Background: Policies greatly affect the ability of schools to impact students' health and healthy behaviors. Several landmark reports have given insights on the status of physical activity (PA), Physical Education (PE), healthy behaviors, and state-level policies impacting youth's health. Research findings along with these reports have provided important information about the current state of PE and have provided data used to advocate for positive PE policy changes at the state level. Purpose: To provide an update on current state policies influencing secondary PE as well as to expand the available data on the presence of PE curricular requirements, state PE standards, allowance of PE waivers/credit substitutions, assessment, state PE personnel involvement in legislative changes, and conceptual PE (CPE) courses.
Method
Methods: Participants were state-level PE coordinators (N=23) who completed an online survey regarding PE policies in his/her state. Our survey asked similar questions to the Shape of the Nation Report (NASPE, 2006) and added new questions related to state legislation and CPE.
Analysis/Results
Results: Preliminary results at the middle/junior high school level indicated fourteen states had a requirement related to the amount or frequency of PE necessary for graduation. At the high school level, eighteen respondents indicated their state had PE amount/frequency requirements. Among all secondary levels surveyed, most (n=15) respondents indicated their state had PE standards. Now, only fourteen states reported allowing PE waivers for participation in other activities—suggesting that positive changes have occurred. Almost half of the respondents reported required state-level PE assessments; however, only three responding states reported any specific assessment measures or teacher accountability measures. Other positive results indicated that over half of the state-level respondents have direct involvement in legislative changes benefitting PE programs. In regards to CPE at the middle/junior high school level, CPE courses were mandated in approximately six states; however, only two of the states reported any statewide CPE assessment strategies. Similarly, at the high school level, nine states reporting that CPE-related courses were required and five reported having state CPE assessment strategies.
Conclusions
Conclusions: Based on the responses from the state PE coordinators, state personnel are continuously working toward improvements for PE requirements, but more legislative action is needed. PE supporters will be able to use the data from this study along with other recommendations in order to advocate for the amount of PE available for students, accountability for students and teachers, and CPE curricula to enhance students' cognitive understanding of healthy behaviors.