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For more than a decade, students at elementary schools in the Rockwood School District had 30-minute physical education classes, five days a week.

The classes at Babler and Chesterfield elementary schools were so innovative and vigorous that in 2009 the National Association for Sport and Physical Education recognized them with STARS Awards. Only 30 other schools nationwide have received the recognition.

Then the Rockwood School Board cut physical education to four days a week last year, so students could take a music class on the fifth day.

"They said we are way over the federal minimum (for recommended physical education hours) so we have room to play with," said Eddie Mattison, facilitator of physical education for Rockwood.

Such cuts illustrate the balancing act these days between academics and PE, as schools struggle to raise test scores in the face of a growing obesity epidemic.

More than one-third of children and more than two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese. The number of adolescents with type 2 diabetes increased ten-fold between 1982 and 1994. And the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in three children born in 2000 will have the disease at some point, unless they start moving more and eating less.

Nationwide, schools have taken big strides in removing vending machines, or restocking them with healthier choices, and revamping lunches. Yet efforts to buff up physical activity during the school day haven't been as rigorous in most states, particularly when it comes to allocating time for it.

"The length of the school day is the same as it was 100 years ago when kids went home to work in the fields," said Paula Kun, communications director for the National Association for Sport and Physical Education. "But a lot of things have changed since then, yet no one wants to change the way things are done at school. They say it costs too much money."

Federal guidelines recommend that children get 60 minutes of exercise a day. They also suggest a minimum of 150 minutes of physical education a week in elementary schools and 220 minutes in middle and high schools. Recess should be additional. But most states don't require anywhere near that.

In Missouri:

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Schools get creative with PE while reducing hours

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Home » Exercise Programs » Schools get creative with PE while reducing hours