Background/Purpose
The purpose was to examine colleges and universities in a five state region located in the Midwest. Each school was examined to see if they had a Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) program. All these PETE schools were examined to see how similar/dissimilar each program was. The second purpose was to investigate whether students could graduate from their university within four years. This assumed a formula of approximately 15 credits per semester with 120 total credits.
Method
All university websites were used to obtain all public information concerning their PETE programs. If information was lacking each school was contacted and public information was obtained from their Chairperson. This research complies with all IRB regulations. A SPSS data base was developed and examined for information.
Analysis/Results
51 schools were found that had programs granting a licensure in Physical Education. States ranged from 6 schools to 15. The number of credits needed in the PE major ranged from 6 to 72 with a mean of 44. Total credits needed to graduate ranged from 30 to 156 with a mean of 113. 19.6 percent of the schools needed 128 total credits to graduate with few schools having120 or less.
Conclusions
Some schools gave their students a high number of credits within their major program. 20% of PETE programs students need to obtain 128 credits to graduate which caused some states to examine a possible reduction in the credit load to 120 to make it easier to graduate in four years.