Promoting Better Health for Young People Through Physical Activity ...

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Promoting Better Health for Young Peoplephysical activity, quality physical education should be offeredevery day to all students from prekindergarten through grade12. Unfortunately, most U.S. students do not participate indaily physical education, and the proportion of students withdaily physical education has been declining over time. 14 In1994, only 17% of middle/junior high schools and 2% ofhigh schools required physical education 5 days per weekeach year. 25 The majority of high school students take physicaleducation for only 1 year between 9 th and 12 th grades. 26Healthy People 2010 5 includes objectives for increasing thepercentage of schools offering, and the percentage of studentsparticipating in, daily physical education classes (Appendix 3).Percentage of High School StudentsWho Attended Physical EducationClasses Daily, 1991–99Illinois is the only state that currently requires daily physicaleducation in every grade, K–12, but it allows many schoolsto be exempted from this requirement (Appendix 13). 26 Themajority of states allow students to replace physical educationcourses with other experiences, including varsity athletics,ROTC, and marching band; 25 this deprives students of theimportant learning experiences they can have in quality physical education.As one educator has written, exempting students from physical educationbecause of their extracurricular activities is like exempting students fromlanguage arts requirements because they’re on the debate team or from sciencerequirements because they’re in the astronomy club. 27 Students shouldnot be exempted from physical education courses because they participatein an extracurricular program.Strategy 2: Help all children, from prekindergarten through grade 12,to receive quality, daily physical education. Help all schools to havecertified physical education specialists; appropriate class sizes; and thefacilities, equipment, and supplies needed to deliver quality, dailyphysical education.Qualified and appropriately trained physical education teachers are themost essential ingredient of a quality physical education program. Unfortunately,many schools do not have qualified professionals teaching physicaleducation. Only certified physical education teachers should be giventhe responsibility of teaching the skills and providing the motivation ouryoung people need to adopt and maintain a physically active lifestyle.However, only seven states require physical education courses to be taughtby certified physical education specialists in all grades. All the other statesallow classroom teachers, without any required training in physical education,to teach some physical education courses. 26 Studies have found that,compared with classroom teachers, physical education specialists teachlonger and higher quality classes in which students spend more time beingphysically active. 21,28Source: CDC, National Youth Risk Behavior Survey.18
A Report to the PresidentIt must be noted, however, that some certified physical education teachershave not received the state-of-the-art training, either through undergraduateteacher training programs or at professional staff development sessions, thatis needed to teach quality physical education. National standards are helpfulin describing what a beginning physical education teacher should know andbe able to do (Appendix 14). 29 These standards can guide physical educationteacher preparation programs and the physical education teacher certificationprocess. Additional resources are needed to effectively disseminate thesestandards to colleges, universities, and school districts across the nation.A 1994 national survey found that only half of the nation’s school districtshad offered any staff development opportunities in physical educationduring the 2 years before the survey. 25 Efforts to provide staff developmentfor physical educators should be intensified, and guidelines for offeringquality professional staff development sessions should be developed.Physical educationshould have thesame class sizes asother subjects.To provide quality physical education for all students, schools must beable to provide adapted physical education for students with disabilities.The regulations implementing the Individuals with Disabilities EducationAct (IDEA) mandate that physical education services, specially designed ifnecessary, must be made available to every child with a disability receivinga free and appropriate public education. Each child with a disability mustbe afforded the opportunity to participate in the regular physical educationprogram available to nondisabled children unless the child is enrolled fulltime in a separate facility or the child needs specially designed physicaleducation, as prescribed in the child’s individualized education program.The Adapted Physical Education National Standards 30 (Appendix 15) provideguidance on how physical educators can accommodate the needs of studentswith disabilities, and a national examination exists to certify adaptedphysical education teachers.The large class sizes with which physical educators are often confrontedare a key barrier to the implementation of quality physical education.Physical education should have the same class sizes as other subjects. Qualityphysical education must cover a great deal of content, and physicaleducators cannot do their jobs effectively or have enough time to work withindividual students if classes are overcrowded. As one physical educator hassaid, “Try teaching English with 72 kids!” 27Even the best physical education teachers in the world will find it difficultto keep their students active during most of a physical education classif they don’t have adequate amounts of equipment and supplies. Manyschools don’t have enough equipment or supplies to keep all their studentsactive during physical education class; consequently, many students wastevaluable time standing in line and watching others play while they waitfor a turn. Support for the purchase of physical education equipment andsupplies is an urgent priority for many of the nation’s schools.19
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