Physical Activity Journal of Research ©2009 by the ICHPER•SD Volume IV, No. 2, pp. 6-9 Physical Activity Opportunity in United States Public Elementary Schools by Lisa Beaulieu, Stephen A. Butterfield and Phillip Pratt Recent evidence indicates that many elementary schools have curtailed recess and Physical Education (Morrow, Jackson & Payne 1999). These finding are at variance with the goal of Healthy People 2010 to increase physical activity. The purpose of this study was to examine physical activity opportunities (PAO) in U.S. public elementary schools. Survey data obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics were analyzed using within grade (1-5 or 6) between group comparisons. Key findings included: a) PAO decreased from 222 to 204 minutes/week for grades 1 to 5; b) schools with smaller enrollments (<300 pupils) provided more PAO than schools in all larger categories (p<. 01); c) schools in rural areas provided more PAO than schools in towns, suburbs, and cities (p<. 01); d) schools with a low minority enrollment (<6%) provided more PAO than did schools with very high minority enrollment (>50%) (P<. 01); and e) schools with fewer children enrolled in free/reduced price lunch (<35%) afforded more PAO than did schools with the highest rates (>75%) (P<. 01). The obesity epidemic in the U.S. is now impacting elementary Burgeson, Fulton, and Spain (2007) reported that 75 percent of school aged children (National Center for Health Statistics, elementary schools surveyed had established goals or targets to 2006, May). In fact, the prevalence of obesity (BMI °Ÿ 95th increase physical activity. Although similar targets exist across the percentile) among children ages 6-11 years has tripled in the USA, the extent to which they have been effectively implemented past quarter century (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention remains uncertain. For instance, Morrow et al., (1999) found that [CDC], n.d.). At 19 percent, this is nearly four times the Healthy many elementary schools have curtailed recess and PE to allow People 2010 (2000) obesity prevalence target of 5 percent. more time for academics. The authors were critical of this trend, Increasingly, younger children are at risk for the well-known con- citing evidence that PE does not adversely impact academics, sequences of excess weight, e.g., heart disease, diabetes, cancer even when academic time is reduced to allow more PE. Moreover, and related psychosocial problems including low self-esteem, Lounsbery, Bungum, and Smith (2007) found that time allotted peer rejection and discrimination. This disturbing trend has fos- to physical activity decreases as children progress through grades tered comprehensive, multi-disciplinary efforts to end childhood K-12. obesity. Although genetics, behavioral, cultural, social, physi- A related concern is the issue of civil rights and physical ological and environmental factors are known contributors to activity. Investigators have found that children who are members obesity (Healthy People 2010, 2000), weight gain is essentially of minorities, and those from lower socioeconomic groups, had a result of too few calories expended relative to those consumed fewer opportunities to engage in physical activity at school (Brock et al., 2009). (Powell, Slater, & Chaloupka, 2004; Simons-Morton, et al., 1997). Because children's physical activity is readily modifiable, These findings are buttressed by CDC (n.d.) data that reveal scientific consensus now points to the output side of the caloric disparities among racial/ethnic groups in obesity prevalence. The equation (CDC, n.d.). In consequence, government and professional implications of these reports are troubling given the mission of agencies have established a physical activity guideline of 60 public schools to provide equal opportunity for all children. Equal minutes a day for children (United States Department of Health opportunity may be further impeded by a school's enrollment size, Human Services [USDHHS], 2008; National Association for geographical region, and locale. Although Simons-Morton, et al. Sport and Physical Education [NASPE], 2004). Studies cited by (1997) reported disparities in children's physical activity among Patterson and van der Mars (2008) indicate that children establish four states, scientific consensus regarding PAO based on school lifetime patterns of physical activity during their elementary characteristics is quite limited. Consequently, there is a need to school years. Therefore, energy expenditure is an area where clarify how United States public schools have responded to the elementary schools can have substantial impact. In fact, Lee, aforementioned issues; that is, to what extent do schools actually provide opportunities for all children to be physically active? Submitted: 07/19/2009 Information of this nature could potentially inform public Accepted: 09/21/2009 policy, promote equality and direct limited resources to areas of greatest.need.. Lisa Beaulieu, Hampden Academy, Hampden, ME; Stephen The purpose of this study was to examine physical activity A. Butterfield, Ph.D. and Phillip Pratt are with the University opportunities (PAO) during the school day (minutes of PE and of Maine. recess) for children in elementary grades (1-5 or 6) in United States volume 4, issue 2  Beaulieu, Lisa; Butterfield, Stephen A.; Pratt, Phillip public schools. It was hypothesized that PAO would decrease Table.1.continued. across grade levels, and that minority children, and children with School characteristic Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 lower SES, would have fewer opportunities for physical activity. All public elementary schools 211.11 (78.35) 209.05 (79.80) 215.97 (89.39) It was further hypothesized that disparities in PAO would exist by geographical location and locale. Enrollment size Less than 300 230.72 (82.03) 230.44 (87.58) 240.47 (94.58) 300 to 499 205.95 (75.85) 202.05 (74.34) 201.30 (78.32) Method 500 or more 201.41 (75.27) 199.58 (75.35) 197.41 (83.72) Design School locale The design of this study was cross-sectional and survey. Data City 192.46 (81.03) 192.73 (79.73) 186.35 (91.72) Urban fringe 211.38 (75.00) 209.81 (76.13) 215.65 (74.63) were obtained from the National Center for Educational Statistics Town 213.76 (78.14) 204.21 (76.06) 181.56 (76.74) (NCES). Officials from a geographically representative sample Rural 228.88 (75.82) 227.15 (81.88) 240.35 (92.09) of United States public elementary schools (N=1055) completed Region a questionnaire on foods and physical activity designed and Northeast 188.48 (64.58) 185.06 (62.00) 188.75 (72.06) administered by NCES (Fast Response Survey System—Foods Southeast 176.76 (65.52) 176.03 (65.61) 201.34 (86.46) Central 208.74 (77.57) 201.08 (75.13) 188.07 (84.33) and physical activity in public elementary schools, 2005). The West 244.94 (78.86) 245.82 (83.64) 249.93 (88.51) nationally representative sampling frame of 50,980 regular elementary schools selected by NCES from the 2002-03 Common Percent minority enrollment Less than 6 percent 224.34 (74.86) 218.33 (82.70) 221.13 (96.86) Core of Data Public School Universe File was stratified by 6 to 20 percent 222.57 (76.13) 222.55 (74.98) 236.86 (69.27) enrollment size and percent of children eligible for free or reduced- 21 to 49 percent 215.34 (68.02) 212.46 (71.17) 232.44 (78.15) 50 percent or more 194.38 (85.71) 194.56 (84.96) 193.10 (96.81) price lunch. Schools within the frame were further categorized by locale and region. Percent of studentseligible for free or reduced-price lunch Less than 35 percent 223.81 (69.85) 220.78 (69.60) 227.58 (72.60) Procedure 35 to 49 percent 220.92 (69.41) 217.95 (68.54) 231.15 (64.73) The Foods and Physical Activity in Public Elementary Schools: 50 to 74 percent 213.05 (74.71) 209.36 (75.70) 232.35 (82.51) 75 percent or more 186.22 (91.25) 188.85 (96.27) 182.24 (112.03) 2005 Survey was sent to each of the 1,161 eligible sample NOTE: Respondents provided information for each grade considered elementary at the school, typically 1-5 or 6 Table 1. Means (unweighted) and Standard Deviations for Adapted from Calories In, Calories Out: Food and Exercise in Public Elementary Minutes Per Week of Scheduled Recess and Physical Schools, 2005 Education (combined) at Public Elementary Schools. schools, with the request that it be completed by the person most School characteristic Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 All public elementary schools 222.28 (81.63) 220.74 (80.33) 217.39 (81.53) knowledgeable about the availability of foods and opportunities for physical activity at the school. Schools were assured that survey Enrollment size Less than 300 242.42 (85.40) 240.51 (84.03) 238.75 (86.99) responses would be kept confidential; therefore, survey results 300 to 499 218.09 (79.31) 215.46 (77.33) 212.55 (76.61) were not reported on a state-by-state basis. Of the 1,055 completed 500 or more 210.82 (77.94) 210.30 (77.31) 206.14 (78.41) surveys (91% return rate), 19% were completed by Web, 53% by School locale mail, 27% by fax and 1% by telephone. A pretest questionnaire City 200.26 (86.27) 197.80 (83.65) 197.92 (86.42) and telephone follow-up for missing or inconsistent survey items Urban fringe 219.56 (75.89) 219.10 (75.54) 215.66 (77.82) Town 230.37 (75.73) 227.75 (72.99) 223.69 (74.97) was used to minimize non-sampling error (NCES, 2006). (Note: Rural 244.96 (79.63) 243.37 (78.69) 237.28 (78.33) respondents were asked to provide information for each grade that Region was considered elementary level at their school, typically grades Northeast 193.13 (66.68) 192.92 (64.67) 191.13 (65.18) 1 through 5 or 6.) Southeast 185.73 (70.93) 185.07 (70.91) 180.20 (71.29) Central 226.12 (82.79) 223.16 (81.83) 218.54 (79.70) West 256.22 (79.07) 254.45 (77.42) 252.90 (81.29) Analysis. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), Version Percent minority enrollment Less than 6 percent 235.71 (77.46) 234.00 (77.76) 229.57 (76.70) 11 was applied to analyze the data, using within-grade, between- 6 to 20 percent 234.10 (78.11) 232.43 (77.66) 227.33 (76.48) group comparisons. Preliminary analyses, including means and 21 to 49 percent 227.22 (70.09) 225.40 (68.68) 223.27 (71.50) standard deviations, were reported for all variables; see Table 1. 50 percent or more 204.43 (90.32) 203.02 (87.74) 201.21 (91.65) One-way ANOVA's were then calculated for each grade level's Percent of studentseligible for reported PAO, i.e., minutes of PE plus minutes of recess/week, by free or reduced-price lunch Less than 35 percent 234.14 (72.29) 233.92 (72.23) 230.36 (71.67) enrollment size, geographic region, school locale (rural, city, etc.), 35 to 49 percent 233.27 (73.27) 231.88 (73.13) 225.44 (73.48) pupil SES, and percent of minority pupils. The Scheffe procedure 50 to 74 percent 229.72 (80.38) 225.93 (76.06) 221.33 (78.65) was used to make post hoc comparisons. Table 2 provides a 75 percent or more 192.33 (92.06) 190.78 (91.12) 190.93 (94.93) regional breakdown by states. NOTE: Respondents provided information for each grade considered elementary at the school, typically 1-5 or 6 Results Adapted from Calories In, Calories Out: Food and Exercise in Public Elementary Schools, 2005 Six principal findings emerged: a) PAO decreased from 222 to 4 Journal of Research Beaulieu, Lisa; Butterfield, Stephen A.; Pratt, Phillip school day. These results indicate that public elementary schools Table 2. States by Geographic Region fall well short of the USDHHS (2008) and NASPE (2004) Northeast: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, guidelines of 60 minutes or more of daily physical activity, during Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, customary school hours. Remaining minutes must therefore New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, be obtained outside the 6-hour school day. This target may be Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont difficult to achieve for children in school systems where PAO is Southeast: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, adversely impacted by SES and minority status (Powell et al., Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, 2004). Furthermore, limited opportunities for PA at school are not South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and necessarily compensated for after school. D. Dale, Corbin, and West Virginia K.S. Dale (2000) found that third and fourth grade children did not Central: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, make-up for a sedentary school day by increasing their PA levels Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, after school. Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin Notwithstanding efforts by state and Federal governments to West: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, ensure equality of opportunity in education, there remains work Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, to be done in providing equal opportunities for all children to Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington engage in sufficient PA. The present data indicate the existence and Wyoming of differences in PAO according to school enrollment, size, and locale. Additional differences were associated with social class, region, and minority status. These findings are disturbing 209 min./week from grades 1 to 5 for the entire sample; however, considering societal expectations that public schools provide equal minutes of PE increased from 86 to 99 min./week from grades 1 to opportunities for all children. 6; b) schools with smaller enrollments (<300) provided more PAO Although there is a paucity of current research with respect to than schools in all larger enrollment categories (p<. 01); c) schools the effects of social class, location and minority status on PAO for in rural areas provided more PAO than schools in towns, suburbs and elementary aged children, our results are consistent with findings cities (p<. 01); d) schools in the Western U.S. provided more PAO on physical activity. For instance, Simons-Morton et al. (1997) than schools in Southeast, Northeast, and Central U.S. (p<.01); e) found that third graders in California were more active than those schools with a low minority enrollment (<6%) provided more PAO in Louisiana, Minnesota and Texas. Furthermore, White third than schools with very high minority enrollment (>50%) (p<. 01); graders in these four states were more active than Hispanic, Black and f) schools with fewer children (<35%) participating in free/ or children of other ethnicities. Therefore, it appears that progress reduced price lunch programs afforded more PAO than schools towards equality in PAO for all children remains elusive. with the largest participation rates (>75%) (p<. 01). Additional work is needed to determine if current national efforts related to physical activity are effective. Such information Discussion could influence policy at the district, state, and national levels to The results of this study indicate an overall decrease in PAO ensure all children in US public schools receive adequate and equal from grades 1 to 5 among U.S. public elementary schools. While opportunity for physical activity. Further investigations should policies, legislation and government guidelines (Healthy People continue to monitor national efforts aimed at increasing physical 2010, USDHHS 2008, American Heart Association, 2009) are activity among elementary-aged school children. Such information promoting increased physical activity, public schools are decreasing could potentially influence public opinion regarding proposed opportunities for young children to be physically active during the legislation e.g., Fit Kids Act. This legislation aims to ensure kids school day. Whether due to lack of resources, competing academic are active during the school day, and are educated about diet and standards or other factors, reduction in PAO is problematic with exercise (American Heart Association, 2009). regard to children's health. Additional studies should likewise examine: a) reasons for The decrease in PAO across grade levels 1-5 in the present decrease in PAO with increased grade level; b) root causes of social national sample is consistent with reports for individual states. and geographical inequities in PAO; c) extent to which children For instance, Lounsbery et al.(2007) found that opportunities to are physically active during unstructured PAO; d) PAO during participate in physical activity during the school day in Nevada the school day for children beyond the elementary years; and e) declined as students progressed through public school grades feasibility of before and after school programs to increase physical K-12. This finding is noteworthy because a state's prevalence of activity. In the meantime, elementary schools can take initiatives childhood obesity is linked to insufficient physical activity (Brock, to increase physical activity. For instance, The University of et al., 2009). However, despite an overall decrease in PAO across Illinois' ScienceDaily (2008) recommends providing students with grade levels 1-5, present results show an increase in PE time across opportunities to be active beyond recess and PE by integrating grade levels 1-6. Possibly, schools are de-emphasizing recess time physical activity throughout the curriculum. This approach would in favor of a more structured setting (PE) that fosters opportunity include training for non-PE teachers. Also recommended is for greater active participation at moderate to vigorous levels. greater collaboration among classroom and PE teachers. Such Physical Education also provides students with information to approaches are needed to ensure that children have opportunities make sound decisions regarding their physical activity. to be physically active 60 minutes or more a day as per USDHHS Present data reveal an average PAO of 42 to 44 minutes per physical activity guidelines (2008)/NASPE (2004). volume 4, issue 2  Beaulieu, Lisa; Butterfield, Stephen A.; Pratt, Phillip Lisa Beaulieu teaches physical education and adapted Lounsbery, M., Bungum, T., & Smith, N. (2007). Physical activity physical education at Hampden Academy, Hampden, ME. opportunity in K-12 public school settings: Nevada. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 4(1). Abstract retrieved November 1, Stephen A. Butterfield is Professor of Education and Special 2008, from PsycINFO database. Education at the University of Maine. Phillip A. Pratt is Morrow, J. R., Jackson, A. W., & Payne, G. V. (1999). 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