Preliminary findings from the evaluation of Project ESCAPE 25-Alive

This study was conducted as part of the evaluation process of a federally funded physical activity initiative undertaken by a large urban school district. The purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to provide evidence of effectiveness of Project ESCAPE 25- Alive, an innovative physical activity promotion initiative; and (2) to examine the relationships among a number of factors related to observed changes in the health promoting physical activity levels of high school students. The sample for the evaluation process consisted of 26 high school physical education teachers and their respective students enrolled in physical education class. Each teacher was observed three times while teaching physical education. Observations resulted in objective measures of the level and duration of physical activity in the classroom. Each teacher also was asked to complete a survey designed to measure his or her intent to adopt the Project ESCAPE 25-Alive program into their class curriculum. Finally, teachers were asked to complete a survey designed to measure self-efficacy related to teaching physical education. The data from the class observations suggested that initially, physical education teachers conducted what could only be called sedentary class activities. However, activity levels did appear to improve over time. When the correlation between the levels of program adoption, teacher self-efficacy, and observed physical activity level were examined, only one significant association was found. The one positive significant correlation that was found was between the teacher adoption scores and the class observation scores obtained during the second observation. While there were almost no significant correlations in this study, the study had merit. Over time the observed health promoting physical activity in physical education classes increased. This suggested that Project ESCAPE 25-Alive positively impacted the way physical education classes were run in the school district. With continued observation and training of teachers, the levels of health promoting physical activity were expected to continue to rise.