Physical Education Resources, Class Management, and Student Physical Activity Levels: A Structure-Process-Outcome Approach to Evaluating Physical Education Effectiveness.

School-based physical education (PE) programs face numerous challenges including pervasive inactivity among children and families,1 competing academic priorities,2,3 and budget cuts.4 Despite recent progress in the implementation of policies that support PE programs,5-7 schools are struggling to provide the frequency and intensity of PE and physical activity opportunities recommended in Healthy People 2010. These objectives prescribe an increase in adolescents’ participation in daily PE, with at least 50% of class time devoted to being physically active.8 Yet only 3.8% of elementary, 7.9% of middle, and 2.1% of high schools provide daily PE for students in all grades for the entire school year,4,5 and students spend large amounts of PE class time being inactive.9 Because a primary function of PE is to provide opportunities for physical activity,9 it is important to identify resources that increase both PE opportunities and levels of student activity during PE class. Exposure to an adequate amount of PE class time during which physical activity is maximized increases students’ energy expenditure, which is a key contributor to the maintenance of healthy weight and fitness. It is important to understand the mechanisms though which resource availability exerts its effects. The purpose of this study is to empirically evaluate a proposed model of PE quality rooted in the Donabedian (2003) structure-process-outcome approach to performance monitoring.10 This framework was selected because it is useful for identifying barriers and facilitators of program quality, thereby suggesting targets for program-enhancing interventions. As depicted in Figure 1, structural indicators of quality include human (eg, student-to-teacher ratio, availability of instructors exclusively focused on PE), curricular (eg, availability of curricula and lesson planning resources aligned with best practices in PE), and material (eg, access to facilities and equipment) resources that comprise the conditions under which PE is provided. These resources are expected to influence process indicators of quality, the activities that constitute PE implementation. In the proposed model, an indicator of process quality is the content of PE lessons, specifically the proportion of class time devoted to class management activities. The amount of PE provided per day and student activity levels during PE sessions (eg, % of class time during which students engage in MVPA) are outcomes, which are attributable to the availability of PE resources both directly and through the effects of some resources on class content. Figure 1 A Structure-Process-Outcome Framework of PE Quality Hypotheses regarding relations among the structure, process, and outcome components of the model are evaluated in this study. Access to adequate human resources, as indicated by low student-to-physical educator ratio and the availability of teachers exclusively focused on PE, is expected to directly influence the amount of time that students participate in PE per day. Relative to schools with high student-to-teacher ratios, those with lower ratios can maximize the amount of time that each student participates in PE while maintaining class sizes that enhance student safety, learning, and activity levels.11 Indeed, prior research indicates that students who attend schools with an adequate number of teachers who exclusively provide PE instruction (eg, do not teach other subjects) receive more PE per week.4,12-15 In addition to increasing overall exposure to PE lesson time, the availability of qualified PE instructors is associated with increased student knowledge of physical fitness and activity levels during class.12-15 High student-to-physical educator ratios and large class sizes are associated with reduced student physical activity.3,11 Further, when physical educators are required to teach other subjects, they teach shorter lessons during which children are less active.4 Like human resources, access to adequate curricular and material resources are expected to directly influence the proportion of PE class time during which students engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). There is growing consensus about the positive impact of using standard-based PE curricula.7,16 PE programs that implement a curriculum based on national standards increase student physical activity levels.17 Likewise, physical activity levels are increased by access to well-maintained, appropriate, and aesthetically inviting facilities and safe environments in which to be active.18,19 Having an adequate amount of sport and exercise equipment that is in good condition and appropriate for children's sizes is also likely to increase physical activity opportunities during PE class sessions. Although prior research has illustrated the positive effects of resource availability on lesson length and student activity levels, few studies have explored the mechanisms through which these resources exert their effects. The proportion of class time devoted to management during which administrative tasks are accomplished and students are not expected to be physically active is one such mechanism (indicated by dashed lines in Figure 1). Physical educators may spend as much as 21% of class time on administrative/class management tasks.20,21 Adequate resources may reduce the proportion of class time needed for management and thereby increase opportunities for children to be physically active. For example, large class sizes resulting from high student-to-physical educator ratios may require that more time be devoted to activities such as taking attendance and transitioning from one activity to the next. Likewise, insufficient access to appropriate equipment or facilities could increase time devoted to activities such as selecting equipment and transitioning from one space to another.22 Conversely, organized and focused lesson planning enhanced by access to curricular resources that are consistent with best practices in PE should maximize opportunities for students to participate in physically demanding activities. Thus, we hypothesized that time devoted to class management would mediate the relations between human, curricular, and material resource availability and student activity levels during PE sessions. That is, high levels of class management activities will be an outcome of inadequate resource availability and a contributor to reduced MVPA time.