Background/Purpose Physical education (PE) policies, standards and teaching practices (Idaho State Department of Education [ID SDE], 2010; NASPE, 2004, 2009; CDC, 2006) have been set for positively impacting healthy active lifestyles. The first and second ID PE program and policy surveillance surveys were conducted in 2009 and 2011; respectively, with a three-fold purpose: (a) administer a revised PE Questionnaire (PEQ), (b) collect current data, and (c) compare data.
Method Researchers from ID universities and ID SDE developed the revised 2011 PEQ. The PEQ was mailed to 690 K-12 ID public schools and 290 (42.0%) responded. PEQ questions utilized a variety of formats to gather current PE and healthy school data.
Analysis/Results Current and comparative descriptive findings of concern were: (a) schools offered PE less in 2011 (86%) than in 2009 (94%), (b) NASPE recommended weekly PE minutes were rarely met at the elementary level (3% of schools), (c) PE budgets were low (78% ≤ $500), and (d) very little homework was assigned (80% reported none). Promising findings were: (a) high school teachers targeted state PE standards more in 2011 (73%) than 2009 (48%), (b) average class sizes were below NASPE recommendations, (c) more secondary schools were meeting NASPE recommended weekly PE minutes in 2011 (57%) than 2009 (31%), and (d) the number of certified physical educators remained high in 2011 (≥ 97%).
Conclusions The collection of statewide PE data represents a stakeholder effort to examine PE policy, standard and best practice implementation, and findings provide data for strengthening PE.
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