FitnessGram is under assault, as it seems to be every legislative session.
FitnessGram measures a child’s fitness in several ways. It assesses students’ aerobic capacity and body composition as well as muscular strength, endurance, and flexibility.
The tool—developed by the Dallas-based Cooper Institute and championed by Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound—was implemented in the 2007-2008 school year. Originally, all students were required to be assessed in grades 3-12. The 2011 legislature limited FitnessGram only to students who were enrolled in physical education.
Texas requires 30 minutes a day or 135 minutes a week of physical activity in elementary school and four semesters for middle-school students. High school students need one credit of physical education to graduate. Texas PE students currently are assessed three times in elementary school, twice in middle school, and once in high school.
Comptroller Susan Combs recently launched the website www.reshapingtexas.org, which maps the FitnessGram measurements for public school districts in Texas. According to the website, 38 percent of children in the Dallas and Fort Worth ISDs are at high risk of becoming obese while 13 percent are at some risk.
Obesity and its related disorders cost the Texas economy an estimated $9 billion in 2009 and that figure is expected to more than triple by 2030, according to legislative testimony by three Texas physician organizations.
The first FitnessGram evaluations were not encouraging. Of the 2.9 million Texas students tested, 44 percent did not meet aerobic fitness standards. About 3 out of 10 were either overweight or obese.
The fitness scores were worse as the grade levels rose. About 1 out of 3 third-graders made healthy scores on all six assessments. By the 12th grade, only about 1 out of 12 met or exceeded the standards on all six.
A 2009 Cooper Institute study found that students who are physical fit tend to score higher on standardized tests, have fewer discipline problems and have better attendance records. That finding was reinforced nationally by a Centers for Disease Control study in 2010.
In 2011, the legislature gave TEA the authority to correlate FitnessGram results with student academic achievement. Few school districts have done so.
Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, has sponsored a bill to eliminate FitnessGram testing in schools. Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, and Sen. Robert Deuell, R-Greenville, have sponsored companion bills that would reduce the fitness assessments from six to four times for Texas schoolchildren.
Deuell said in a statement, “As a family physician, I have always been an advocate of physical fitness, particularly for children. And as an original co-author of the bill that established the FitnessGram program, I feel public schools should encourage physical fitness in students. However, it became apparent that the FitnessGram program (though beneficial to the students) is an unfunded mandate and particularly a burden for smaller school districts.”
Nelson opposes any effort to scuttle FitnessGram.
“I still strongly believe in the FitnessGram as a useful tool to assess the physical fitness and overall health of our students. Good health is a critical part of success in life, and we owe it to our children to teach them the importance of being active and staying healthy. I oppose these and other efforts to de-emphasize student health at a time when so many of our children are at risk of living shorter lives because of obesity and inactivity,” she said in a statement.
Michelle Smith, state coordinator for Texas Action for Healthy Kids and former chairperson of the Partnership for a Healthy Texas, said schools are not incurring incremental costs for FitnessGram testing unless they upgrade to a web-based program.
“None of the teachers we’ve contacted have said it is a burden,” she said.
Don Disney, Cooper Institute director for youth initiatives, said, “Before you can measure progress, you have to measure state of fitness. Before you can change behavior, you have to assess state of fitness. The more you can assess that, the more likely you are to improve fitness.”
Disney said he does not buy the argument that FitnessGram is a financial burden to schools.
“If (opponents) say they don’t want to do it, they are going to say it costs them money. This is pushback from folks who don’t support the mission. What I hear from stakeholders is that kids are not fit, and business executives say their healthcare costs are escalating,” he said.
Marissa Rathbone, former director for health and physical education (PE) at Texas Education Agency and now director of policy and programs at Austin-based ACTIVE Life, said FitnessGram was “the first time PE received the type of attention and policy that puts it on a par (with math, science, and social studies). I believe that assessment is part of any quality-learning environment. PE should not be an exception. FitnessGram is only one part of PE that schools should be doing to evaluate learning by their students. That should be a minimum expectation. If you are administering FitnessGram only in PE, you are missing a large section of the student population.”
Steve Jacob is editor of D Healthcare Daily and author of the book Health Care in 2020: Where Uncertain Reform, Bad Habits, Too Few Doctors and Skyrocketing Costs Are Taking Us. He can be reached at [email protected].
