The IMPACT of Physical Education: Increasing Physical Activity in San Diego

Summary

The County of San Diego’s CalFresh Healthy Living program, which is the SNAP-Ed program in California, partnered with the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) to implement the “Increasing Movement through Physical Activity during Class Time” (IMPACT) program in 60 schools. IMPACT is a 20-minute, station-based program designed to increase daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity for students by keeping students moving throughout the school day. Activities can be taught by the physical education teacher but are also easily implemented by classroom teachers. This increases teachers’ effective delivery of a standards-based physical education curriculum.

Challenges

Improving physical education and activity in schools is vital to the health and well-being of students. Only about 25 percent of children get the recommended 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily. In SDUSD, an average of 35 percent of fifth, seventh, and ninth graders were considered overweight or obese based on the Body Mass Index component of the California Physical Fitness Test (PFT) in 2019. In that same year, nearly 30 percent of ninth graders did not pass five out of six components of the PFT.

a line of children getting exercise outside

Adding to this, the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year was among the most challenging. More than half the students in SDUSD returned to an in-person format after an extended absence from in-person school due to the COVID-19 pandemic and public health emergency. With students returning to in-person instruction, schools needed to socially integrate students back into classrooms while providing quality, daily physical education that met the California education code requirements.

Solutions

CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL) and district staff co-designed the project to include a plan for implementation and sustainability. A group of eight physical education leaders were enlisted to provide technical assistance and support to other physical education and classroom teachers to implement the IMPACT curriculum. The IMPACT program provided organizational structure to ensure schools were meeting the recommended physical education components. Since 2020, and with the support of the CalFresh Healthy Living program, implementation of IMPACT increased from 24 to over 60 schools in SDUSD. The number of students benefiting from IMPACT increased from 12,000 to over 31,000 over the past 4 years.

Sustaining Success

IMPACT equipment, curriculum, training, and support were provided to create a sustainable program to improve student health and fitness. As a result, district physical education leaders have increased their ability to deliver technical assistance and built the capacity of school site staff to deliver quality, standards-based physical education instruction.