Health & Physical Ed

Physical Education Standards

Rationale for Physical Education in Nevada Schools

The Surgeon General of the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Center for Chromic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, and The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sport have issued a report that identifies three major health benefits of physical activity for youth and adolescents. The benefits of physical activity are:

1. Helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles and joints,

2. Helps control weight, build lean muscle, and reduce fat, and

3. Prevents or delays the development of high blood pressure and helps reduce blood pressure in some adolescents with hypertension.

In a society that is becoming increasingly more sedentary, the need for daily physical activity becomes more important and schools need to be part of the solution to the problem. The Surgeon General and CDC agree and recommended that communities "provide quality, preferably daily, K-12 physical education classes and hire physical education specialists to teach them."

(Physical Activity and Health - A Report of the Surgeon General 1996)

A Physically active and educated person is one who has mastered the necessary movement skills to participate confidently in many different forms of physical activity. Even before birth, children begin learning to move and learn about their world through sensory (i.e. kinesthetic) awareness and movement. The process continues from childhood through adolescence and well into late adulthood. A physically educated person values physical fitness and understands its relationship to health and well being. He or she participates regularly in physical activity and understands the benefits of involvement in physical activity.

Physical education teachers must plan programs for all students regardless of race, gender, home language, disability, and cultural or economic backgrounds. In addition, a variety of assessment tools should be used to determine each student's level of performance.

Our responsibility as teachers is to provide opportunities for all students to be physically educated and enjoy moving. Students who participate in quality physical education programs receive a variety of benefits in the areas of movement skills, physiological conditioning, psychosocial development and tactical knowledge and application. In physical education, students learn:

1. a variety of motor skills and abilities related to lifetime leisure activities,

2. the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle,

3. an understanding of movement and the human body,

4. knowledge of rules and strategies of particular games and sports, and

5. self-confidence and self-worth as these relate to physical education and recreation programs.

This rationale is based on Physical Activity and Health: A report of the Surgeon General Executive Summary (1996), A Report of the Surgeon General: Physical Activity and Health for Adolescents and Young Adults (1996), the National Standards for Physical Education (National Association for Sports and Physical Education), the California Physical Education Standards, Madison Metropolitan School District Physical Education Standards and Adapted Physical Activity, Recreation and Sport, by Claudine Sherrill (1993).

• Physical Education Performance Level Descriptors (pdf)

• Physical Education Content Standards (pdf) - A complete listing of all content standards for physical education.