Describe how the policy cycle might work for Texas House Bill 214 (HB 214).

Policy Cycle Assignment
Professor Hernandez
Due Date: Wednesday, April 1st (This is not an April Fool’s Joke) at the start of class to:
1.    Hard copy: in-class
AND
2.    Electronic copy: Turnitin.com via BB
Points:  100 points towards your final grade

Assignment: Describe how the policy cycle might work for Texas House Bill 214 (HB 214).
Note: This is not a real house bill, but it is based on a similar house bill that was put before by Representative Carol Alvarado a couple of years ago.

Bill Number    HB 214
Author    Carol Alvarado, (D)
Summary    Currently, high school students in Texas are required to fulfill one credit hour (i.e. a total of 1 year) of physical education towards their high school degree. HB 214 is proposing to add one additional credit hour to the high school curricula.
Impact    The bill encourages physical activity among high school students.
How it will work    If passed, students would be required to take a total of 2 years of physical education.

Below are the 6 steps in the policy cycle. You must answer the questions that correspond to each step using the provided template at the end of the assignment. In each step, you may include more information than solely the answers to these questions in order to provide a richer description of the policy cycle in relation to HB 214. However, you need to make sure that your response is concise, on topic, and fits within the 2-page single space template.

1. Problem definition and agenda setting. (20 points total). Please address:
•    How many students in the state of Texas does this affect? (A citation and reference for the number of students is required. Please see BB) (2 points)
•    Related, what percentage of high school students in the state of Texas did not meet physical activity requirements in 2013? (i.e. Percentage of students that were not physically active at least 60 minutes per day on all 7 days in 2013) (A citation and reference is required. Please see BB) (2 points).
•    What health-related evidence points to the need for incorporating more physical education into the curriculum? In your answer please include the following:
o    Cite and provide a reference regarding the childhood obesity rates in Texas. (Please see Blackboard). (2 points)
o    Cite and provide a reference using an empirical article regarding the association between childhood obesity and adult obesity. (2 points)
o    Cite and provide a reference using an empirical article regarding the association between obesity and obesity-related comorbidities either in adulthood or childhood. (2 points)
o    Cite and provide a reference using two empirical articles that support the association between physical activity and a reduction or maintenance in weight and other health benefits. (5 points)
•    What academic-related evidence points to the need for incorporating more physical education into the curriculum? In your answer please include the following:
o    Cite and provide a reference using an empirical article that supports the link between physical activity/physical education/exercise with better grades/concentration in school-aged children.  (3 points)
•    Will parents, teachers, school administrators, and the public at large support this? Why or why not? (2 points)

2. Formulation of alternatives. (10 points total) Please address:
•    Will students be allowed to substitute participation in inter-scholastic sports, or activities such as JROTC, marching band, cheerleading, or drill team for their required physical education credit?
o    Will students have to be on the travel team in order to receive physical education credits? For example, will a “bench warmer” get the same credit as a student who plays the entire game?
o    Please provide a minimum of a 2-3 sentence explanation on how inter-scholastic sports or related physical activity substitutions would work. (All 3 bullets = Total of 5 points)
•    Will students who participate in sports at the Olympic/National-level be allowed to substitute training for physical education credits? If so, how many hours of training will be required?
o    For students that qualify, will they be able to be dismissed from school early/allowed to enter school at a later time?
o    Related, how many periods per day will they be allowed to miss?
o    Please provide a minimum of a 2-3 sentence explanation on how Olympic/National-level training substitution would work. (All 4 bullets = Total of 5 points)

3. Policy adoption. (9 points) Please address:
•    What tools, instruments, resources will be provided to public schools to ensure that physical education is included as a graduation requirement for 2 years? (Think about what schools may need in order to add an additional class, maintain this class, or resource the class, while continuing to meet the state required educational standards).

4. Policy implementation. (9 points) Please address:
•    When will this policy be implemented?
o    When answering this question consider how this would influence current students in high school. Will a grandfather clause be written into the new law? If so, who will be grandfathered? (A grandfather clause is an exemption which allows current students to continue course curriculum under previous guidelines/Texas state law).

5. Policy evaluation. (9 points) Please address:
•    How would officials determine whether the required inclusion of 2 years of physical education is achieving its stated goals? (For example, will the evaluation be simply the fact that students are not sedentary for 60 minutes? Or, will measures of weight (i.e. BMI) and percent body fat be measured? Or, will the outcome be improved test scores? What will be the goal in obtaining various indicators measures? If health-related or academic-related measurements will be required, please include who will be responsible for taking these measurements and how often these measurements will be recorded).

6. Policy termination. (9 points total) Please address:
•    For what reasons might termination be considered? (For example, is childhood obesity no longer a concern? Was the policy too costly? Have other interests positively influenced physical activity such that government regulations are no longer needed?). Please explain why one of these factors (or a factor that you come up with) could result in termination (4 points) and how that would be determined (5 points).

Format of the paper. (9 points total)
You will need to address the 6 steps in the policy cycle in the following manner:
•    2-full pages (i.e. cannot be less than 1.5 pages and cannot exceed 2 pages). (5 points)
This page limit does not include the reference page. Your reference page should be on page 3.
•    Use of template (3 points)
•    Single space, 1-inch margins, 12-font, Times New Roman (1 point)

Other important factors. (25 points total)
•    Grammar, spelling, organization of thoughts (10 points)
Points will be taken off for incorrect use of grammar, spelling errors, and/or if writing is disorganized or unclear. Please consider asking a peer to proof-read your assignment or visiting the University Writing Center.
•    APA style (in-text citations and reference page) (10 points)
•    TWO locations where the assignment must be turned in:
1. Hard copy, in-class @ 5:30pm on due date (5 points)
2. Upload an electronic copy to Turnitin.com by 5:30pm on the due date (If this is not done, you will be given a GRADE OF ZERO for the ENTIRE ASSIGNMENT).

Grading: In order to receive full credit for each corresponding bolded point, the response needs to accurately and clearly answer the question.
•    Half credit is given when responses are unclear/vague or half-way completed. For example, if the association between obesity and obesity-related comorbidities is described but an empirical article is not provided – neither cited in the text and/or on the reference page – half-credit will be awarded.
•    In several areas the use of empirical articles are required. If non-empirical source(s) are used, half credit will be given if the correct answer(s) are provided.
•    If the question is not addressed or incorrectly answered, zero points will be awarded.
NOTE: Whenever the assignment states “citation and provide a reference”, this means proper documentation in the text and reference page using APA-style formatting is required. Please see BB for assistance with APA-style.

Other important info:
•    You may use the same empirical article to support multiple points if it is appropriate.
o    Unsure what qualifies as an empirical article or where to find one? Please see BB.
•    In terms of APA-style, assignments are NOT required to have a title page, header, nor be double-spaced.
•    Assignments ARE REQUIRED to be 1-inch margins, 12-point font (Times New Roman), and single spaced.
•    The writing center is always available to provide assistance. http://www.uh.edu/writecen/