Scheduled Physical Education

Schools reported the number of days per week of scheduled physical education in 2005, and the minutes per class. If the number of days of scheduled physical education varied by week, respondents specified the schedule in the space provided.

Days Per Week of Scheduled Physical Education

• Almost all public elementary schools (99 percent) reported that they scheduled physical education for elementary grades (table 16).
• The percentage of public elementary schools that provided daily physical education ranged from 17 to 22 percent across elementary grades at the school (figure 6 and table 16). In addition, 11 to 14 percent scheduled physical education 3 or 4 days a week, 28 to 33 percent scheduled physical education 2 days a week, and 22 percent of the schools scheduled physical education 1 day a week across elementary grades. Furthermore, 14 to 16 percent of the schools reported that their physical education schedules varied by week. For example, schools that rotated physical education with other subjects might schedule physical education twice for one week and once for the subsequent week.
• Information on the number of days of scheduled physical education at each school was used to calculate the average number of days of physical education for each elementary grade across all public elementary schools (table 17). Public elementary schools reported averages of 2.4 to 2.6 days per week of physical education across elementary grades. This included the average number of days for schools with physical education schedules that varied by week.¹

Minutes Per Class and Average Minutes Per Week

• The percentage of schools with physical education classes of 30 minutes or less ranged from 43 percent for first grade to 34 percent for fifth and sixth grades (table 16). However, the percentage of schools with physical education classes of more than 40 minutes ranged from 31 percent for first grade to 40 percent for sixth grade.
• Information on the length of physical education classes and the number of days per week of physical education was used to calculate the total minutes per week for each elementary grade at the school, and the average number of minutes per week for each elementary grade across all public elementary schools (figure 7 and table 18).² The average number of minutes per week of physical education ranged from 85.4 for first grade to 98.0 minutes for sixth grades that were considered elementary. This included the schools with physical education classes that varied by number of days per week and class length.³
• The average minutes per week of scheduled physical education for elementary grades differed by school characteristics (table 18). For example:
• Small schools had a higher number of average minutes per week of scheduled physical education than did medium-sized and large schools, and rural schools had higher averages than did schools located in other locales (table 18). This was true for all elementary grades in the school.
• Schools in the West had a higher number of average minutes per week of scheduled physical education for first through fifth grades than did schools located in other regions (table 18). Schools in the Northeast had the lowest averages for third through fifth grades, compared with schools in other regions (table 18).
• Schools with the lowest poverty concentration had a lower number of average minutes per week of scheduled physical education than did schools with the two highest categories of poverty concentration (table 18). This difference held for first through fifth grades.

Combined Minutes Per Week of Physical Education and Recess

Information on the total minutes per day and the number of days per week was used to calculate the total minutes per week of scheduled recess in 2005. The total minutes per week of physical education were added to the total minutes per week of recess to create an overall measure of combined minutes per week for recess and physical education. This measure reflects the total time per week when students may be provided with opportunities for physical activity.

• When the number of minutes for physical education and recess were combined, the average number of minutes per week for these activities ranged from 208 to 222 minutes across elementary grades (table 19). The schools also had a lower average for grades 4 and 5 than they did for grades 1 through 3.
• The combined minutes per week for physical education and recess differed by some school characteristics (table 19). For example, large and medium-sized schools reported fewer minutes of combined physical education and recess per week for elementary grades than did small schools. In addition, schools with the highest poverty concentration reported lower averages in combined physical education and recess per week for elementary grades than did schools with lower levels of poverty concentration. Thus, in high poverty schools, having more hours per week of physical education (table 18) did not compensate for having no scheduled recess (table 13).

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