Background/Purpose . Physical education (PE) requirements at post-secondary institutions in America have been reported since the 1950s, with the last report being done in 1998 (Hensley, 2000). The present study examined PE requirements in 2009-2010. The research questions were: (1) Are students required to complete any form of PE to earn a baccalaureate? (2) What different variations of PE are required to earn a baccalaureate? (3) Are public or private institutions equally likely to have a PE requirement? and (4) Do institutions across the six AAHPERD Districts equally require PE?
Method . 354 institutions were randomly selected from a national database. Baccalaureate requirements were extracted from each institution's website.
Analysis/Results . 45.5% of the institutions required PE to graduate, whereas 54.5% did not, Χ2(1,354)=2.89,p=.09. Most commonly, both activity-based and conceptual-based coursework (n = 60) were required, followed by activity-based coursework only (n = 32), conceptual-based coursework only (n = 29), a combination activity-conceptual course (n = 26), or the selection of either activity- or conceptual-based coursework (n = 14); Χ2(4,161)=35.80,p<.0001. Private institutions required PE more than public institutions (62.7% vs. 37.3%, respectively; Χ2(1,161)=10.44,p<.001). Southern institutions were most likely to require PE (59%), followed by Central (52.4%), Southwest (44%), Midwest (43.3%), Northwest (40%), and Eastern (33%), Χ2(5,354)=15.49,p<.01.
Conclusions . Currently the percentage of institutions requiring PE to earn a baccalaureate is at an all time low. This is inconsistent with the National Physical Activity Plan (2010), which suggest that post-secondary institutions have such a requirement. Reversing this situation should be a priority for the field.