A new policy brief just released by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has found that one-third of California teens don’t participate in P.E. classes at school. In fact, the percentage of children taking P.E. drops with age, the study found — from 95% at age 12 to only 23% at age 17.

How did this happen?

Budget cuts to physical education programs are one culprit, researchers say, and exemptions that allow high schoolers to skip 2 years of P.E. are another. The brief’s authors recommend increased funding for P.E. and maintenance of existing programs to combat this issue.

On a related note, data about physical fitness just were updated on kidsdata.org. The data show that, depending on the gender and grade, about 25% to 40% of California students meet the state’s standards. And, although students in all grades have made gains over the past decade, the percentage of students meeting all fitness standards has largely leveled off in recent years. See our blog post on these fitness results.

Posted by kidsdata.org

In case you missed it, we wanted to point out a map of physical fitness data from kidsdata.org that appeared in the San Jose Mercury News yesterday.

The map notes physical fitness scores in six Bay Area counties for 5th, 7th, and 9th graders. This is just one great example of the power of data — these numbers can be so compelling when viewed in map form. Thanks to the Mercury News for the mention, and for incorporating data into their reporting.

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Check out other Mercury News maps that incorporate data from kidsdata.org, featuring data about child abuse, juvenile arrests, truancy, suicide, and college readiness.

Posted by kidsdata.org

Depending on the gender and grade, about 25% to 40% of California students meet all six of the state’s fitness standards. And while the percent of 5th, 7th, and 9th graders who met all of these fitness standards has been improving over the last decade, fitness scores in California largely leveled off between 2009 and 2010. View this slideshow to learn more>>

Posted by kidsdata.org

When analyzing public data, don’t you often yearn for the next year of data – just one more year to help inform a phenomenon you may be seeing? A case in point is the recently released fitness data from the California Department of Education, where 2010 results seem to show a somewhat different story from previous years’ results.

From 2006 to 2009, the percentage of California 5^th, 7^th, and 9^th graders meeting all six state fitness standards increased by about 2 percentage points annually on average, contributing to a decade-long improvement in this measure of kids’ fitness. Then, from ’09 to ’10, that improvement appeared to stall, in the form of a 0.5 percentage point increase on average for 5^th, 7^th, and 9^th-graders in California.

Is this possible slow-down in improvement only a momentary blip? Or are we perhaps starting to see repercussions from the recession and the state’s budget woes? Over the last few years, school districts statewide have been forced to make do with less. Given budgetary demands, some districts surely are finding it more difficult to meet state requirements stipulating how much physical education students need (see this related article from the Orange County Register, as well as this editorial from Los Angeles Times). Moreover, cities across the state regularly face cutbacks that possibly mean reductions in the park and recreation services they offer.

These factors may be contributing to the small improvement in fitness scores from 2009 to 2010. But to determine what is really going on, we need 2011 data and additional analysis from the experts.

Meantime, the local perspective can help shed light on the statewide results. So we encourage our readers across California to post a comment describing what they’re seeing. Are there cutbacks to programs that provide physical education – or outdoor playtime – to children locally? If so, what kind of impact are you seeing?

Posted by Andy Krackov