NASPE Broadcast Center (Newsfromnaspe)
Junior Member
Username: Newsfromnaspe
Post Number: 20
Registered: 12-2008
| | Posted on Friday, March 20, 2009 - 5:45 am: |       |
Action for Healthy Kids Simplifies Wellness Policy Evaluation
March 9, 2009 – Monitoring how implementation of a school wellness policy is going and measuring its impact has just gotten easier. Action for Healthy Kids has launched a convenient monitoring component as a part of its 8-step Wellness Policy Tool. Although most school districts have implemented wellness policies as required by a 2004 Federal mandate, the majority still do not monitor their policy’s implementation – a critical step to ensure policies are improving nutrition and physical activity practices in schools.
"This is an excellent tool that can be used to help school districts assess the strengths and weaknesses in their wellness policies," says Katie Wilson, PhD, SNS, school nutrition director, Onalaska (Wisconsin) School District and president, School Nutrition Association board of directors.
"The assessment tool is very comprehensive and I think it will benefit schools who take time to do the assessment and evaluation," says Dr. Yibo Woods, nutritionist with Child Nutrition Division at Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The new, web-based monitoring component is fully customizable for each school. It offers an implementation "desk top" where users post all provisions of their wellness policy, then note progress, next steps, resources needed, and people responsible for each. A unique scoring system allows schools to evaluate their progress against benchmarks for best practices, as well as their adherence to federal wellness policy mandates. The tracker also provides links to helpful resources based on areas needing improvement.
This new component is based on Action for Healthy Kids’ Wellness Policy Fundamentals, which were developed in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food Research and Action Center, and the United States Department of Agriculture. Access the Wellness Policy Tracker at http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/policymonitor/index.php.
Learn More: If you work with school wellness coordinators or others involved in wellness policy implementation and want to learn more about the new tracker and how to use it, please join us for one of our Wellness Policy Tracker Train-the-trainer webinars. We’ll discuss and walk through the tracker features to better equip you to assist school wellness coordinators with monitoring and assesses their local wellness policies.
To register:
Date: Thursday, March 26th
Time: 3 p.m. ET/ 2 p.m. CT
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=QeraKuEy4LzPp2k9W7Ok_2fg_3d_3d |
