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| Team Arizona |
In 2007, results from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey indicated that 12% of high school students in Arizona were obese, 68% did not get the recommended amount of physical activity, and 73% did not attend physical education (PE) classes daily. At the time, Arizona's standards for PE classes were not consistent with national standards. Arizona had no requirement for PE or Health Education as a stand-alone class, and the state did not allocate funding for PE.
In 2008, the Arizona Coordinated School Health Stakeholders called for the Health and PE standards to be revised for the first time since 1997. These standards were approved by the Arizona Department of Education State Board of Education in October of 2009. The new standards are aligned with national standards and will improve the quality of PE and Health Education for Arizona students. Revisions include the addition of defined concepts that guide teachers on what students should learn and be able to demonstrate by the end of the class, as well as an emphasis on personalized fitness and behavior outcomes.
CDC funding helped to train more than 300 Health and PE teachers across the state facilitated by the Arizona Department of Education Coordinated School Health Team and our University of Arizona partner. This helped to implement the new standards, which went into effect during the 2010–2011 school year. These new standards can be found on our internally created website www.healthologyaz.com.
Miranda Graves
miranda.graves@azed.gov
www.ade.az.gov
