Evaluating KingCountySchool Nutrition Wellness Policies

Phase I: Collect data

Team A: Collect, collate and evaluate existing information.

  • Using database that will be provided, abstract policies from 15 school districts in KingCountyand compile with existing abstraction of 4 KingCountypolicies. Policies may be found at:
  • King County School Districts:

AuburnSchool District
BellevueSchool District
EnumclawSchool District
FederalWaySchool District
HighlineSchool District
IssaquahSchool District
KentSchool District
Lake WashingtonSchool District
Mercer IslandSchool District
NorthshoreSchool District
RentonSchool District
RiverviewSchool District
Seattle Pubic School District
ShorelineSchool District
SkykomishSchool District
SnoqualmieValleySchool District
TahomaSchool District
TukwillaSchool District
Vashon IslandSchool District
  • If nutrition policies include specific standards for competitive foods sold outside of school meal programs, compare these standards to those for fat, saturated fat, sugar, and energy as outlined in:
  • Washington Senate Bill 5093
  • Institute of Medicine recommendations for Foods Sold at school: (
  • Collect information about each district, including the size, proportion Free and Reduced Price School Meals, WASL pass rate and demographics of students in school districts in KingCounty:
  • Determine geographic category of schools:
  • Add district-level data about policies, characteristics and geographic category for all 19 districts to the database.
  • Prepare descriptive tables for 1) aggregate policy abstraction scores and sub-scores and 2) district characteristics
  • Explore most descriptive and easy to understand graphical presentations of these data with bar charts or other descriptive methods

Team B. Schedule and conduct interviews

Phase II: Analyze data

Team C: Policy Quality

  • Changes pre and post legislative mandates: Review 2004 report, Developing and Implementing Surveys to Assess School District Physical Activity and Nutrition Policies. Select key policy components to compare between 2004 and 2008, and analyze changes.
  • School District characteristics and the strength of district wellness policies: Compare policy scores and subscores by % FRPL, % non-Hispanic white, city/suburb and small town/rural
  • Prepare preliminary tables and report about major findings about the quality of the policies, changes in policies from 2004 and any associations between district characteristics and policy quality.
  • Create graphical displays of major findings

Team D: District Experiences with Policies

  • Compile qualitative and quantitative data from interviews
  • Analyze data
  • Prepare preliminary report about what the data mean

Phase III: Prepare Reports and Presentation

Team E: Briefing paper for BOH

Team F: Full report

Team G: PowerPoint presentation

Week / Date / Activity
1 / 1/9 / Introduction to Project
  • Presentations by Donna Oberg, MPH, RD and
  • Review of project and expectations, Donna Johnson
  • Panel of former students about what they learned from the 531 project

PHASE I
2 / 1/16 / Team A: Abstract policies, collect and compile existing data
Team B: Conduct interviews, compile data
3 / 1/23
4 / 1/30
5 / 2/6
PHASE II
6 / 2/13 / Team C: & D: Analyze data
7 / 2/20
8 / 2/27 / Teams C and D present findings to class
  • Class develops list of major findings
  • Class develops recommendations based on findings
  • Class develops list of limitations of data and evaluation process

PHASE III
9 / 3/6 / Team E,F,G prepare products as outlined above
(Note: Draft of Briefing paper to Donna Oberg by March 10)
10 / 3/13
Final / Mar. 17
10:30-12:20 p.m.
/ Presentation to Stakeholders

Briefing Paper

  • 2-3 pages
  • Use bullets, bar charts, white space, etc. to make it easy to read
  • Content:
  • Purpose of evaluation (1 sentence)
  • History of wellness policies in King Co. (3 sentences)
  • Major findings from policy abstraction: describe abstraction tool (one sentence), provide graphic that represents results, 4-5 bullets that highlight major findings
  • Comparison of 2004 to 2008 policy findings: describe 2004 study (one sentence); use graphic method to present comparison findings from 2004-2008, 2-3 bullets with major findings.
  • Major findings that emerge from the interviews (paragraph or 7-8 bullets)
  • Limitations of study (oneor two sentences)
  • Recommendations: short paragraph or bullets
  • Acknowledgments section: participation by school districts, mentoring of Donna Oberg, Anne Lund, etc.

Report

  • Title page
  • Table of Contents
  • Acknowledgements
  • List of student authors
  • Content:
  • Comprehensiveness and Strength of Nutrition Wellness Policies in King Co. Schools
  • Comparison of key nutrition wellness policy components in 2004 to policies in 2008
  • Degree of implementation of policies as perceived by superintendents, nutrition services administrators, health educators and school board members
  • Other qualitative data from interviews as it emerges from the data
  • Limitations of the data
  • Recommendations that emerge from the data
  • Appendices: data tables, instruments, etc.

Presentation

  • 30 minutes
  • Slides to follow standard rules for professional ppt presentations (not more than 4-5 bullets per page, not more than 2 slides in a row with just words, no distracting templates or auditory/visual effects, not to be read verbatim by presenter, etc.
  • Content to follow that of briefing paper