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 Evidence of EPEC's Effectiveness — Detailed Evidence
See Also:
Evidence of Effectiveness — Introduction
EPEC Overview
Complete List of Research Citations
 EPEC was developed based on the components of a quality physical education program model and the national content standards for PE. A high-quality PE program consists of four crucial components as described in The Physical Education Curriculum Analysis Tool (PECAT): curriculum, instruction, policy and environment, and assessment (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006).
The more complete a PE program is, the greater its effectiveness and therefore quality, meaning that strong emphasis must be placed on each area (DeJong et al., 2002). EPEC is cited as a quality physical education program in a special obesity epidemic issue of the publication of the National Association of State Boards of Education (Wechsler et al., 2004) and was highlighted as a success story for implementing CDC physical activity promotion guidelines (Kuntzleman and Vogel, 1998).
The CDC has also identified EPEC as an innovative curriculum with solid scientific grounding that equips students to be active for life (USDHHS, 2001). Unlike other curricula, EPEC is intended to shift the emphasis of PE away from merely keeping children busy, happy, and good, toward standards-based education based on the national content standards for PE set forth by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE). EPEC teaches toward specific, highly valued objectives in a systematic way to create lasting change.
In 2002, the CDC recognized EPEC as a successful public health and educational initiative with the Award for Excellence in Prevention Research and Research Translation in Chronic Disease. The CDC also selected EPEC as one of two chronic disease prevention programs nationally to evaluate for two years.
Ultimately, education must be about student gains, and the implementation of EPEC has yielded impressive results in students across a variety of PE outcomes. Multiple studies show EPEC's effectiveness at increasing health-related outcomes. In comparing EPEC vs. non-EPEC programs, students taught with EPEC had significantly higher fitness scores (Kulinna et al., 2000). Using a hierarchical linear modeling technique, researchers found that EPEC-taught students showed gains in health-oriented outcomes, specifically physical fitness, motor skill development, and personal/social behaviors (Kulinna et al., 2006b).
In a PEP grant study that used pedometers and web-based software to monitor physical activity and fitness, scores related to both of these measures increased. The results far exceeded projections with students' cardiorespiratory endurance scores increasing by 41% and their physical activity levels (in and out of school) increasing by 25% (McCaughtry, 2005).
In the CDC-funded study, EPEC students, as compared to students receiving standard P.E., reported significantly greater total minutes of physical activity and energy expenditure during activity (Boyle-Holmes et al., 2009). This increased physical activity and energy expenditure is noteworthy in that it was measured across an entire day, suggesting EPEC students are more likely to be active on their own, beyond the walls of the physical education class. This is most likely due to the important student outcomes related to other P.E. content standards described next.
The goal of EPEC is not simply to increase physical activity and fitness, but also to teach all the important content in physical education. For a program to positively influence students not only in the present, but also throughout life, it must equip them with the motor skills, knowledge, and personal/social skills needed to be physically active beyond the classroom. The CDC-funded study, ". . . provides evidence that [EPEC] can improve motor skill-specific efficacy and proficiency without the loss of fitness levels compared to standard PE curricula requiring similar amounts of class time" (Boyle-Holmes et al., 2009). The fact that EPEC was effective at improving motor skill performance and self-reported motor skill-specific self efficacy, supports the hypothesis that motor skill competence and confidence are important influences in promoting increased physical activity amounts and intensities (Russell et al., 2006; Boyle-Holmes et al., 2009).
EPEC has also been shown to increase knowledge and personal/social behaviors. In the mostly minority population involved in the Detroit PEP grant study, students' knowledge of fitness and physical activity increased and personal/social behaviors increased among EPEC-taught students (Kulinna, 2005; Martin, 2005; Kulinna, 2010).
Although student gains are the ultimate goal of any education initiative, teacher implementation of the curriculum that brings about those gains drives everything else. The EPEC professional development training had significant value in increasing teachers' self-efficacy toward educational change, specifically for teaching components of the EPEC curriculum: motor skills, physical activity and fitness knowledge, and personal/social skills (Martin et al., 2004; Martin et al., 2006; Martin et al., 2008). This most likely resulted in not only increased intention to teach EPEC, but also to actually teach EPEC, thus delivering more NASPE-defined content during PE class (Kulinna et al., 2006a; Kulinna et al., 2008). Seeing student gains is clearly a key motivation for teachers to more fully implement a standards-based curriculum. For example, in a study involving 123 teachers from 53 districts throughout Michigan, 98% of teachers indicated increased eagerness to incorporate EPEC into their teaching after seeing dramatic student improvement-demonstrated by assessment-after only 15 minutes of EPEC instruction (DeJong and Albrecht, 1998). They overwhelming rated EPEC lessons as clear, easy to teach, and developmentally appropriate.
 In another study of a PEP-grant-funded district, using inductive analysis and triangulation, teachers perceived ". . . the physical education and equipment and instructional posters allowed them to better fulfill their mission of teaching students to be physically active and healthy" and therefore able to conduct high-quality programming (McCaughtry et al., 2006a). Specifically, the EPEC detailed posters ". . . illustrated all major phases of the movements they taught" and ". . . enhanced their ability to provide developmentally appropriate instruction." They also ". . . believed the instructional posters that illustrated both boys and girls in action-oriented situations motivated their female students to be more physically active" and ". . . that having their students see African-American females depicted in physical activity motivated these girls to try new activities."
Another comprehensive study of urban curriculum reform on the emotional dimensions of teacher change provides insights into the implementation of EPEC (McCaughtry et al., 2006b). EPEC was attractive to teachers for its potential to get students to be more active and healthy, even if it meant wholesale changes in their approaches. They thought EPEC's comprehensive scope and sequence, when implemented across a large district, helps transient students make seamless transitions to new schools. While initially unsettled about teaching something new, their comfort levels dramatically increased when they observed students actually learning and not just playing. "I came back [from the EPEC workshop] and taught the kids about compassion and they had all sorts of things to say like ‘I show compassion to my brother when I share my ball.' They're still talking about that lesson."
Teachers also reported that EPEC elevated teacher credibility to be on par with other subjects like math and reading (McCaughtry et al., 2006b). It gave them a curricular roadmap that brought legitimacy to their programs. "For these teachers, a new and burgeoning sense of professionalism emerged as they learned and implemented EPEC. They saw it as something to be proud of alongside other professional subjects like math and science. This feeling of pride, in turn, meant a great deal to them in terms of how they felt about their role in curriculum change."
In summary, EPEC is an evidence-based, award-winning curriculum that not only increases physical activity and fitness, but also enhances outcomes students need to be active for life, including motor skills, self-efficacy, fitness and activity-related knowledge, and personal/social behaviors. EPEC is a true standards-based curriculum with sound instruction and assessment, that teachers report is developmentally appropriate and enhances their role as a professional educator.
See Also:
Evidence of Effectiveness — Introduction
EPEC Overview
Complete List of Research Citations
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