Measuring Physical Education against DRA scores

Physical Education at the elementary grade level has always been a difficult task to measure the benefits of growth. Sure we all know that: physical Education is important for good health, kids needing active time to play and be physically engaged and to learn good social skill developement. But how do you track it to monitor growth over a school year? To really know if physical education classes are keeping pace on a growth curve over the whole school year. At EHB we have developed a system of monitoring children's growth in Physical Edcuation over the course of the school year by tracking specific performance standards keyed to monitoring children's growth in P.E. We use the schools accepted educational standard of DRA scores to look at academic growth and will compare the academic growth with the data we accummulate to look at growth in physical education. If the DRA standard of children reaching their benchmark level is presently at 65% and their goal is to reach 80% by the end of the school year, then should we not expect the children receiving physical edcuation to also show comparable growth over the year in P.E.? So, this year will be our first year to measure the relationship and to assess children to ensure that children are demonstrating growth in P.E to ensure that children have a balance in their development....growth in the academic and physical aspects of their lives. Initial testing of this has noticed that 60% of the children who score high or low also score within those same parameters on our P.E. testing! The children who do not fall within the 60% have been looked at and some obvious opinions come forth: EEI students who have difficulty with language and score low on DRA can find success in their physical skills and thus score high, a discrepancy noted. Other children who score high on the DRA but low on our P.E. Test are children that do not appear to engage in much physical activity outside of school and who might have more arts/music interst and the factor of obesity, appears to be noted by the eyeball test (no specific data to support). But we, in P.E., can measure growth over the course of the year and so regardless of where students score in their fall P.E testing baseline, we should be able to motivate them to improve minimally by 25% in their performance over the course of a school year. You don't have to be an athlete to improve, just need students to work hard, have the understanding of the why and desire to improve and to have teacher support to guide students to try.! If you would like to know more, contact the P.E staff at the Ezra Baker School for more details and the implications for your child. Physical Education is important, and now we are making those connections that show just how important it is for children's success in order for academic performance to improve and make them successful.