but mostly in the nineties in all of the components on the School Health Index. In nearly all of the areas on the school site index if the school was not fully implementing something, they were either in the process of becoming fully implemented or they were partially implementing what the Coordinated School Health Program suggests of them. This school seems to always be adapting to the changes that are required of this system and the staff seems to be happy with the progress they are making.

In all of the eight components of the Coordinated School Health Program the majority of components had less need for improvement and a couple of areas saw some need. This school does a very good job of trying to consistently adjust to the needs they have in order to follow the Coordinated School Health Program as fully as possible. The School environment scored a 93% and seemed to be one of the most important aspects of the program to this school. This school seems to be very safe for all students and staff and is constantly working to stay ahead in its safety measures. The nutrition services scored an 85% and seemed to have one of the highest needs for the school. The school is currently working to improve its services, which are fully implemented for the need of all its students, but could improve in the quality of healthy foods. The school health services were rated at 91% and seemed to follow all of the areas of the index, but showed a need for student support groups. The Counseling scored an 84% which would show that they had some need. However, the only areas that showed need were areas in which the school did not show need from it students. Finally the Family and Community involvement scored a 90%, but showed that some need for more involvement was shown only in particular areas of the school. While in most areas the school had an overwhelming amount of support, the health and physical education areas seemed to show more need for support.

I have chosen to focus my study of this Coordinated School Health Program on Physical education and Health education since those are the areas I have the most knowledge in, and intend to have my career in. Ann Marie Lorine, the health and physical educator, placed a grade of 91% for the physical education program and a 90% for the Health education program.

The Health education program follows many of the aspects of the comprehensive school health education of the school. Some great things that this school fully implements are that the teacher's follow the state standards set for health education and the curriculum builds sequentially through out the grade levels. The lessons also provide more then sufficient opportunities for students to practice the learned skills. Finally the health program makes sure to address all nine of the content areas in creative ways by the time the students reach the fifth grade. This program uses up to date methods to get its information across and makes sure to reflect it teaches through the needs of the students in the school.

The Health program of KDM seems to only be underdeveloped in a few areas that, if used fully, could greatly improve the coordinated school health program. Community and family volunteers seem to be less involved in the development of health education then they are in other areas of the school. It seems as though parents have a strong interaction with the school in many areas, but many seem less concerned or involved with the health areas. Which, as Mrs. Lorine feels, if the district would push their support and involvement more in these areas she feels parents would want to find more ways to be involved.

An important thing for this school to improve