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Educating the Student Body
The prevalence and health impacts of physical inactivity, together with 
evidence indicating its susceptibility to change, have resulted in calls for 
action aimed at increasing physical activity across the life span. Clearly, 
the earlier in life this important health behavior can be ingrained, the 
greater the impact will be on lifelong health. The question becomes, then, 
how physical activity among children and adolescents can be increased 
feasibly, effectively, and sustainably to improve their health, both acutely 
and throughout life. A recent report of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), 
Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention: Solving the Weight of the 
Nation, singles out schools as “a focal point for obesity prevention among 
children and adolescents,” stating: “Children spend up to half their waking 
hours in school. In an increasingly sedentary world, schools therefore pro-
vide the best opportunity for a population-based approach for increasing 
physical activity among the nation’s youth.”
STUDY APPROACH
In this context, the IOM’s Committee on Physical Activity and Physical 
Education in the School Environment was formed to review the current 
status of physical activity and physical education in the school environment 
(including before, during, and after school) and to examine the influences 
of physical activity and physical education on the short- and long-term 
physical, cognitive and brain, and psychosocial health and development of 
children and adolescents. The committee’s statement of task is provided in 
Box S-1. 
The committee recognized that, although schools are a necessary part 
of any solution to the problem of inadequate physical activity among the 
nation’s youth, schools alone cannot implement the vast changes across sys-
tems required to achieve a healthy and educated future generation. Many 
more institutional players and supports will be necessary to make and 
sustain these changes. In approaching this study, therefore, the committee 
employed systems thinking to delineate the elements of the overall system 
of policies and regulations at multiple levels that influence physical activity 
and physical education in the school environment.