In 2001, the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) revised a position statement (in the form of a pamphlet) titled “Appropriate Practices for Middle School Physical Education”. The intent of the pamphlet was to “provide specific guidelines that will help teachers, parents, administrators, and policy makers recognize practices that are in the best interests of students (appropriate) and those that are counterproductive, or even harmful (inappropriate)” (NASPE, pg. 5). A commonly held notion is that many teachers and teacher educators use Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAPs) or “best practices” to achieve the National Standards. Currently, there is one published study that focuses on the “best practices” of elementary teachers in one school system (Logan, Lambdin, Ramirez, & Farr, 2000). This study was designed to measure the current use of DAPs by 6th- 8th grade physical education teachers in Massachusetts. The 58-item survey was created using the DAP document (NASPE, 2001) and teachers were asked to indicate the frequency of use for DAPs in the areas of a) curriculum, b) instruction, c) assessment, d) facilities, equipment, and supplies, and e) learning environment. Content validity of the survey was assessed using a panel of experts, both teachers and teacher educators, who had prior experience with DAPs at the middle school level. Two hundred and forty eight teachers were randomly selected and contacted via written cover letter. One hundred and seventy seven teachers completed the online survey; a response rate of 71%. Participants included 110 females (62.1%) and 67 males (37.9%); 96 (54.2%) of whom had completed at least a Masters degree. Ninety (50.8%) of the respondents were current members of the state association (MAHPERD) and forty-one (23.2%) were current members of AAHPERD. The results showed that the most frequently used DAPs included: a) creating a non-threatening atmosphere for all (99%), b) prohibiting the use of negative comments about classmates (95%), c) involving/encouraging achievement by all students (92%), d) avoiding public selection of teams (92%), e) modifying the rules of contact sports (91%), and f) teaching the importance of helping (90%). Findings from this study support results by Garrahy, Cothran, & Kulinna (2005) which suggest that teachers most frequently use classroom management practices and have less use of other DAPs which contribute to program development. Moreover, if we want physical educators to use DAPs more often, then curriculum development and assessment practices need to be emphasized in teacher development experiences.Keyword(s): physical education PK-12