National Association for Sport and Physical Education
Urban PE

Why do we need an Urban Physical Education Leadership Summit?

Physical activity participation plays a significant role in obesity prevention efforts within communities, families, and schools. Schools play an especially important role in influencing youth physical activity, particularly through quality physical education (PE). While PE programs across the country face barriers and challenges, urban areas face unique challenges when compared to those in rural or suburban areas.

The Problem

  • Urban youth tend to be less active as compared to youth in rural areas and small cities.
  • Urban school districts are less likely to provide or fund professional development for PE teachers on how to increase physically active class time in PE, a strong indicator of the quality of PE.
  • Schools within urban areas are more likely to face challenges with existing spaces available for PE activities. Urban schools are less likely to have access to a gym for PE and must resort to using classrooms, parking lots, etc. compared to rural and suburban schools.

The Solution

While urban PE programs face challenges, there is also great opportunity for improving their quality. Therefore, a 3-day Urban PE leadership Summit was held in New York City on July 11-13, 2011 to:

  • Bring together teams of urban PE leaders and stakeholders who are change-makers within their respective school districts and communities.
  • Enable sharing, collaborating and networking among urban PE leaders to discover new, innovative, and meaningful strategies for improving urban PE in their local schools and districts.
  • Discuss the development of a national plan for improving urban PE.

Participation in the Summit will enable participants to:

  • Assess their existing PE program(s) and its impact on student physical activity and fitness levels.
  • Identify changes that will result in relevant, high-quality PE programs.
  • Develop an action plan for delivering quality PE to their students.
  • Explore concrete funding opportunities to move their action plans towards reality.

 

Funding for this web page was made possible in part by cooperative agreement award number U58DP003220 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).