Office of Curriculum, Technology, & Assessment

Purpose of the Physical Education Standards Document

Crisis Proportions

No (health) problem needs our attention more than the growing epidemic of obesity in America. In sheer numbers and its toll in death and diasability, obesity has reached crisis proportions in the United States.

-Dr. C.Everett Koop, former Surgeon General

Schools are uniquely positioned to teach children and youth the benefits of lifetime physical activity because they serve nearly all children and have facilities and equipment as well as staff with the expertise to provide instruction and supervision. Moreover, there is evidence that quality school-based physical education can contribute to the health of children and the adults they will become.

These standards are a framework for state education and health agencies and local school districts to use to create an instructional program that will enable their students to become healthy and capable of academic success. It is a framework for decisions about which lessons, strategies, activities and types of assessment to include in a physical education curriculum.

The intent of physical education is to motivate students to maintain and improve their health. Physical education should help students maintain cardiovascular and respiratory fitness as well as provide a method of self-expression, stress relief, and social development. It also provides students with the knowledge and skills to be healthy for a lifetime.

A quality physical education program is a planned, sequential pre-kindergarten through grade 12 curriculum that addresses the physical, mental, emotional and social dimensions of health. It is essential in helping students gain competence and confidence in a variety of movement forms, such as sports, dance, recreational activities and fitness activities. South Dakota's Physical Education Standards acknowledge students' motor, fitness, cognitive, affective/behavioral, and active lifestyle needs, and they focus on the importance of lifetime involvement in physical activity. In programs in which learning skills, fitness concepts, and lifetime physical activities (such as individual and dual sports and adventure selections) are priorities, students are much more likely to be active.