Office of Curriculum, Technology, & Assessment

Vision for Physical Education:

To Do Their Best…Physical education has long been part of the K-12 school curriculum in the United States because of the belief that physical activity is essential for healthy growth and development.

  ---Vernon Seefeldt, Ph.D,
Institute for Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University

The vision for the South Dakota Physical Education Standards is to improve educational achievement and the health of South Dakota students, by developing students who are physically educated. The definition of a physically educated person includes five major focus areas, specifying that a physically educated person:

• Has learned skills necessary to perform a variety of physical activities
• Is physically fit
• Does participate regularly in physical activity
• Knows the implications of and the benefits from involvement in physical activities
• Values physical activity and its contribution to a healthful lifestyle

A quality physical education program is based on standards - just like other academic subjects-that define what students should know and be able to do as well as the levels of achievement that students are expected to attain. At a time in which greater demands are likely to be placed on assessment than any time in the history of American education, there is growing dissatisfaction with the traditional forms of assessment, whether it is the use of multiple-choice, machine-scored tests, or the use of standardized sport skill of physical fitness tests.

Because the standards are consensus statements about what a student should "know and be able to do," they provide a basis for student assessment, and for evaluating programs, at national, state, and local levels. Assessment is the process of gathering evidence about a student's level of achievement in a specified subject area and of making inferences based on that evidence for a variety of purposes. In effect, assessment serves to undergird the standards movement. It is the "glue" that holds the standards framework together.