High School Student Obesity and Fitnessgram Assessments - Essay Example

The surveyed students had an overall positive experience. Some teachers had a positive experience while some had mixed opinions concerning Fitnessgram's effectiveness in improving students’ BMI.

The Problem
Obesity is a serious problem that is becoming more prevalent among school-aged children in America. The Centers for Disease Control revealed that approximately one in three American children and teenagers are obese or overweight (CDC Press Release, 2008). This is three times the number of obese children in America in the 1960s. Childhood obesity now surpasses smoking and drug use as the foremost concern of parents and the Georgia State Board of Education. The CDC suggested that the objective of all programs dealing with childhood obesity is to find ways of reducing the child’s weight while monitoring their lipid profile and blood pressure (CDC Press Release, 2008). The CDC also suggested that strong social support systems should be instituted to encourage a healthy weight among children. Parental involvement in programs created to check the development of obesity is one way this can be accomplished. According to the CDC and Krebs, Jacobson, and the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition (2003), schools can also be part of the support system by providing only healthy meals for students during the day (CDC Press Release, 2008).

According to the CDC, Georgia has the distinction of having the second-highest rate of obesity among school-aged children in America (CDC Press Release, 2008). This motivated the Georgia State Board of Education in 2011 to endorse programs like the Presidential Fitness Award to impact the obesity trends among children (Georgia Department of Education, 2011). However, according to Hirschmann and Zaphiropoulos (2012), there are still students who become obese in Georgia every month and 40% of Georgia’s school-aged children are said to be obese. In 2008, Governor Nathan Deal endorsed the Georgia Student Health and Physical Education (SHAPE) Act to ensure that schools involve their students in regular exercises that result in cardiovascular endurance, body composition, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility (Georgia Department of Education, 2011).

In 2011, the State Board of Education in Georgia also approved Fitnessgram® testing in schools (Georgia Department of Education, 2011). Fitnessgram®, developed by the Cooper Institute in 1982, includes several assessment procedures to determine ways obesity can be assessed in individual students (The Cooper Institute, 2012). According to Mood, Jackson, and Morrow (2007), the sedentary lifestyle preferred by most students is the leading cause of childhood obesity. This is becoming a bigger problem as content curricular requirements increase and more instructional time is allocated to learning those subjects. Physical education lessons tend to suffer when more time is needed to cover comprehensive subjects in schools (The Cooper Institute, 2012).