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1(a). Specific gaps or weaknesses
The Eugene School District is Oregon’s fourth largest school district, with a student population of nearly 18,000. The district has twenty-three elementary schools, eight middle schools and four high schools. Twenty-six percent of students live in households below the poverty level as measured by participation in the free and reduced price lunch program.

Like many other states, Oregon has been hit hard by the down-turned economy. Massive state budget shortfalls have had a major impact on school funding. The result has been a 46% reduction in physical education staffing in Eugene since1989, burgeoning class sizes, a reduction of physical education requirements, elimination of intramural programs, reduction of middle school athletic programs from four sports to one, introduction of high school participation fees of nearly $100 per sport, and few affordable opportunities for safe supervised after-school activity.

There is reason to be hopeful, however. Although Oregon school districts are legislatively prohibited from raising money locally to support their programs, cities are not. Last year, the citizens of Eugene demonstrated their concern about the health crisis facing community youth and their support for Eugene students by passing a four-year special city levy for district youth activities and services, including physical education. These funds will help our district weather the state’s fiscal crisis and protect against further cuts in physical education staffing.

Because of substantial budget reductions over the last 15 years, the amount of time spent by students in physical education has decreased significantly. The typical elementary student receives an average of 50 minutes weekly, most middle schools require daily PE for 6th graders with 7th and 8th grade elective, while high schools have a 1-year PE graduation requirement. Staff are quite anxious about the limited time students spend in their physical education classes and the impact that has on the attainment of benchmarks. The district recognizes a strong need to partner with community agencies and businesses in an attempt to provide more opportunity for healthy and meaningful physical activity in an effort to help our students attain benchmark proficiency and improve lifestyle habits and fitness.

In addition to program reductions, budgets for equipment, supplies, and staff development have diminished significantly. In a survey of K-12 physical education staff (April, 2003), teachers reported budget reductions had left them unable to replace worn equipment, provide adequate sets of equipment in classes of increased size, or purchase new equipment and technology to bring programs in line with national trends and the newly adopted Oregon Content and Student Performance Standards for Physical Education. Sixty two percent of teachers found their equipment adequate for team sport and games (Expressive and Efficient Movement strand of the Oregon standards), but only 29% found equipment adequate in the areas of lifetime fitness and outdoor adventure (Fitness for Life strand) while nearly half responded they lacked adequate equipment and resources to teach to the Self Management and Social Behavior strand of the Oregon standards.

District staff development for physical education over the past 15 years has been minimal. Lack of staff development, combined with decentralization and movement to site-based management, left physical educators feeling isolated and fostered a stagnant district physical education program. We have a pressing need for high quality and on-going professional development to foster common vision and articulation between programs.

In the fall of 2001, Oregon adopted Content and Student Performance Standards for Physical Education. Curriculum content and benchmarks for what students must know and be able to do are organized under three strands: Efficient and Expressive Movement, Fitness For A Lifetime, and Social Behavior and Self Management.

Eugene’s physical education programs have been dominated by traditional competitive team sports. Curriculum mapping in Spring, 2002 indicated 70% of middle and high school programs centered around traditional team sport activity. A student survey (April, 2003) indicated that only 43% of students in grades 6-12 would choose this type of activity as their first choice. Females indicated a much lower preference for traditional team sport. The district Adaptive Physical Education Team reported that the sport model makes it especially difficult to include students with disabilities. The sport model fails to meet the needs and interests and of all students, fails to adequately address the comprehensive state content standards and fails to help students understand the relevance of physical activity to their daily lives, To be candid, lack of adequate funding in our school district for program staffing, equipment, and ongoing professional development has created an outdated and inadequate physical education program for students.

The curriculum mapping and teacher surveys we have collected indicate a major disconnect between existing programs and the state standards. Benchmark standards under the Expressive and Efficient Movement strand require students to demonstrate competency in three or more movement categories: Individual activities; dual activities; aerobic/cardiovascular lifetime activities; outdoor pursuits; dance, self defense, yoga, martial arts; team sports; strength training and conditioning; and aquatics. Curriculum mapping indicated few student opportunities outside of the team sport, strength training/conditioning, and dual activity categories. Opportunities in outdoor pursuits, lifetime activities, dance, and aquatics are scarce. Teacher feedback indicated little or no attention given to developing the benchmark skills of critiquing skills/performance or applying principles of training to a variety of skills as required under the Movement strand. Curriculum mapping and teacher survey results indicate little systematic health-related fitness assessment. Little attention is given to teaching cognitive concepts to enable students to become self-managers of their personal fitness. Only one middle school program and one high school program ask students to design a personal fitness plan based on a fitness assessment and developed goals required by the Fitness For A Lifetime strand of the Oregon standards. Programming at all levels shows a significant lack of cooperative activity. Opportunities for team building and problem solving through movement activities are seldom present.

Under the state standards legislation, local school districts were charged with the responsibility of developing and implementing benchmark assessments for all three strands of the standards beginning with the 2003-2004 school year. Because there was no funding for this work, most districts struggled, and as a result, new legislation eliminated the required student assessments. Recognizing the importance of this task to the revitalization of the district physical education program, however, Eugene moved forward to complete a comprehensive set of assessment protocols with rubrics and scoring guides for all three strands. According to the Oregon Department of Education, we are the only school district to do so and hope to become a lighthouse district for other LEA’s in Oregon. The district phase-in timetable calls for piloting assessments for one strand of the standards in the spring of 2004.

Like the nation as a whole, Oregon is facing a health crisis among adults, children, and youth. Oregon has the highest obesity rate of any state west of the Rockies: twenty-two percent (Oregon Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity, 2003). Sample testing of 8th grade students (Eugene, 2002) indicated that 33% are overweight with 18% being obese and 64% of those obese being female. Obesity puts students at an elevated risk of teen pregnancy, substance abuse, and drop out along with obvious health issues. An April 2002 survey of Eugene K-12 students indicated that by the end of the 8th grade, 24% of students do not meet the Surgeon General’s definition of an active individual with that number rising to over 33% by the end of grade 12.

The 2003 Eugene Healthy Teen Survey (See Appendix 2: Survey) indicates many students have adopted unhealthy eating behaviors in an effort to control weight. Nutrition education has been another victim of dwindling district financial resources. At the same time nutrition education has been neglected, contracts with major soft drink and vending machine companies and ala carte lines in school lunch programs have enabled students to make unhealthy food choices. Inadequate activity combined with poor nutrition has created a significant health issue for our students. The Eugene Register Guard reports deaths caused by poor diet and lack of activity are second only to those related to tobacco (March 10, 2004). We know there is a direct correlation between fitness and academic achievement (California Dept. of Education, 2002).

During spring of 2003, the Eugene School District identified several critical needs of the district physical education program. Based on these needs, the Eugene School District received a Carol M. White PEP Grant for the 2003-2004 school year. Our grant project had four primary goals 1) To increase opportunities for participation in standards-based lifetime and non-traditional activities designed to foster student understanding and valuing of physical activity and its role in maintaining a healthy lifestyle over the lifespan (Strands 1 and 2 of the Oregon Standards); 2) Provide on-going professional development and the needed equipment and supplies to implement a wide range of health-related lifetime activities aimed at increasing student interest and enthusiasm for physical activity (Strands 1, 2,and 3); 3)To develop new school-community partnerships to provide curriculum relevance and student connection to community-based activity opportunities (Strands 1 and 2); and 4)To increase parent opportunities to support their children’s participation in meaningful health-related lifetime activity (Strand 2). The 2003-2004 PEP Grant provided a solid jumping off point in addressing our needs. Table 1 outlines project activities.

To date, we have successfully addressed many of the needs. However, one year was not a long enough period to fully develop the comprehensive program we are seeking to establish in this year’s PEP application. After years of neglect, the district physical education program needs more than a one-time transfusion of monies. Economic challenges to our programs continue, as our state has not recovered from its economic woes. The current grant has been successful in introducing staff to a wide array of new activities and new program philosophy. However, moving staff from well-ingrained patterns is not an easy or quick process. The staff is overwhelmed with new information. Research shows that the most important factor affecting student learning is the teacher (Wright, Horn and Sanders, 1997). Creating a viable curriculum is heavily influenced by two factors: 1) opportunity to learn; and 2) time (Marzano, 2003). Length and number of staff development activities are positively correlated with change in teacher behavior. The more staff development, the greater the change in staff behavior (Garet, 2001). To institutionalize the change that we are trying to instill will require multiple opportunities to learn and time to process. A recurring theme in the evaluations of this year’s workshops has been the need for more time to absorb the material and to follow-up in order to facilitate full implementation. Based upon 2003-2004 PEP workshop evaluations and a March 2004 teacher survey, the following needs have been identified: (1) Ongoing staff development to follow-up this years’ workshops and to introduce new trainings in order to institutionalize the change to a comprehensive standards-based program with a balanced emphasis on all three strands of the Oregon standards; (2) Continued effort in diversifying activities and aligning district curriculum with the state standards to better meet the needs and interests of all students. (3) Continued upgrading of equipment and supplies to enable students to develop the skills and knowledge to meet benchmark standards and become lifetime consumers of healthy physical activity; (4) Ongoing attention to the nutritional education and food choices of students; (5) Increased involvement of the community in program goals and activities; (6) Increased opportunities for student achievement of state standards and more time in standards-based physical activity through both physical education classes and after school activity programs;

Based on a review of the 2003-04 project to date, curriculum mapping, teacher surveys, and best practices for physical education programming, we have established the following goals for the new project linked to the three strands of the Oregon Physical Education Standards:

Project Goals:

Goal 1: Physical education programs and after school programs will increase opportunities for participation in standards-based lifetime and non-traditional activities designed to foster student understanding and appreciation of physical activity and its role in maintaining a healthy lifestyle over the lifespan while preparing students to meet the Oregon standards.
Goal 2: Standards-based middle school after-school activity programs will be instituted to help strengthen students’ ability to meet the standards.
Goal 3: All physical education teachers and after school program staff will receive on-going professional development and needed equipment and supplies to implement a wide range of health-related lifetime and non-traditional standards-based activities aimed at increasing student interest and enthusiasm for physical activity and to ensure students will meet the standards.
Goal 4: Project staff will develop new school/community partnerships to provide curriculum relevance and student connection to community-based activity opportunities that will remain after the period of funding has ended.
Goal 5: Project staff will increase parent opportunities to support their children’s participation in meaningful health-related lifetime activity.

SIGNIFICANCE

2(a). The likelihood that the proposed project will result in change or improvement.
Project Rising Expectations: Institutionalizing Change will produce long-term systemic change in the Eugene School District physical education program and in student opportunities for healthy lifestyle activity. This project will sustain and institutionalize a major shift in program philosophy that began this year while responding to both staff and student needs and interests.

Our district has shown the commitment it takes to make major long-term change. The physical education staff have embraced the standards and shown an eagerness for relevant staff development. According to the State Department of Education, we are the only school district in Oregon to complete the development of assessment protocols for all benchmarks under all three strands of the Oregon Standards. This demonstrates a strong commitment to move our program to a better place, and the likelihood that real change will occur. Our current PEP grant has enabled us to develop a solid format for staff development. The new project will expand staff development so capacity for a viable program and curriculum can be achieved and institutionalized. Over 90 hours of staff development will be offered on variety of standards-based activities to meet the needs and interests of all students along with equipment resources to fully implement these activities. The comprehensive plan of staff development opportunities will cover all three strands of the Oregon standards and all six program elements of the Carol M. White Physical Education Program. They will not only offer training in new activities but will provide training in effective teaching strategies and classroom management. The project will align all our programs with the state physical education standards, resulting in both better quality and more equitable programs, as well as horizontal and vertical articulation among instructional programs.

Through this project we will partner with the city of Eugene Recreation Division to provide a standards-based after school activity program. By combining city levy funds with project funds, we will be able to extend program staffing to all 4J middle schools. More importantly, the project will provide standards-based training for city recreation staff and facilitate a vital new partnership with benefits well beyond the life of this project as we continue a joint effort to help students achieve benchmark standards and form lifestyle habits which extend beyond the school day.
Critical components of this project include the comprehensive health-related fitness education programs Physical Best and Fitness For Life as well as the health-related fitness assessment package, Fitnessgram. These tools will prepare physical education staff to introduce a strong cognitive component to their programs to provide students with the skills and knowledge necessary to make positive lifestyle choices and become self-managers of their personal fitness.

2(b) Promising new strategies
Table 2 illustrates the relationship between the strategies previously employed by the Eugene physical education programs, progress made in the current project, the proposed strategies under the new project, and how the strategies will enhance the current program.

2(c) The importance or magnitude of the results or outcomes
Research clearly indicates the importance of ongoing staff development to teaching effectiveness and professionalism. This project will provide our staff with content-focused, active learning, and coherent staff development delivered by some of our profession’s best. Research shows that those three features of staff development have the strongest relationship to reported change in teaching practice (Garet, 2001). Research also points out that the teacher is the most critical factor in student learning. Meaningful and regular staff development is the key to improving programs and instruction. Staff development provided by this project will institutionalize real change to a comprehensive standards-based program providing students with skills, knowledge, and behaviors conducive to a healthy lifestyle now and in the future.

The standards-based after school program provided through a partnership with the City of Eugene, proposed in this project, offers students an opportunity to extend skills and knowledge into the world of recreation after school. This project facilitates voluntary application of healthy lifestyle behavior while also moving students closer to benchmark attainment on the Oregon standards.

While we have established a partnership with two golf courses this year, which has greatly benefited the school program, this project will facilitate the further development of partnerships with private providers of physical activity in our community. These partnerships will benefit our programs long after the project funding terminates. The likelihood of successful attainment of the physical education benchmark standards is strongly enhanced by the opportunity for students to engage in meaningful movement activities during out-of-school time.

The technology and cognitive-based curriculum provided through the project will enhance student achievement on benchmarks related to understanding, improving, and maintaining their personal fitness and well-being. The new equipment and supplies will allow schools to expand curriculum offerings and learning activities to include lifetime activities of high interest to students. The expansion of programs resulting from a coherent system of staff development, school-community partnerships, and the provision of high quality equipment will restore student enthusiasm for physical education and an active lifestyle. As the activity and fitness level of students improve, self-esteem, confidence, academic achievement and lifestyle choices, such as smoking and alcohol use, will be positively affected (PE 4 Life, 2002).

Project Rising Expectations: Institutionalizing Change is crucial to the continued revitalization of the physical education program of the Eugene School District and critical to changing the health and lifestyle choices of our students and, ultimately, our community.

QUALITY OF PROJECT DESIGN

The primary goal of Project Rising Expectations: Institutionalizing Change is to create significant systemic program change in physical education and activity programming to better enable students to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to become responsible lifetime consumers of activity and beneficiaries of personal wellness. The project will provide intensive and ongoing professional development designed to facilitate the delivery of quality health-enhancing physical education and after-school programs tied directly to all three strands of the Oregon Content and Student Performance Standards for Physical Education. Systematic and coherent staff development, combined with access to high quality equipment, supplies, and technology needed for standards-based instruction and learning will lead to implementation and institutionalization of this comprehensive new curriculum. The implementation of an assessment program will provide accurate and meaningful measurement and monitoring of student progress and provide the personal feedback necessary for continued learning and motivation. The assessment program will include benchmark assessment of the Oregon student performance standards for physical education, regular health-related fitness assessments utilizing Fitnessgram, and monitoring of student performance through the use of heart rate and pedometer technology embedded within the daily instructional program. Continued efforts at developing community connections and partnerships will provide a sense of relevance to the program and increase the likelihood of participation by students in activity outside of the school day.

The Rising Expectations: Institutionalizing Change Project has five goals targeting the areas of curriculum and instruction, after-school programming, staff development, community partnerships, and parent involvement. The goals, measurable objectives, and activities of the project along with research to support the goals are detailed below:

Goal 1: Physical education and after-school programs will increase opportunities for participation in standards-based lifetime and non-traditional activities designed to develop the knowledge and skills for a lifetime of activity while fostering student understanding and appreciation of physical activity and its role in maintaining a healthy lifestyle over the lifespan.
Objective 1: At least 75% of students will be introduced to a new activity that they enjoy and had not previously participated in.
Objective 2: The percentage of students participating in an average of 30 minutes of moderate physical activity will increase from 71% to 80%.
Objective 3: Physical education staff will pilot assessment protocols for The Expressive & Efficient Movement and Social Behavior & Self Management strands of the Oregon standards in year one (piloting of fitness strand protocols currently taking place); 75% of all students will meet benchmarks for the state student performance standards for physical education in the first full year of assessment (Year 2 of the project) with 80% meeting benchmarks in year 3 of the project.
Objective 4: We will create a health-related fitness profile of the school district in Year 1; the number of overweight 8th grade students will decrease from 33% to 28% by the end of Year 3.

Activities to meet Goal 1 objectives

This project will reinforce and institutionalize the new standards-based activities introduced in physical education classes during the 2003-2004 school year (Physical Best, Fitnessgram, Heart Rate monitors, Pedometers, In-line skating, Heart Adventure and Golf) while adding a variety of new standards-based lifetime activities of high interest to students and staff such as rock climbing and dance. By developing and advancing skills and knowledge in enjoyable new activities, student interest and participation will increase. Positive experience in the new activities will lead to more frequent participation in health-enhancing lifetime activity both in and out of school, which will lead to a reduction in the number of overweight students.

Students will be guided towards fitness independence allowing them to become self-managers of their personal fitness over time. Students will have learning experiences in fitness, wellness, and activity concepts integrated with movement through the research-based Physical Best program from the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Middle and high school students will receive coordinated instruction in activity, fitness, and wellness concepts through the internationally recognized Fitness For Life curriculum by Corbin and Lindsey. Using Fitnessgram and a variety of technology tools currently beginning to be introduced into programs, including pedometers, heart rate monitors and Pyramid Challenge software, students will master the skills enabling them to self-assess their personal fitness and monitor their fitness, activity, and nutritional goals.

Numerous changes and new activities are being introduced into the existing program this year as a part of our one-year PEP Project (Table 2). While this project institutes changes across the district, critical gaps remain. Table 3 illustrates the new activities to be integrated into the evolving program
.

Staff development and all necessary equipment will be provided for full implementation of all new activities. A detailed description of the activities in the table above and their importance and relationship to the standards is given in the discussion of the staff development goal.

Research to Support Goal 1:

The Surgeon General’s Report on physical activity and health (USDHHS, 1996) recommends 30 minutes of moderately vigorous activity most days of the week to maintain health and wellness (For references, see Appendix 1). The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) recommends up to 60 minutes of moderately vigorous activity per day for elementary students. Despite numerous recommendations and calls for activity, many schools do not require daily participation in physical education. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports enrollment in daily physical education has dropped from 42% in 1991 to 29% in 1999. CDC reports that almost half of young people aged 12-21 and more than a third of high school students do not participate in physical education regularly (1997). These findings are consistent with the research we have completed locally. We recognize that with time in physical education programs so limited, we must better prepare students to participate in activity outside of class and to become lifetime consumers of physical activity. The Surgeon General’s report of 1996 encourages physical education teachers to incorporate more meaningful physical activity into physical education. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2000) recommends that physical education implement “curricula and instruction that emphasize enjoyable participation in physical activity and help students develop the knowledge, attitudes, motor skills, behavioral skills, and confidence needed to adopt and maintain physically active lifestyles.” This recommendation for diversity within programs with emphasis on lifetime activity and fitness is echoed in numerous other publications, e.g., It’s Not Just Gym Anymore (McCracken, 2001). In its publications on appropriate practices, NASPE states that the ultimate goal of physical education is to guide students into being physically active for a lifetime by providing instruction in a variety of activities based on student needs and interests. Physical education teachers need to do business in a different way. As McCracken (2001) concludes, “[If we] continue to do what we have been doing for the last two decades, [we] will continue to get the same results: a further decline in physical activity, lower numbers in physical education, and a continued rise in health care cost.” Project Rising Expectations: Institutionalizing Change for Lifetime Fitness represents a strong commitment to do business in a different way within Eugene’s physical education programs.

Goal 2: Standards-based middle school after-school activity programs will be instituted to help strengthen students’ ability to meet the standards.

Objective 1: All 8 middle schools will initiate standards based after-school activity programs.
Objective 2: All 8 middle schools will initiate after school rock climbing programs.

Activities to meet Goal 2 objectives
In partnership with the City of Eugene, a four day per week after-school activity program will be instituted in all 8 middle schools during the first year of this project, providing activity and instruction which is coordinated with school physical education programs and directly linked to the state standards for physical education. Beginning in the second year,(after construction of the new climbing walls) a rock climbing gym program will be introduced to all eight middle schools, providing students with five hours of rock climbing instruction and climbing opportunity during after-school and weekend hours. This partnership with the City of Eugene in providing this after-school and rock climbing program, will also allow us to link students with short-term City Team Adventure experiences in kayaking, cross country skiing, canoeing, hiking, and low and high rope course initiatives offered district-wide next year on a sign-up basis. The city is contributing significant financial support to this component of the project. (See Appendix 3: Letter of Commitment.)

Research to Support Goal 2
Recognizing the problem of inactivity and declining physical education time and resources, the Oregon Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity (2003) calls for an increase in opportunities for youth to be engaged in daily physical activity outside of physical education class and for partnerships to facilitate this happening. Both national and local research (City of Eugene 2003) have recognized transportation, cost, availability of facilities, and safety among the barriers to participation in healthy recreational physical activity. This project removes those barriers while providing not only healthy recreational physical activity but further opportunities for students to develop the skills necessary to meet Oregon benchmark standards.

Goal 3: All physical education and after-school program staff will receive ongoing professional development in a wide range of health-related lifetime and non-traditional activities aimed at increasing student interest and enthusiasm for physical activity.

Objective 1: Physical education staff will be provided with follow-up workshops on Fitnessgram and heart rate monitors introduced during the 2003-2004 school year in order to move staff from awareness to institutionalization of those standards-based changes.
Objective 2: Physical education staff at all grade levels will receive training in the implementation of assessment protocols for the state physical education standards.
Objective 3: Physical education staff at all grade levels will receive in-depth training in dance instruction.
Objective 4: Physical education staff at all levels and after-school program staff will receive training in cooperative games and team building activities.
Objective 5: Physical education teachers at all grade levels will receive training in standards based activities addressing all three strands of the Oregon physical education standards provided by National Physical Education Teachers of the Year.
Objective 6: All physical education staff, as well as science and classroom staff responsible for health instruction, will receive training in nutrition education.
Objective 7: Middle school and high school physical education staff will receive training in the Fitness For Life Curriculum.
Objective 8: Elementary and middle school physical education staff will receive training in the Learning Obstacles circuit program.
Objective 9: Middle school and high school physical education and after-school program staff will receive in- depth training in rock climbing.
Objective 10: Elementary and middle school physical education staff and after-school program staff will receive staff training in a wide range of standards-based activities.
Objective 11: After-school program staff will receive training in the Oregon Content and Student Performance Standards for Physical Education.
Objective 12: After school program staff will receive training in liability and safety related to physical education and activity programs.
Objective 13. Physical Education staff and after school staff will integrate the new activities and positive teaching strategies into their evolving programs.

Activities to meet Goal 3 objectives

Two pieces of technology introduced into Eugene programs with the 2003-2004 grant will require follow-up staff training. Training on both the heart rate monitors and Fitnessgram software, while excellent, were not sufficient to institutionalize the full integration of their use in the physical education program. (Oregon Content Standards: Fitness for a Lifetime 1 and 2)

After completing pilot testing of the district assessment protocols for the Oregon standards, district-wide training will be needed on the implementation of the final testing instrument in order to better insure reliability of the assessment and the data collected on student achievement.

Dance is an all-inclusive lifetime skill activity and represents a huge gap in our programs. Full-day Dare to Dance workshops for elementary and secondary staff, will be provided by Christy Lane, one of America’s most well-known and respected dance educators. Local dance instructors will train staff in Hip Hop, a sure bet to excite our students. The biggest gap and discomfort level with dance is in our middle school programs. We will contract with Paul Bodin, a well-known local dance instructor, to work as a peer trainer with middle school staff. Mr. Bodin will spend 2 weeks in each middle school working along side staff to present swing, contra and mixers to all 6th graders.. He will supply each teacher with a syllabus and a copy of all music used and will review lessons before and debrief lessons after each class session with the physical education teacher. (Oregon Standards: Expressive and Efficient Movement 1)

Middle and high school physical education staff and after school program staff will receive extensive training on indoor rock climbing to facilitate a successful rock climbing program in both the physical education and after-school programs. Through this year’s grant, we were able to provide each elementary school with a low (bouldering) climbing wall, but lack climbing opportunities in grades 6-12. We currently have one successful model of top rope climbing operating in one middle school, a model developed by physical education staff, administration, risk management personnel, a commercial climbing gym, and the district insurer. This project would follow this model to add a 21’ high top rope wall to each of our middle schools. These walls would allow not only an instructional program in each middle school but also a zero period (7 a.m.) climbing class for each high school, and make possible climbing and climbing instruction for students and families during out of school time through the city parks and recreation program. The end result will be comprehensive K-12 articulated climbing program and a citywide program for students and families. (Oregon Standards: Expressive and Efficient Movement 1 and 3, Social Behavior and Self-Management 1)

While we now have some programs to teach social skills and manage behavior issues, we need to train physical education staff to integrate social skill and problem solving techniques into the physical education curriculum. In the current project we will introduce project adventure activities late this spring and through the proposed project will provide additional training in cooperative games and team building as well as rock climbing to reach this objective. (Oregon Standards: Social Behavior and Self-Management 1 and 2)

Physical education staff and after-school program staff will be trained in a variety of standards-based activities using two different formats. Former Oregon physical education teachers of the year will provide training in circus sports, cup stacking and elementary fitness activities. Grade-level specific workshops will be taught by teams of two elementary, middle school, and high school AAHPERD National and District Teachers of the Year. Activities will specifically address and be linked to each of the three strands of the Oregon standards. A series of 2 four-hour workshops on standards-based activities during each of the three years of this project will use a peer trainer model successfully employed in our 2003-2004 PEP Project. In these workshops, each teacher brings an activity to present to peers as if actually teaching a class. Each teacher receives a write-up of the activity with related specific benchmark references and sources for equipment and supplies. Teachers receive hands-on experience with all activities and a valuable resource guide for future reference. In year two of the project, we will send two-person elementary, middle, and high school teams to the AAHPERD National Convention to gather new ideas and strategies to be brought back and shared with others through the peer trainer workshops.

Middle and high school staff will be trained in Fitness for Life, a comprehensive fitness and health curriculum. Dr. Corbin, internationally recognized author of Fitness for Life, has expressed an interest in working with our staff. One section of the Fitness for Life curriculum focuses on nutrition, an important component of this project. This year’s project provided all elementary, middle and high school physical education staff with basic nutrition training on food choices and eating disorders. So that staff will take a more active role in nutrition education, we will provide advanced nutrition education for our physical education staff as well as science and classroom teachers who share responsibility for health instruction. Nutrition workshops on the Michigan Model will be provided to K-3, 4-5, and 6-8 staff. A comprehensive school health curriculum, the Michigan Model has been recognized by Drug Strategies, Inc. as one of the nation’s top substance abuse prevention programs. Staff will receive nutrition curriculum materials from this program to use with students. Another workshop will be provided for all staff on media influence on the rates of childhood obesity. (Oregon Standards: Fitness For A Lifetime 1 and 2)

After-school program staff will be provided workshops on the Oregon Content and Student Performance Standards for Physical Education and in liability and safety in physical education and activity programs. The standards workshop will enable the after-school staff to become true partners with the physical education staff in helping district students attain benchmark standards. The liability workshop will give them training in best practices to provide students with stronger learning experiences as well as safe participation.

Research to Support Goal 3

In Promoting Better Health among Youth through Physical Activity and Sport (2000), the Secretary of Health and Human Services identifies appropriately trained physical education teachers as the most essential ingredient of a quality physical education program. He calls upon school districts to intensify efforts to provide staff development for physical educators. In A Healthy Active Oregon: The Statewide Physical Activity Plan (2003), the Oregon Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity also calls upon school districts to provide on-going staff development for physical education teachers. In Guidelines for School and Community Programs to Promote Lifelong Physical Activity Among Young People (1997), the CDC identifies lack of proper training as a barrier to safe, organized, and effective physical education instruction. The need for ongoing staff development is strongly supported in NASPE’s publications on Appropriate Practices for Elementary (2000), Middle School (2001) and High School (1998) Physical Education.

The Surgeon General (1996) calls for quality staff development. This project will employ a broad range of quality staff development opportunities. Workshop presenters for dance, heart rate monitors, and liability and safety are all nationally recognized leaders in their fields. AAHPERD national and district teachers of the year will present grade-level specific workshops in standards-based activities. They represent the best practitioners in the school setting.

Goal 4: Project staff will develop new school/community partnerships to provide curriculum relevance and student connection to community-based activity opportunities.

Objective 1: Strengthen existing partnerships, develop new partnerships and use community resources to provide staff development to district physical education staff.
Objective 2: Foster community involvement in physical education instruction by partnering with at least one agency at each of the three levels – elementary, middle, and high school.

Activities to meet Goal 4 objectives
During the implementation of the current PEP project, we were able to successfully develop partnerships with two golf courses, a self-defense school, and an aerobic fitness facility. This project will continue to seek out community organizations and businesses as additional resources to develop, and support students as lifetime consumers of an active and healthy lifestyle. Establishing connections and forming partnerships with the community not only enhances but brings relevance to physical education, as students encounter resources within the community.

Through this project, we will continue to employ community partners to lend expertise in providing staff development for successful implementation of the new physical education program. Community resources, including the local climbing gym, dance studios, parks and recreation, and private instructors will prepare staff to implement the expanded curriculum. These community resources will also be used as guest instructors to introduce students to opportunities in the community for lifetime activity. These instructors will reinforce instruction provided by physical education staff and bring curriculum relevance to the everyday lives of students.

Research to Support Goal 4
The Oregon Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity reports that 30% of 8th grade students fail to meet the minimum recommendation of the Surgeon General and the CDC for physical activity. The Coalition notes that this increases to 50% by the 11th grade. According to the Coalition, less than 50% of 8th graders attend daily physical education class while the number drops to less than 20% by grade 11 (2003). Because school programs generally fail to provide the needed amount of activity within the school, it is critical to help students make the connections to enjoyable activities of interest to them and available in the community. It is estimated that over 80% of children’s physical activity occurs outside of physical education (Heath, Pratt, Warren and Kann, 1994). In its state activity plan, the Oregon Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity calls for increasing youth participation in physical activity outside of school (2003).

Goal 5: Project staff will increase parent opportunities to support their children’s participation in meaningful health-related lifetime activity.

Objective 1: To continue encouraging parents to be healthy role models and facilitators of health-related fitness within their families.

Activities to Achieve Goal 5 Objectives
This project will continue family fitness nights started this year at all schools. These family events will continue to encourage and support family participation in healthy physical activity while making them more aware of district physical education program goals and community opportunities for family participation in lifetime activity. Parents will be kept up to date on individual school physical education curriculum offerings and events and how they link to the Oregon standards through physical education news columns in school parent newsletters.

Research to Support Goal 5
Guidelines for School and Community Programs to Promote Lifelong Physical Activity Among Young People (2000) encourages parents to support their children’s participation in physical activity and be physically active role models. Health Is Academic (Marx, Wooley, and Northrop, 1998) points out the need to work with families and the community to develop awareness of the need for physical activity and encourages physical education teachers to form partnerships with families for the promotion of lifelong physical activity.

The Rising Expectations: Institutionalizing Change for Lifetime Fitness project recognizes the critical role of the family in developing students into lifetime consumers of physical activity and in making other healthy lifestyle choices. The project will make connections with home that will facilitate student achievement of the Oregon Student Performance Standards with the ultimate goal of giving students the skills, knowledge and attitudes to adopt a lifelong healthy lifestyle.QUALITY OF THE PROJECT EVALUATION

4 (a). Methods of evaluation and performance measures
The following tables outline the summative evaluation for each goal of the Rising Expectations project. Each table includes the objectives, measurement method, schedule of data collection and person responsible for data collection. The analysis of all data and preparation of evaluation reports will be the responsibility of the project director, Dr. James Hart of the Department of Instruction, and project evaluator, Dr. Dennis Urso, District Evaluation Specialist. The data and analysis will be shared with all district physical education staff, building administrators and instruction department administration. It will be used to further refine the district physical education program and to make recommendations for continued staff development, community involvement and parent involvement.

4 (b). Performance feedback and periodic assessment.
The plan of evaluation in the tables above is ongoing throughout the project. The evaluation schedule includes not only collection of quantitative data but also qualitative data through staff evaluations and surveys. This ongoing formative evaluation will allow activity modification when needed to meet or exceed goals. Changes in the format, timing and content of project activities will be based on feedback from staff, students and parents. The project Director will meet at least quarterly, with the Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and a Project Consultant to evaluate progress and make needed adjustments. The 2003-04 PEP Project Director (now retired), will be retained as a consultant to guarantee continuity between the current project and the proposed project. (See Appendix 4: Vitas)