A-F School Grading:  Adding Physical & Health Education

Following State Board of Education approval in May 2017, Arizona will now be one of the first states to add physical, health & arts education indicators to the state A-F school grading accountability formula, by which each public school is graded A, B, C, D or F. 

As confirmed by numerous school leaders, this creates strong “good” incentives for public schools to allocate adequate time & resources to effective physical & health education—reversing a 25+ year decline.

The A-F Workgroup for physical & health education is preparing a proposal for the State Board, on which indicators to use, and how to prepare to implement them statewide. 

We are working as part of the A-F Workgroup with Arizona Health & Physical Education and other education and health leaders, plus parent and community groups, to develop valid, reliable assessments for calculating PE & health/nutrition ed points. 

Our A-F Workgroup is planning to pilot fitness, physical activity, nutrition and other assessments in 2018-19, for statewide implementation in the future, once final State Board of Education approval has been given at each stage.

A mountain of research evidence proves what we know from our own common sense and experiences—active kids do better in school and in life:

(Please see our latest slide deck for more details, as well as this list of research evidence references.)