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A $1.28 million Kansas Health Foundation grant is starting to get schools across the state up and running with the K-FIT program, a project that helps measure and improve students’ fitness levels.
The Kansas Fitness Information Tracking program will give interested schools Fitnessgram, an online assessment tool, at no cost for the next three years. K-FIT will measure participating students’ aerobic capacity, body composition, muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility. Using this range of assessments will help children know where their strengths are and how to make improvements in other areas.
K-FIT is currently enrolling about 12 schools across the state as a pilot group to use the program this fall, says Jane Shirley, program manager for coordinated school health at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. “Our target will be that in spring semester, we will have enrolled 290 schools,” she says.
Participating schools will receive Fitnessgram as well as training on the K-FIT philosophy and entering data. Schools also will have access to technical support throughout the program.
K-FIT reports will provide each child with individualized feedback on fitness and guidelines on how to improve his or her fitness level. The reports evaluate the child’s personal level of fitness compared against research-based standards called the Healthy Fitness Zones. “Children can do some things to improve their scores and then they would be able to look forward to getting a score that would put them further into the Healthy Fitness Zones,” Shirley says. Kids will measure improvement against their own scores, not against the scores of their classmates.
Students don’t “pass” or “fail” the K-FIT testing. If a child’s testing falls below the Healthy Fitness Zones, the report gives him or her a “needs improvement” message that can help children and parents set goals or targets to improve their fitness levels.
The use of health-related criteria helps minimize comparisons between children. Because only modest amounts of physical activity are needed to obtain health benefits, most students who participate in physical activity almost every day will be able to achieve scores placing them in the Healthy Fitness Zones.
Tens of thousands of schools across the country use this Fitnessgram technology, including New York City, Delaware and California.
The purpose of this Kansas Health Foundation grant is to enhance the state’s ability to capture and monitor fitness data on children by purchasing and distributing Fitnessgram software to 900 of the 1,365 public schools in Kansas.
K-FIT will produce valuable data in the state’s ongoing efforts to improve the health of Kansas students. When KFIT data is collected by the state of Kansas, the data will have student names removed so that individual scores may not be identified with a particular student. This data will be used to study trends, not to judge individual students.
It’s hoped that K-FIT will improve children’s fitness levels, but the most important long-term goal of the program is to foster positive attitudes toward physical activity.
“We want Kansas children to lead long, healthy lives,” says Steve Coen, president and CEO of the Kansas Health Foundation. “Getting young people into the habit of physical activity will improve their chances of becoming fit and healthy adults.”
K-FIT is developing a statewide cadre of trainers who will conduct daylong training events for school personnel. “Our goal will be to have a couple of trainers in every region across the state,” Shirley says. The trainers will also help schools solve any issues with the fitness testing, data entry or other problems.
If you’re interested in learning more about the K-FIT program, please contact Jane Shirley at jshirley@kdheks.gov or 785-291-3418.
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