Style D 36 by 48

1
Job Responsibilities of Adapted Physical
Educators in the United States Iva Obrusnikova1,
Luke E. Kelly2, Timothy Davis3 1University of
Delaware, Newark 2University of Virginia,
Charlottesville 3SUNY Cortland, Cortland, NY
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Education
The number of children with disabilities
receiving special education and related services
has steadily grown since the passage of the
Education for All Handicapped Children Act in
1975 (EHA), currently known as the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of
2004 (IDEIA 2004). These mandates recognize
that, to the extent possible, all children with
disabilities are entitled to a free appropriate
public education that emphasizes special
education and related services 20 U.S.C.
1400(d)(1)(A). IDEIA requires that all students
with disabilities have available to them a free
appropriate public education that emphasizes
special education and related services, specially
designed if necessary, and that these services be
provided by highly qualified personnel. IDEIA
defined physical education as a direct service.
This in turn required that all students with
disabilities had a right to physical
education. While IDEIA outlined some criteria to
ensure quality, the mandates largely depended
upon state certification requirements and local
school agencies to implement the intent of the
law. Most states, however, failed to define who
was qualified to provide adapted physical
education (APE) services. Initial research
evidence (Kelly, 1995 Kelly Gansneder, 1998)
suggests that practicing APE teachers were
experienced and well educated. On average, they
served 4.4 schools and 103.8 students each week.
The teachers reported providing direct services
to 67.7 (n 70.3) and indirect services to
32.3 (n 33.5) of the students on their
caseload. The findings showed that the teachers
were contracted to work 36.1 hours per week.
Within their typical work week, the teachers
spent 52 of their time providing direct
services, 26 of their time providing indirect
services, 38 of their time performing outside
responsibilities, and 15 of their time traveling
between schools. Obrusnikova Kelly (under
review) also found that the CAPEs in their study
were experienced and well educated (all possessed
a bachelor degrees, 83 a masters degree, and 3
a doctoral degree). They typically worked 41.2
hours per week, carried a mean caseload of 51
students, and allocated 52.3 of their time to
direct and 13.8 of their time to indirect
instruction. The purpose of the study was to
provide further evidence of the job
responsibilities of certified physical educators
(CAPEs) in the United States.

• The results showed that CAPEs who were currently
  providing physical education services to students
  with disabilities had a high degree of education
  and possessed substantial teaching experience.
  More specifically, an average CAPE responding to
  this survey had a bachelors degree (100) with a
  major in physical education (91), a masters
  degree (77) with a major in APE (38), and
  approximately 14 years of full-time paid
  experience providing preschool-12th grade APE
  services.
• The study revealed that the CAPEs spent twice as
  much time providing direct APE services than
  indirect APE services (see Figure 1).
• Figure 3 shows that CAPEs in this study provided
  substantially less amount of direct APE services
  and slightly more indirect APE services per a
  week compared to CAPEs in the earlier study by
  Obrusnikova and Kelly (2006).
• APE teachers continue to spend a substantial
  portion of their time performing non-APE or
  outside-work responsibilities.

• The final sample consisted of 130 CAPEs, 94
  females and 36 males, from 32 states in USA.
• The mean age of the sample (n 130) was 43.0
  (SD 10.15, range 23-61) years.
• Only CAPEs who reported currently providing
  physical education services to preschool-12th
  grade students with disabilities were included in
  the sample.
• The survey sample completed a web-based survey,
  which was adapted from Obrusnikova and Kelly
  (under review). The survey consisted of 16
  items.
• Content validity of the instrument was
  established by a panel of six experts in adapted
  physical education. The Content Validity Index
  (CVI Lynn, 1986) for the survey reached 100.
  Test-retest reliability of the items was assessed
  on a sample of 68 CAPEs, and the coefficients
  ranged between .78 and 1.0, with a mean of .85.

Table 1. CAPEs Degrees and Major Areas of Study
Job Responsibilities

• When asked to indicate their current full-time
  paid position
• 91 of the CAPEs reported providing preschool to
  12th grade APE services
• 27 of the CAPEs reported teaching preschool to
  12th grade physical education
• 20 of the CAPEs reported both providing APE
  services and teaching physical education
• 9 of the CAPEs reported providing other services
  (e.g., coaching, teaching health, physical
  therapy)
• All CAPEs reported serving multiple educational
  levels, with 3 serving infants, 42 serving at
  the preschool level, 42 at the elementary school
  level, 62 at the middle/junior high school
  level, and 62 at the secondary/high school
  level.
• An average CAPE was contracted to work 55.8 hours
  per a week, but typically worked 54.7 hours per a
  week.
• Figure 1 shows the percentage of hours the CAPEs
  were contracted to spend each week in selected
  tasks.

Results
Teaching Experience

• The sample had a mean of 13.4 (SD 8.97, range
  1-32) years of full-time paid experience
  providing preschool-12th grade APE services.
• The sample had a mean of 8.6 (SD 7.03, range
  1-31) years of full-time paid experience teaching
  preschool-12th grade physical education.

Education

• A summary of the CAPEs degrees and major areas
  of study is provided in Table 1.
• Among the other major areas of study were
• Bachelors
• Recreation Administration, Health, Elementary
  Education, Occupational Therapy, Business
  Administration, Speech and Language Pathology.
• Masters
• Physical Therapy, Curriculum and Instruction,
  Adventure Education, Health, Athletic Training,
  Elementary Education, Sport Psychology, Creative
  Arts, Education/Counseling.

Figure 3. Comparison of the amounts of time
allocated for selected tasks in 2006 and 2008.
References
Kelly, L. E. (1995). Adapted physical education
standards. Washington, DC Office of Special
Education and Rehabilitative Services. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED
383151). Kelly, L. E., Gansneder, B. (1998).
Preparation and job demographics of adapted
physical educators in the United States. Adapted
Physical Activity Quarterly, 15,
141-154. Obrusnikova I., Kelly, L. E. (under
review). Caseloads and job demographics of
adapted physical educators in the United States.
Figure 1. Percentage breakdown of CAPEs job
responsibilities.
NCPERID Summer 2008 National Conference