Advocating for Quality Physical Education

I am sure you agree that in the history of education quality physical education has never been more important - important for both mind and body. Sadly, the youth obesity rate is climbing and for myriad reasons students are often disengaged from learning; jeopardizing their success as members of society. A quality PE program has great potential to engage students in school. But, as our greatest PE teachers know it is not enough to simply work in isolation to implement a high quality program. Successful PE teachers also commit and plan to educate others about their work. Students, parents, teaching colleagues, school administrators and other community members need our help to understand the learning goals of modern, standards-based PE. Some successful advocacy strategies are listed below.

1. Offer a student demonstration of a PE skill during parent-teacher conferences.
2. Produce an evening or community-based PE show.
3. Invite other adults to observe or even volunteer during a PE lesson/unit.
4. Build a Web page that highlights the standards-based learning goals and successes of your PE program. Include relevant data to strengthen your case.
5. Collaborate with teaching colleagues to connect learning in PE with other content areas.
6. Participate on your school wellness committee.
7. Share research that demonstrates the connection between physical education and learning. A great article entitled "Promoting Physical Education: The Link to Academic Achievement" is published in the January 2009 issue of JOPERD.

Each of these advocacy strategies showcases quality, standards-based PE. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) provides many useful resources for such efforts. To access these free materials click here

What strategies have you used to share the successes of your PE program?