The Nebraska Department of Education appears ready to approve new state physical education standards Friday that focus more on fitness and helping students develop healthy lifestyles and less on competing in time-honored team sports such as basketball, football and baseball.
The proposed standards replace a similar framework from 2006 and both stress fitness, mastering various skills, teaching responsible behavior and living healthy lifestyles.
But the new standards spell out specific skills students should learn in each grade and how that learning should progress from year to year.
In kindergarten, for instance, students are expected to hop, gallop and jog as well as throw underhand. By eighth grade, students are expected to strike a pitched ball, catch and dribble and perform “pivots, fakes, and jab steps.â€
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Students in those physical education classes may play team sports, but do it in smaller groups so all students, regardless of athletic skill, will get a chance to play, said Julane Hill, the state education department’s coordinated school health career education specialist.
The standards focus on five areas: physical activity skills; understanding and applying concepts, strategies and tactics of movement (communicating with teammates, moving from offense to defense, for instance); health-related physical activity and fitness; responsible behavior; and understanding the benefits of physical activity.
One of the biggest shifts in the proposed standards is defining high school standards by individual courses rather than by grade level.
Hill said the department looked at the most common courses offered by high schools and developed specific standards for those courses, which include such classes as swimming, a host of different dance classes, strength and conditioning classes, team games and outdoor pursuits.
At a work session of the board on Thursday, board members praised the plan as well as efforts to solicit feedback from parents and educators across the state in shaping it.
Board member John Witzel said schools were appreciative of the opportunity to help develop the new standards.
"It's pretty obvious to everyone in this room and the state that we have an epidemic of obesity and diabetes in our state," Witzel said. "Hopefully, this is a rigorous enough program to counter some of the challenges we're facing."