Volume 10 — August 22, 2013
Are Physical Education Policies Working? A Snapshot From San Francisco, 2011
The Figure is a flow chart divided into two sections. The first section describes how physical education (PE) teachers were selected in elementary schools, and the second section describes how teacher selections were made in middle and high schools. In elementary schools, up to 2 teachers per school were observed. All PE specialists and PE leaders (1 per school) were observed; 1 or 2 classroom teachers were randomly selected per school, depending on the presence of a specialist or PE leader and the number of 5th grade classes. We observed 15 teachers in 10 specialist schools; 8 PE specialists (2 of the specialists taught at 2 schools) and 7 classroom teachers (in 3 schools only specialists taught PE). We observed 15 teachers in 10 nonspecialist schools: 8 PE leaders (2 schools did not have PE leaders) and 7 classroom teachers (in 4 schools only PE leaders taught PE). At middle and high schools, we observed up to 3 randomly selected PE specialists per school, depending on the number who taught at that school (no classroom teachers taught PE at these levels). We observed 12 specialists in 4 middle schools and 9 specialists in 4 high schools.
Figure. Selection of fifth-, seventh-, and ninth-grade physical education (PE) teachers for observations. A PE specialist is credentialed teacher with a specialty in physical education. A PE leader is an adult who has no teaching credentials but has experience in teaching physical activities, such as coaching.
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