Adapted physical education (APE) teachers are certified APE teachers for teaching physical education to children with disabilities in schools. They are prepared through an APE teacher preparation program at a university in The United States of America. A fully online APE approval program for preparing qualified APE teachers has been offered at Western Michigan University (WMU). However, the effectiveness of this program has not yet been evaluated. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the effectiveness of the fully online APE approval program offered at Western Michigan University (WMU) for preparing qualified APE teachers. Over past three years, this program recruited a total of 28 students. Most students completed 7 online courses (22 credit hours), including HPHE 6210-Physical Education for Exceptional Children (3 credit hours), HPHE 6220-Programming in APE (3 credit hours), HPHE 6250-Assessments in APE (3 credit hours), SPED 5300-Introduction to Special Education (3 credit hours), SPED 6380-Application of Behavior theory in Classroom (3 credit hours), SPED 6610-Collaboration and Consultation in Special Education (3 credit hours), and HPHE 7120- Professional Field Experience in APE (4 credit hours), in a four-semester format over a year for earning an APE approval. All these courses have been delivered through Desire2learn Online Learning Platform managed at WMU.

The effectiveness of implementing this approval program was evaluated based on five measures over the three years:
(a) the mean score and its range of completing all on-going assignments by all students,
(b) the mean score and its range of completing all original projects by all students,
(c) the mean score and its range of completing all course examinations by all students,
(d) the mean score and its range of completing clinical hours by all students, and
(e) the mean score and its range of completing obtaining professional competencies by all students.

The results obtained over the three years indicated that:
(a) a mean of 92 points with a range from 89 to 96 in a 100-point scale with 100 being the best was found over all on-going assignments,
(b) a mean of 86 points with a range from 73 to 91 in a 100-point scale with 100 being the best was found over all original projects,
(c) an overall mean of 80 points with a range from 71 to 85 in a 100-point scale with 100 being the best was found over all course examinations,
(d) a mean of 164 points with a range from 150 to 178 in a 200-point scale with 200 being the best was found over all clinical hours, and
(e) a mean of 3.5 points with a range from 1 to 4 in a 4-point scale with 4 being the best was found over all professional competencies.

These results indicated that the online APE approval program offered at WMU was effective in preparing qualified APE teachers. The documented effectiveness of this online program was primarily resulted from at least four factors:
(a) all 28 students enrolled in this program having appropriate educational background either in physical education or special education;
(b) this program of study with 7 courses having been designed based on nationally-documented standards for qualified APE teachers,
(c) all 7 courses this in the program of study having been taught by nationally-recognized APE professors, and
(d) the online earn platform allowing all students being able to complete each class in own paces.

Keywords: Adapted Physical Education, Approval Program Effectiveness, and Teacher Preparation.