One reason more P.E. has not led to weight loss might be that traditional PE classes do not always offer students a real workout, particularly in high school. Students don’t like having to change into gym clothes and get sweaty in the middle of the day. So P.E. teachers may end up grading students in part based on whether they change into their P.E. clothes. The 25th Hour PE class at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia is different.

In February, Michelle Obama launched her “Let’s Move” initiative, which aims to fight childhood obesity by, among other things, increasing physical education. And this spring, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill called the FIT Kids Act that aims to enlist schools in the war against obesity by requiring districts to report what is taking place in P.E. classes.

Are traditional P.E. classes likely to be an effective tool in fighting obesity? In a 2006 article for Education Next, “Not Your Father’s PE,” economists John Cawley, Chad Meyerhoefer, and David Newhouse investigated the likely impact of mandating more time in P.E. class. They found that “relatively little research has systematically examined how much PE (as it is currently constituted) contributes to weight loss or lowers the risk of obesity, and what little research there is finds no association between PE and weight loss and obesity.”

raed on… http://educationnext.org/holding-students-accountable-for-changing-into-their-gym-clothes/