SHAPE America has just released their brand new National Physical Education Standards. We are excited to announce that SPARK has updated all of the K-12 curriculum to reflect these new standards. So what is important to know about the national standards, what are the updates and how can you access the SPARK lesson with the new standards?
National Physical Education Standards Evolution & Changes
National standards for physical education were first developed in 1995 (and revised in 2004) by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) — which was part of the alliance of associations now known as SHAPE America. These national standards have evolved over the last 11 years, from the 2013 SHAPE America iteration to the most current version — the 2024 SHAPE America National Physical Education Standards.
National Physical Education Standards Why are they important?
SHAPE America’s National Physical Education Standards serve as an important framework to ensure consistency and quality in physical education programs. This framework (as with national standards of other content areas) is used by teachers, administrators, and policy makers in designing or selecting curricula, allocating instructional resources, and assessing student achievement and progress.
Standards are designed to be accessible to all students, regardless of their ability, age, class, gender, or race. They are written based on the idea that everyone can acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to be confident movers in physical activities that are enjoyable, meaningful, and/or relevant to the individual, thus supporting their physical literacy journey.
4 Notable Changes in the New National PE Standards
During the multi-year revision process, the National Physical Education Standards Task Force reviewed current research, investigated physical education standards from other countries, and gathered feedback from the field through several rounds of public review and comment. This collective process resulted in these four notable changes in the new standards:
- A more student-centered approach to the standards
- The expansion of the term physical literacy to physical literacy journey.
- The shift from grade-level outcomes to grade-span learning indicators, which include learning progressions.
- The change from five to four standards.
National Physical Education Standards FRAMEWORK
SHAPE America’s National Physical Education Standards serve as an important framework to ensure consistency and quality in physical education programs. The visual below shows the relationship between the National Physical Education Standards, the grade-span learning indicators, and learning progressions.
- The National Physical Education Standards serve as overarching goals for physical education curricula.
- Grade-span learning indicators articulate content areas and show more specific goals that lead toward progress of the standards.
- Learning progressions provide sample sequential tasks addressing a range of skill abilities from pre-K through high school that can be used to unpack the grade-span learning indicators.
SHAPE America’s National Physical Education Standards define what a student should know and be able to do as result of a highly effective physical education program. The standards serve as an important framework to address the holistic development of students and ensure consistency and quality in physical education programs nationwide. States and local school districts across the country use the National Physical Education Standards to develop or revise existing standards, frameworks and curricula.
The New Standards
-
- Standard 1: Develops a variety of motor skills.
- Standard 2: Applies knowledge related to movement and fitness concepts.
- Standard 3: Develops social skills through movement.
- Standard 4: Develops personal skills, identifies personal benefits of movement, and chooses to engage in physical activity.
Information provided by SHAPE America. To learn more about the new standards visit shapeamerica.org/standards/pe.
SPARK Alignment with National Standards
All of the SPARK K-12 lesson plans have been updated on our digital platform, SPARKfamily.org. Our updated printed manuals will be on sale soon. We also have created a standards alignment document to show the standards addressed for each lesson in the SPARK curriculum. For more information contact is at spark@sparkpe.org or 1-833-737-7275.
