Major Statistical Study Does Not Change My Broad Conclusions

My latest study conducted for SBRnet, Physical Activity Trends: Business and Policy Implications, 2007 edition, concludes that a main reason why many American children and adolescents are not physically fit is that school physical education and recess programs are inadequate. An article in "The Journal of School Health" for October 2007 entitled "Physical Educaton and Physical Activity: Results from the School Health Policies and Programs Study 2006" presents favorable trends, but does not change my overall conclusion. From the article, I drew the conclusion that a lot of progress was made between the 2000 and 2006 School Health Policies and Programs Studies, but the progress was more in terms of policy and goal setting than in actual increases in children's and adolescents' physical activity. For example, the article says, " Between 2000 and 2006, positive changes were detected in the percentages of states and districts with policies and practices supporting elementary school physical instruction."

The concluding sentences of the article, "Overall great strides must be made in improving the quality of physical education and physical activity programs within school. With strong multilevel policies and practices, many more of our young people will be given the opportunity to become physically educated individuals and thereby establish healthy, active lifestyles as they enter adulthood, " are the most revealing.

Here are statistics presented in the article that to me support the article's concluding sentence and my own overall conclusion:

1. 30.7% or elementary schools, 16.1% of middle schools, and 4.8% of high schools or 21.7% of schools overall did not have a physical education requirement.

2. Only 3.8% of elementary schools, 7.9% of middle schools, and 2.1% of high schools provided daily physical education or its equivalent for all grades in the school for the entire school year. The prevalence of daily physical education has not significantly decreased since 2000, but neither has it increased.

3. In its concluding section, the article correctly stresses the importance of intramural sports and physical activities and is correctly critical of schools' emphasizing inter-scholastic rather than intra-mural sports. It notes that 48.4% of all schools offer intramural activities or clubs. However, it also points out that 22.9% of the schools offering after school intramural activities provided transportation home. With most parents working during the school day, the lack of transportation home must be a significant disincentive to participate in such programs.

The goal and policy setting noted in the article is undoubtedly necessary to move the country's enormous school bureaucracies in the right direction, but it seems things are not moving fast enough.

I wish that the great strides the article calls for could be made without adding physical education achievement to the requirements of The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). If such requirements are added to NCLB as The Sporting Goods Manufacturers' Association and others propose, improvements would be made and made quickly, but I am afraid they would not result in imaginative programs that would foster in our young people a physical fitness habit for life. However, I am reluctantly for incorporating physical education in NCLB because I believe in our times what gets tested is what gets taught.

Kudos to the Congress for maintaining funding for the Carol M. White Physical Education Program and shame on the Bush administration for trying to cancel it out at every opportunity!