EXAMINING THE APPLICATION OF THE WHOLE SCHOOL, WHOLE CHILD, WHOLE COMMUNITY FRAMEWORK WITHIN THOMASVILLE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT
Creators: name: Brandt, Rebecca
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2016

description: Background: The fields of Public Health and Education have traditionally remained siloed in their approach toward improved child wellness and academic achievement. A growing body of research, however, has established that healthier children become more successful students and sustain healthier habits into adulthood.1 In 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) together launched Whole School, Whole Child, Whole Community (WSCC) as a holistic and collaborative approach to integrating health promoting practices in the school setting. This paper identifies measureable baseline data for each of the 10 WSCC components at Thomasville City Schools (TCS) in Davidson County NC and assesses the degree to which they are being met. Three aims were developed in response to the expressed interest of TCS Wellness Coordinator, Mary Jane Akerman: AIM 1: Identify measurable baseline data for each of the 10 WSCC components AIM 2: Assess TCS strengths and areas of growth for each of the 10 WSCC components AIM 3: Offer recommendations for implementing WSCC at TCS Methods: The following methods were employed to address these three aims: 1) ASCD School Improvement Tool 2) Written Survey for Parents 3) Written Survey for Students 4) Key Informant Interviews   Findings: Results indicated that employees, parents and students have differing perceptions of WSCC achievement in Thomasville City Schools. School employees consider Family Engagement as TCS's highest performing WSCC component while only fifty-one (51%) of middle school students agree that schools engage families as partners. Likewise, school employees consider Counseling, Psychological, and Social Services as TCS's second-highest performing WSCC component while seventeen percent (17%) of parents/guardians indicated that they were unsure of whether the school provided counseling and social services that benefit their child's mental, emotional and social health. In contrast, school employees at all three schools participating in the ASCD School Improvement Survey identified Physical Environment as the lowest performing WSCC component. Finally, although the majority of middle school students surveyed were able to demonstrate knowledge of a well-balanced diet by completing a My Plate illustration (89%), both employees and parents/guardians perceived school meals and nutrition services to have room for improvement. Recommendations: Findings suggest that TCS has taken great strides toward educating the whole child, however employee, parent and student perceptions of WSCC achievement vary. TCS's would benefit from developing leadership buy-in as well as school, family and community focused efforts to generate consensus and share ownership of responsibilities associated with implementing WSCC. Aligning WSCC benchmarks with existing policies and programs would also streamline the implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes, allow for continuous quality control, and allow for strategic investments into areas of opportunity.