Method: Two lists of APE programs posted on webpages by National Consortium for Physical Education and Recreation for Individuals with Disabilities and PE central were used as primary sources to identify APE master’s degree programs. Their programs of study were then downloaded as the raw data source. All courses specified in each downloaded program of study were first coded into one of the four categories: core, professional, elective, and capstone. Those courses coded into a category were then grouped. The descriptive statistics, the mean of credit hours across all programs of study, the mean credit hours in each category, and the percentage of each grouped course, were calculated.
Analysis/Results: The results based on the data of 31 downloaded programs of study indicated that The mean credit hours across all programs of study are 34, including 5 for core, 18 for profession, 5 for elective, and 6 for capstone. The top 2 grouped courses based on percentages in core are Research Methods (44%) and Research Statistics (24%). The top 6 in profession are APE Introduction (31%), APE Assessment (16%), APE Programming (15%), APE Instruction (14%), Adapted Sports/Physical Activities (9%), and APE Administration/Collaborations (7%). The top 2 in elective are Kinesiology (60%) and Special Education/Therapy (16%). The top 2 in capstone are Practicum/Field Experience (47%) and Project/Thesis (33%).
Conclusions: The results found in this study propose a nationwide program of study for master’s degrees in APE. They are clearly meaningful for a professional to develop and revise a program of study for a master’s degree in APE. It should be noted that the estimate of reliability for identifying APE master’s degree programs found in this study was 96%, while the estimate of reliability for coding variables included in four categories was 88%.