Family and Community Guide for High School Physical Education

Working Together: To support families, communities, and teachers in realizing the goals of the Colorado Academic Standards (CAS), this guide provides an overview of the learning expectations for students studying high school physical education. This guide offers some learning experiences students may engage in at school that may also be supported at home.

Why Standards? Created by Coloradans for Colorado students, the Colorado Academic Standards provide a grade-by-grade road map to help ensure students are successful in college, careers, and life. The standards aim to improve what students learn and how they learn in 12 content areas while emphasizing critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, collaboration, and communication as essential skills for life in the 21st century.

See all the Family and Community Guides here.

Physical Education (adopted 2018)

Physical education standards in Grades 6-12 focus on enhancing health-related components of fitness and skill-related components of fitness and personal activity. In each grade, the standards ask students to refine various movement concepts, assess personal behaviors, connect fitness development to body systems, and utilize safety procedures during physical activities. Additionally, in the high school years, students are asked to develop personal fitness plans to reflect on the benefits of committing to life-long health and wellness practices.

Expectations for High School Students:

• Movement Competence and Understanding: Participate at a competent level in a variety of lifelong physical activities; analyze the cognitive impact of movement; apply rules, principles, problem-solving skills, and concepts to traditional and nontraditional movement settings.
• Physical and Personal Wellness: Establish goals based on fitness assessment data, and develop, implement, achieve, and monitor an individual health and fitness plan; access community resources and participate in health-enhancing physical activities to maintain lifelong fitness.
• Social and Emotional Wellness: Demonstrate respect for individual differences in physical activity settings; collaborate, cooperate, and apply leadership skills to encourage responsible behavior in a group setting.
• Prevention and Risk Management: Assess the risks and safety factors involved in participation in physical activity; demonstrate knowledge of safety and emergency response procedures.

Throughout High School, You May Find Students:

• Applying advanced offensive, defensive, coaching, officiating, and transition strategies in sports and games.
• Evaluating psychological responses to physical activity and applying cognitive information to understand and enhance motor skill acquisition and performance.
• Creating and modifying practice and training plans based on evaluative feedback of skill acquisition and performance in a variety of lifelong activities.
• Examining fitness assessment data and developing a plan showing personal improvement toward fitness goals, including the monitoring of personal levels of fitness within each of the five health-related fitness components; accessing physical activity opportunities in the school and community.
• Utilizing safety concepts in a school or community fitness facility by inspecting and reporting unsafe equipment, as well as effectively spotting lifts and safely executing a variety of exercises.
• Analyzing principles from biomechanics (motion, resistance) and exercise physiology necessary for the safe performance of physical activities.