School-Based Team Research to Address Grand Challenges Through P-12 Physical Education Programs

One of the grand challenges of our time is to educate children and youth to live physically active and healthy lives today and into adulthood. To do so, we must first agree that the highest mission priority for physical education programs in schools is that of public health promotion through physical activity. Under that mission, school physical education programs from preschool to Grade 12 (P-12) would be designed, implemented, resourced, and evaluated to help children meet the recommended 60 min of daily physical activity. From there, the worth of those programs would be judged on their success in accomplishing that mission. This article outlines an agenda for conducting longitudinal, cross-disciplinary team research on exemplary physical education programs that have demonstrated the capacity to help more children achieve the recommended daily level for physical activity. Once those exemplars have been studied and documented, the final step in this agenda is for researchers to disseminate their findings beyond the traditional audiences who read scholarly journals. Those new audiences would include school leaders, parents, other physical activity professionals and organizations, and, ultimately, policymakers. The article ends with a description of a 2-year research project that achieved many of the goals aligned with comprehensive school physical activity programs and that would promote SHAPE America - The Society of Health and Physical Educators' 50 Million Strong by 2029 initiative.