Leverage Policy to Activate Classroom Physical Activity Practice

A story from Vermont

 

 “Each school shall offer options for students in grades K-12 to participate in at least 30 minutes of physical activity within or outside of the school day. Physical activity may include recess and movement built into the curriculum, but does not replace physical education classes.”

Physical Activity Guidelines for Vermont Schools – Active Students are Better Learners
Included in the April 2014 update to Vermont’s Education Quality Standards

Prior to 2014, Vermont schools were mandated to offer physical education only two days a week as part of the state’s Education Quality Standards. However, rising obesity rates and health care costs motivated VT’s Agency of Education, with support from the Department of Health, to revise the state standards to increase minutes of physical activity outside of physical education, specifically highlighting classroom physical activity and recess. We spoke with Jennifer Woolard, School Chronic Disease Prevention Specialist at the VT Department of Health, to learn how the state used its newly revised Physical Activity Guidelines to increase classroom physical activity minutes in schools throughout the state.

Key Takeaways

Build buy-in for classroom physical activity through a coordinated approach. Communicating the coordinated approach of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model and the link between health and academics provided a persuasive platform to engage stakeholders across the school community in using classroom physical activity to implement the new state standards. Ms. Woolard reflected, “Some of the greatest successes come from a whole school approach where everyone engages [from the “get go”]… buy-in needs to come from principals and school wellness leaders.”

Take state policy to the local level. Vermont took a multi-strategy approach to ensure adoption and implementation of the new standards at the local level – for districts and schools:

  • District-level: School wellness teams were encouraged to integrate the new state standard – including language about classroom physical activity – into their local wellness policies. According to Ms. Woolard, “There’s no one policing [the state] policy, so working with wellness policies and school health teams help us to support schools to meet [VT’s] standard. PA minutes may be in the policy, but they’re not [always] doing it. If it’s not [in the local wellness policy], you can [work with your WSCC team and principal] to add it.”
  • School-level: Classroom teachers received training on classroom physical activity as a way to increase their understanding and confidence in using physical activity in their classroom. As Ms. Woolard observed, “If you’re not comfortable doing physical activity in your own life, there’s a fear of integrating it into your own class.” In addition, classroom teachers were encouraged to connect with physical educators as physical activity experts who can align academic content with what is being taught in PE classes and troubleshoot challenges such as addressing limited space and accommodating different needs.
Vermont’s revised Physical Activity Guidelines laid the foundation for persuading state, district, and school partners to prioritize classroom physical activity as a way to meet the new state standards. However, moving from policy to practice required multiple strategies, including communicating classroom physical activity’s place in the WSCC model, integrating language into current wellness policies, training classroom teachers, and elevating PE teachers as physical activity experts.