The Environmental Component

Implementation of the Creating Healthy Bodies (CHB) program will include a dedicated district wide health advisory committee in charge of developing and communicating the specific standards regarding nutrition information and education, including rules focused on competitive foods in school. The schools’ wellness committees or the schools’ health personnel will train staff and volunteers on the additional nutritional component. The after school parent community sessions will be conducted by volunteer teachers and local college students enrolled in nutrition related fields. School staff members, such as the health and physical education teachers, will provide students with ten minute mini-lessons that will be woven into their classroom lessons. The wellness committee will also work with school food service employees to help cafeterias, vending machines, and school stores follow the guidelines set forth by program in terms of the reduction of unhealthy competitive foods and increasing fruits and vegetables (FV).

The Curriculum Component

The curriculum component will consist of two programs. A nutrition driven program delivered in health or PE class to students and an after school program delivered to parents and childcare providers.

The CHB curriculum for students will be will be administered during health or physical education class by trained school teachers. Each instructor will conduct a ten minute mini-nutrition lesson that will be delivered throughout the entire semester. Student classroom instruction will include information about why FVs are important and what types of vitamin and minerals each FV provides and why they are important for different functions of the body. The added health component will also include information about how to modify behaviors in order to make healthier lifestyle changes regarding food and activity choices. Instruction will include topics about:

• How eating certain foods increases one’s chances for becoming obese
• Obesity and long term chronic effects
• Importance of consuming proper daily nutrition
• Required daily allowances (RDA) of vitamins and minerals for their age group and what foods to eat in order to receive the required amounts
• Healthy lifestyle behavioral changes to enhance one’s health now and for the future
• How to prepare for peer pressure or social situation that may negatively affect their choices
• Hands-on food preparation demonstrations
• Video presentations

The parent/caregiver after school program will be delivered by school trained volunteer teachers or health/nutrition students from a local college.  Instruction topics will include information about:

• Why it is important to provide their child with the RDA of vitamins and minerals
• The impact that diet has on academic and physical achievement
• How to provide their child with the RDA of vitamins and minerals
• Information about how shop to for and cook flavorful healthy foods their children will eat
• The influence that their behaviors as parents have on their child’s lifestyle behaviors and choices
• Hands-on food preparation demonstrations

The Training Component

Staff and volunteers will be trained during a one week period over the summer break by the district wellness committee. All necessary program materials will be provided during this time. The training component will include:

• All necessary teaching staff, nutrition staff, and volunteers
• Content of program will be discussed
• Materials will be reviewed
• Demonstration of classroom instruction will be demonstrated
• Videos of hands-on activities will be provided
• Participants will engage in small group activities related to their participation depending on their role. Groups will include:
  • Classroom teachers
  • Nutrition staff
  • After-school presenters

Potential Process-Evaluation Questions for Creating Healthy Bodies

Activities

• Were the classroom activities enjoyable and engaging?
• Were the after-school activities and demonstrations enjoyable and engaging for parents?

Fidelity

• Was the additional nutrition information imbedded into the classroom curriculum successfully?

Dose Delivered

• Were all of the identified staff provided with the required training to implement the nutrition component to the curriculum successfully?

Dose Received

• Were all of the intended classrooms, after school activities and programs utilized efficiently?
• Did school vending machines, cafeterias, and school stores improve access to fruits and vegetables?
• Were teacher’s successful at including additional nutritional information to their curriculum?
• Did students find the CHB’s curriculum and activities interesting and engaging?

Reach

• Did the program reach at least 80% of elementary school aged children enrolled in school?
• Did the program reach at least 80% of parents or caretakers of enrolled elementary school-aged children?

Recruitment

• What were the recruitment materials and methods used to encourage parental or caretaker involvement? Were there any barriers that prevented parental involvement like transportation or finances?

Context

• Are there any factors that would interfere with the implementation of a nutritional component being added to the LCPS curriculum? Are there any environmental, community, financial, or political reasons as to why this program cannot be implemented successfully?

Determine Methods for Process-Evaluation

Implementation of activities for CHB curriculum.  Possible data sources would rely on teacher feedback and staff observations. This could include a checklist to ensure that all steps were taken to successfully conduct activities.

Fidelity implementation for CHB curriculum. Possible data sources would rely on teacher feedback and staff observations to ensure that quality of program was implemented. This could include a checklist to ensure that all steps were taken to successfully conduct activities.

Dose delivered for CHB curriculum. Possible data sources and methods for dose delivered could involve reports from staff delivering the material, which will include a checklist to indicate if all aspects of the nutritional content was delivered.

Dose received for CHB curriculum. Possible data sources could include all school staff and students involved in the CHB program. Formative data collection methods to evaluate dose received could include questionnaires, informal interviews, and satisfaction surveys.

Reach. To evaluate reach, teachers could keep an attendance sheet of all students attending the lecture and staff and volunteers could do the same for parent attendance in the after-school program.

Recruitment. Loudoun County Public School District will be in charge of identifying and recruiting all staff members and volunteers.

Context. Possible data sources include school administrators, teachers, nutrition staff, and volunteers. Interviews and questionnaires will be utilized to assess any potential barriers to the implementation of the CHB program.

Program Resources

The CHB program resources include training of all involved staff and volunteers on the implementation of the new nutrition curriculum. The accessibility of the classroom environment and the availability of the room for the after school program must also be taken into consideration. Additionally, program materials used in class as well as in the parent after school program must be considered.  Other required resources include data collection, analysis, and reporting of results (Saunders, Evans, & Joshi, 2005).

Final Process Evaluation Plan for Creating Healthy Bodies Curriculum Implementation

The final evaluation plan questions that we will focus on are those related to fidelity, dose delivered and received, and reach. The fidelity of the program asks if the intended nutritional curriculum was delivered as expected and the best way to evaluate this question would be through teacher feedback, checklist results and staff observations. Dose delivered considered the question, “Were all of the identified staff provided with the required training to implement the nutrition component to the curriculum successfully.” The most effective way to evaluate this question could involve reports from staff delivering the material including a checklist to indicate if all aspects of the nutritional content was delivered. Dose received involved several questions, such as, “Were all of the intended classrooms, after school activities and programs utilized efficiently?” and “Did students find the CHB’s curriculum and activities interesting and engaging?” These are important questions to ask because the program wants to make sure there is not an excessive burden put upon teachers and staff implementing the new curriculum so it must be disseminated efficiently and it must be interesting and engaging in order for students to maintain focus. Reach seeks to assess if the program reached at least 80% of enrolled elementary school-aged children and at least 80% of parents of enrolled elementary school-aged children. These are important questions to ask to assess if the program is reaching a significant amount of its intended target audience. If not, the program will have to be reconfigured in order to make it a successful and viable option for the Loudoun County Public School District.

 

References:

Community ToolBox. (n.d). Section 9. Changing policies in schools.  Retrieved from

https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/implement/changing-policies/school-policies/tools.

McKenzie, J. F., Neiger, B. L., & Thackeray, R. (2017).  Planning, Implementing, and

Evaluating Health Promotion Programs.  A Primer. (7^th Ed.) United States. Pearson Education, Inc.

Saunders, R.P., Evans, M. H., & Joshi, P. (2005). Developing a process-evaluation plan for

assessing health promotion program implementation: A how-to guide. Health Promotion Practice, 6(2), 134-147. doi: 10.1177/1524839904273387.

 

Reflection:

Process evaluation methods and measures include both qualitative and quantitative measures. The evaluation methods for my campaign include both qualitative and quantitative measures. However, some of the process evaluation questions need to be less objective and easier for participants to understand what is being asked of them and allow them to provide a more precise assessment. Rather than asking participants to consider if some part of the program was “efficient”, using a Likert scale where participants could indicate their responses on a scale of 1-5, rather than a yes or no response would allow for more clarity.