Physical Best and FitnessGram Use among United States PETE Programs

The Physical Best (PB) curriculum was launched in 1987 with a mission of fostering a healthier youth by providing quality resources and professional development for educators. The purpose of this study was to find out how many Physical Education Teacher Education programs are using the PB curriculum, as well as how many are using Fitnessgram fitness testing and the reasons for their decisions. The results of the data gathered from this study show that 53% (N=52) of the programs surveyed do use the program, representing just over half of those who responded (N=97). With the PB curriculum being the only health-related fitness curriculum created by the National Association of Sport and Physical Education and the fact it can be infused into a preexisting curriculum, the researchers were surprised to not find more use of the curriculum in PETE programs. Specific reasons given for not using the curriculum pertained more to the complexity of their program circumstances and less about the actual quality of the curriculum.