The variety of best practices being designed and implemented in physical education programs in Middle and High School stem from trends in American society with respect to physical education and adolescent health. The two biggest trends are the lack of adequate physical education in middle and high school and the increasing rate of obesity among adolescents. The decrease in physical education requirements in middle and high schools has created a lack of physical education in public schools. Tight budgets, a focus on technology and academics, and negative perceptions of the value of physical education have led to the decline. One in five children are now obese, a figure that represents double the number compared to three decades ago and is directly related to the decline of physical education requirements in middle and high schools, ôThe capricious attitude exemplified by physical education curriculums...has produced a generation of unmotivated, overweight, inactive, technological couch potatoesö (Langford and Carter, 2003, 28).
In order to combat the lack of physical education in middle and high schools and the near epidemic proportions of obesity among adolescents, physical education best practices are typically aimed at these goals in contemporary programs. One of these practices involves a change in the delivery and curriculum of physical education in middle and high schools. Typically instruction remained similar from middle to high school years with the focus on physical education curriculum related primarily to skill development. These programs excluded a focus on body composition, cardiorespiratory endurance, musculoskeletal fitness and other health-related aspects of fitness. Speed, agility and muscular strength were highlighted to the detriment of these skills, ranging in an often routine curriculum from middle through high school in physical education programs. As Langford (et al., 2003) maintains:
Physical...