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Principals’ Physical Education Perception in

New York City Public School

Howard Z. ZengBrooklyn College of the

City University of New York

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INTRDUCTION

Researchers in school effectiveness reform studies (Graham, Holt/Hale & Parker, 2009; Grocholewicz,

2007) have identified principals in all school levels are the most influential figures to make decisions on how their schools program would be reformed and operated.

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Cont. Like other disciplines, physical

education (PE) programs in urban schools are also under the administration of principals.

For over two decades, researchers have realized and emphasized that PE plays a vital role in our education system (Sallis, & McKenzie, 1991; Sallis, McKenzie, & Alcaraz, 1993; U.S.

DHHS, 2004; Zoeller, 2007)

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Cont.Participation in regular physical activity (PA) effectively reduces the risk of premature mortality, coronary heart disease, hypertension, colon cancer, and diabetes (Coakley, 2004; Warburton, Nicol, & Bredin, 2006; Zoeller, 2007).

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Cont. PE plays such important role in our

society as health costs are at all time high and people are living longer.

Studies showed that lack of PA among people of all ages is extremely serious and regarded as a major health risk issue -- (Blair, & Church, 2004; Johnson, 2008; U.S. DHHS, 2004; Zoeller, 2007).

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Purposes The purposes of this study

were to obtain insights into principals’ physical education (PE) perception and provide meaningful feedback for reforming their PE programs in their school districts.

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Methods Participants were 46

principals (23 from elementary school; and 23 from secondary school) from public schools in New York City.

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Cont.

Principal’s perception of PE Questionnaire (PPPEQ, Zeng, 2008), consists of sixteen statements, concerning ‘Features of PE’, ‘Function of PE’, ‘Challenges School PE Facing’, etc., was employed.

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Cont. For each statement,

participant can choose ‘Agree’ (score 3),

‘Disagree’ (score 1), or

‘No comment’ (score 2). Data analyzing methods

included descriptive statistics and correlation.

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Results/Analysis

Results showed: the top five statements that strongly structured the principals’ PE perception were Item 2, 1, 6, and 16.

Cont. E.g., Item 2, “We can activate and

foster the physical activity skills children need through our school PE programs”, M = 2.978. Item 11, “Once PE and daily physical activities are valued and supported, children will gradually form their active and healthy lifestyle”, M = 2.935.

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The correlation analysis found: there were ten correlations showed significant; e.g., “PE is an academic discipline and just as important as English, Math and Sciences to our students.” (continued on next slight)

Cont.

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“Without PE in our school curricula, our students will not be fully developed.” Versus “Time allocation” r =.322, p = .05 reflected the principals clearly recognized that “in order for their students receiving the ‘whole person education’, PE must be included in school curricula and mandated PE hours was necessary”.

Conclusion The top five statements (Item 2, 11, 1,

6 and 16) in the PPPEQ structured the principals’ PE perception.

The correlation coefficients among the principals’ PE perception show that some correlations are stronger than the others.

More information regarding the PE perception of the principals can be found in the Appendix A.

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About the Appendix A

Questions ?

Comments?

Thanks for your time and interested in this topic!!

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