Category Archives: Marlene Williams

Posts related to Marlene Williams’s practicum.

Gap in Data

1 Reply

It’s been a few weeks since my last blog. I have been working on my abstract and presentation for my graduate seminar class. The topic being school health programs and academic performance, which directly correlates with my practicum. I was able to rehearse my presentation to a club I belong to at work, Toastmasters. After the presentation I was provided with valuable feedback on what I did well, and what could use improvement. It felt good to hear other people say I was knowledgeable and passionate about the topic. As I stated in my last blog, I was feeling overwhelmed and not giving myself enough credit for what I had learned about this topic so far. Even though I did give myself some credit for learning a great deal in a short time period, I was still feeling pretty anxious and overwhelmed about what I don’t know. To boot, I also started feeling anxious about submitting and presenting my practicum to local stakeholders to use as a tool for helping implement Coordinated School Health Programs (CSHP) in various schools and school districts around the state.  Needless to say, I’m putting a lot of pressure on myself.

I keep pressing on though. Over the weekend I was finally able to manifest what I have been imaging in terms of creating a tool for stakeholders to use when trying to “sell” CSHP to local schools and districts. I did run into a few barriers. Since the majority of the target audience is for elementary schools, I want to provide data and evidence about childhood obesity, dietary behavior, and physical activity for children in this age range. However, there is not a lot out there. The CDC recently released the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) which provides great data on high school students. I did find data from 2007 on obesity and rates of children between ages 10-17, and on preschool aged children, but I’m finding there is a big time gap for data on children 6-9 years old.

Witnessing the gap between public health and education

2 Replies

I have been learning a lot about how public health and education come together, and how they don’t always work together. So far in my experience the state department of education only seems to want to do only what they are federally mandated to do. I think I’m witnessing firsthand the gap between public health and education. On the public health side (my side) we are excited to help schools become healthy, and there are many FREE tools available for them to do so. In addition, there are many county and local community partners who can help the schools do this. From my understanding on the education side, they aren’t federally required to do so, so why should they? It’s a little frustrating, especially seeing how having a Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP) can coincide with required National Health Education Standards, which schools in Arizona are mandated to teach and meet.

Right now I’m working on a matrix of how a CSHP works together with the newly mandated Local Wellness Policies (LWP) schools are mandated to have. In addition, I’m also adding how it can coincide with the National Health Education Standards. When I met with my supervisor the other day, she was very pleased with the matrix, and thinks it would be a great presentation to county partners who are having trouble selling the idea of having a CSHP at local schools.

Although I’ve been learning a lot, there is still so much more to learn. I’ve found I haven’t given myself proper credit for what I’ve learned so far in the three weeks since my practicum began. Instead I have been feeling as if I have more questions than answers on the subject. However, last night I realized I’ve only been learning about this subject for three weeks, and I need to give myself time to become more versed in it.

Coordinated School Health Programs, AZ

2 Replies

For my practicum I will be working at the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) working within the Bureau of Tobacco and Chronic Disease (BTCD) as well as the Bureau of Nutrition and Physical Activity (BNPA).  My practicum supervisor, Julie Garcia, who prefers to be called a mentor instead, is helping Arizona bridge the gap between services offered by ADHS and the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) in terms of Coordinated School Health Programs. I will be helping Julie by reviewing current literature and data on how academic performance is affected by students’ health status.

Thus far I have attended two meetings with Julie. The first one was with county partners who described their barriers and success stories in working with local schools. The primary barrier we heard about is getting into the schools to discuss programs such as School Health Advisory Council (SHAC) and School Health Indexes (SHI). The CDC has tools already developed for schools to create a SHAC and complete a SHI. However, schools are already overwhelmed with all of their other required duties, which is why they are reluctant to take on another task.  Julie did point out a great way for partners to be able to get their foot in the door. She mentioned how the Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 requires schools to have a wellness policy. Schools have been required to have a wellness policy since the WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, but they haven’t been held accountable to implementing it, just having it. The Hunger Fee Kids Act is a little more stringent and sets a few more rules for schools. A great way for schools to be sure they are abiding by the Act is to form a SHAC and begin a SHI! I am looking forward to working with Julie this summer and fall (for the project) in working with counties and schools on implementing these programs.

I’m a little nervous about this project because I have worked for the WIC Program for the past six years. I am learning a whole new set of acronyms, and am meeting a lot of new people. I hope I can be successful with this practicum.