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TEA News Releases Online
March 6, 2009
FITNESSGRAM® results will reveal health status of Texas students
AUSTIN - Results from a ground breaking study of 2.6 million Texas students that examine how physical fitness impacts academic performance, attendance and disciplinary incidents will be released Monday.
Gov. Rick Perry; Sen. Jane Nelson, R- Flower Mound; Deputy Education Commissioner Ray Glynn; and Dr. Kenneth Cooper, founder of The Cooper Institute in Dallas, will release the results at a 2 p.m. press conference Monday in the Governor’s Press Conference Room on the second floor of the Capitol.
Texas is the first state to require annual physical fitness assessments of public school students in grades three through 12. A tool called the FITNESSGRAM®, created by The Cooper Institute, is used to measure body composition, aerobic capacity, strength, endurance and flexibility.
Initial data released last summer found that elementary students were the most physically fit. Fitness levels declined with each passing year.
The student data has now been further analyzed by The Cooper Institute and results to be released will include:
- Correlation between fitness levels and scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS);
- Correlation between fitness levels and attendance levels;
- Correlation between fitness levels and student disciplinary incidents;
- An Internet address for accessing county-level data showing the correlation between fitness levels and TAKS scores, absenteeism and student disciplinary reports.
Contact:
Division of Communications
1701 N. Congress Avenue
Austin, Texas 78757
Phone: (512) 463-9000
E-mail: teainfo@tea.state.tx.us