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ESEA REAUTHORIZATION: SUPPORTING STUDENT 

HEALTH, PHYSICAL EDUCATION, AND WELL-BEING 

HEARING 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, 

LABOR, AND PENSIONS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

ON

EXAMINING ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT (ESEA) 

REAUTHORIZATION, FOCUSING ON SUPPORTING STUDENT HEALTH, 

PHYSICAL EDUCATION, AND WELL-BEING 

MAY 18, 2010 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/ 

COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS 

TOM HARKIN, Iowa, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut 

BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland 

JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico 

PATTY MURRAY, Washington 

JACK REED, Rhode Island 

BERNARD SANDERS (I), Vermont 

SHERROD BROWN, Ohio 

ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania 

KAY R. HAGAN, North Carolina 

JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon 

AL FRANKEN, Minnesota 

MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado 

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming 

JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire 

LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee 

RICHARD BURR, North Carolina 

JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia 

JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona 

ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah 

LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska 

TOM COBURN, M.D., Oklahoma 

PAT ROBERTS, Kansas 

DANIEL SMITH, Staff Director 

PAMELA SMITH, Deputy Staff Director 

FRANK MACCHIAROLA, Republican Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

(II) 

C O N T E N T S 

STATEMENTS 

TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2010 

Page 

Harkin, Hon. Tom, Chairman, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 

Pensions, opening statement ............................................................................... 1 

Enzi, Hon. Michael B., a U.S. Senator from the State of Wyoming, opening 

statement .............................................................................................................. 2 

Pate, Russell R., Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Exercise Science, 

Associate Vice President for Health Sciences, and Director of Children’s 

Physical Activity Research Group, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC ................................................................. 4 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 5 

Shriver, Timothy, Chairman and CEO, Special Olympics, Washington, DC ..... 6 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 8 

Yancy, Antronette (Toni), Professor, Department of Health Services, USL 

School of Public Health, and Co-director, UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center 

for Health Equity, Los Angeles, CA ................................................................... 15 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 16 

Levin, Barbara, MPH, MD, CEO, Chota Community Health Services, Madisonville, TN ......................................................................................................... 19 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 20 

Kirkpatrick Beth, Co-director, Grundy Center PE4Life Academy, Grundy Center, IA .................................................................................................................... 24 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 26 

Casey, Hon. Robert P., Jr., a U.S. Senator from the State of Pennsylvania ...... 51 

(III) 

(1) 

ESEA REAUTHORIZATION: SUPPORTING STUDENT HEALTH, PHYSICAL EDUCATION, AND 

WELL-BEING 

TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2010 

U.S. SENATE, 

COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS, 

Washington, DC. 

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:28 p.m. in Room 

SD–430, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Tom Harkin, chairman of the committee, presiding. 

Present: Senators Harkin, Casey, Franken, and Enzi. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR HARKIN

The CHAIRMAN. The Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

Committee will please come to order. 

Today’s hearing will explore how physical activity, good health, 

and sound nutrition can enhance students’ ability to succeed in 

school and in life. It alarms me that many health experts now predict that today’s generation of kids will be the first to have a shorter lifespan than their parents. Our young people are confronted by 

a twin epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Many children are now experiencing health problems that historically affected adults almost 

exclusively. Studies show that students who are physically active 

are healthier, feel better, and perform better in school. Yet, we continue to tolerate a status quo where too few students have educational opportunities that fully integrate physical activity, health 

education, good nutrition. 

This reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education 

Act (ESEA) offers us an important opportunity to improve the 

health and well-being of millions of our students. We need to provide better opportunities for physical activity. We need to make 

sure our students have nutritious food in school. We need to increase access to mental health services in our schools. And if our 

ambition is to create America as a genuine wellness society, then 

it begins by giving our kids a healthy start, and that means in 

school. 

Now, by all means, we want our children to excel academically. 

It’s not just enough to do well in school; we also need to encourage 

physical activity and assist students with making healthy choices, 

things that contribute to overall wellness. The two are not mutually exclusive. This means ensuring that our kids have time each 

day for physical activity, and teaching them about proper nutrition 

and healthy habits. Studies show that kids who have the opporVerDate Nov 24 2008 15:15 May 10, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\DOCS\56645.TXT DENISE
2 

tunity to be active have positive academic outcomes. I read all your 

statements yesterday, and many of you allude to these studies. 

I’m especially concerned about doing right by the more than 30 

million students receiving free- and reduced-price lunches. For lowincome kids who are disproportionately victims of the twin epidemic of obesity and diabetes, having enough food, and eating nutritious food, are both imperatives. 

Students with disabilities, both physical and intellectual disabilities, can also benefit from increased physical activity and wellness 

initiatives. Access to athletic opportunities during childhood is critical for students with disabilities to be able to maintain good health 

and weight, and to learn how to have an active lifestyle as they 

move into adulthood. 

The problem is that too few students with disabilities have 

meaningful opportunities for physical activity alongside their peers 

who do not have physical disabilities. That’s why I requested the 

General Accounting Office to examine the athletic and physical 

education opportunities available to students with both physical 

and intellectual disabilities in our elementary and secondary 

schools. 

Today I look forward to hearing our witnesses’ views on the best 

wellness strategies—physical activity, nutrition, mental health—for 

our schools. We’ll hear about effective strategies that are currently 

in place on a State, district and school level, and strategies that 

specifically address special populations and individuals with disabilities. 

At this point, I’ll leave the record open for a statement by Senator Enzi. I will leave the record open for 30 more seconds. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator ENZI. That’s good, because I have a real short opening 

statement. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ENZI

Senator ENZI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Have you given your 

statement? 

The CHAIRMAN. Yes, I just. 

Senator ENZI. OK. I thank you for convening today’s hearing on 

this issue supporting student health, physical education and wellbeing as a part of this series of hearings on the reauthorization of 

the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. 

I hope that, through questions that we ask, through the testimony that you have provided, and that you will provide, that we 

can figure out a way to get kids more active. I know you can lead 

a horse to water, but you can’t always make him drink. Sometimes 

the water we offer to children as encouragement has to be more exciting. I’m interested in some of the new Wii efforts, where you can 

exercise, and you get scored on it. Wii makes it a game to use both 

balance and flexibility with some of the running activities and 

other activities. 

The well-being of our children is important. Healthy, active children are more productive, and they’re more engaged in learning 

and other activities. I read a book called ‘‘Brain Rules 12 Principles 

of Survival’’ that actually teaches you subtly about the brain at the 

same time that it covers the value of exercise. 

3 

I look forward to hearing from each of the witnesses and their 

experience in these issues and the impact their work has had on 

children. We want to hear from them today and have them assist 

us as we fix No Child Left Behind, so that kids graduate from high 

school, better prepared for college. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Senator Enzi. 

I’ll introduce our witnesses and then we’ll move ahead. 

First we have, from left to right, Dr. Russell Pate, a professor 

from the University of South Carolina in the Department of Exercise Science. Dr. Pate has extensively studied physical activity in 

preschool through high school students for over 25 years. As a 

member of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, 

Dr. Pate has advised Presidents on physical activity, fitness, and 

sports in America. 

Next, Timothy Shriver, who has dedicated his career to teaching 

about the social and emotional factors in learning and expanding 

opportunities for special populations. In his most recent capacity as 

the chairman of the Special Olympics, Mr. Shriver has transformed 

the program to include initiatives in athlete leadership, family support, and inclusion for individuals with intellectual disabilities. 

Following Mr. Shriver, we’ll hear from Antronette, or Toni, 

Yancey, a professor in the Department of Health Sciences at 

UCLA, and the co-director of UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for 

Health Equity. Dr. Yancey is an expert on adolescent health promotion and specializes in interventions engaging underserved communities. 

Then we’ll hear from Barbara Levin, the CEO of Chota Community Health Services, which operates school-based health centers in 

Monroe County, TN. These centers provide comprehensive medical 

care, social services, and youth development to children and adolescents in schools, regardless of their ability to pay for services. 

Finally, we’ll hear from Beth Kirkpatrick, a co-director of the 

Grundy Center PE4life Academy. With 20 years of experience 

teaching health and physical education, Ms. Kirkpatrick is knowledgeable about proven methods for engaging youth in quality physical education that improves the overall health and wellness of children. 

I thank you all for joining us to share your expertise at today’s 

hearing. As I said, this is about reauthorizing ESEA, and I’m hopeful that one of the things that we’ll focus on is how we expand opportunities, and encourage schools to have programs that provide 

for better physical fitness for our kids, from elementary school all 

the way through high school. 

I read all your testimonies yesterday. They’re excellent testimonies. They’ll all be made a part of the record in their entirety. 

And I’d like to ask if you would take 5 minutes and just sum up 

the main point, and we’ll just move down; and hopefully we can finish that before we have to leave for our first vote. 

Dr. Pate, welcome to the committee, and please proceed. 

4 

STATEMENT OF RUSSELL R. PATE, Ph.D., PROFESSOR IN THE 

DEPARTMENT OF EXERCISE SCIENCE, ASSOCIATE VICE 

PRESIDENT FOR HEALTH SCIENCES, AND DIRECTOR OF 

CHILDREN’S PHYSICAL ACTIVITY RESEARCH GROUP, ARNOLD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH 

CAROLINA, COLUMBIA, SC 

Mr. PATE. Senator Harkin, Senator Enzi, Senator Franken, I’m 

thrilled to be here, and I very much appreciate the attention that 

you’re focusing on today, the health and wellness of our children. 

I’ve been doing research on physical activity and kids for over 25 

years, and during that period, I’ve been honored to serve on a number of Federal advisory committees and national panels. All of that 

experience has led me to four conclusions that I think are pertinent 

to today’s discussions: 

First, in order to be fully healthy, kids need an hour a day of 

moderate to vigorous physical activity. 

Second, unfortunately, most American kids don’t meet that 

standard today; in fact, we’ve learned that most of them don’t come 

close to meeting that standard. 

Third, if our kids are going to meet physical activity guidelines, 

and accrue the health benefits that are associated with meeting the 

guideline, schools are going to have to deliver the highest-quality 

physical activity programs. 

And I believe, fourth, that an essential step in ensuring that the 

schools do that is that they be held accountable for the quality and 

quantity of physical activity programming that they’re providing to 

their students. 

I think it’s important for us to think for a moment about just 

how much our society has changed in recent decades. We have systematically removed physical activity from our lives. We’ve done 

that in almost every aspect of our lives. Elevators have replaced 

stairs, automobiles have replaced bicycles, and computers have replaced physical labor. At the same time, our culture has become 

saturated with forms of entertainment that tend to pull us away 

from physically active leisure pursuits. And the net effect of all 

that has been a marked decrease in our physical activity. 

I think it’s important for us to recognize that our children live 

in the same world that we live in; they are influenced by it in the 

same ways that we are. Today’s kids, I think, have never really 

known a world like the one that most of us grew up in. That was 

the one where walking to school was the norm; where, when you 

came home after school, mom probably pushed you out the back 

door and said, ‘‘Go play until dinner’’; and that school physical education was probably a much more prominent component of the curriculum than it is in many of our schools today. 

Now, there’s not going to be a magic bullet or an easy solution 

to this. Reversing the downward trend in physical activity is going 

to require changes in many components of our society. Just 2 

weeks ago, Dr. Yancey and I were here in Washington, DC, for the 

release of the first U.S. National Physical Activity Plan, which is 

a private-public coalition of organizations that have made over 215 

recommendations for changes that we should make in order to support higher levels of physical activity for our kids and all the rest 

5 

of us. In that plan, the education sector is very prominent, and we 

believe it will be central to promoting physical activity in our kids. 

So, what can the schools do? Well, both the Institute of Medicine 

and the American Heart Association have called for kids to get at 

least half of that 60-minute daily physical activity quota during the 

school day. There are a lot of ways in which the schools can support that. We can support active transport initiatives, like safe 

routes to school. We can ensure that the schools are providing daily 

recess breaks. We can include physically active teaching/learning 

strategies in the classroom. We can expand and enrich extracurricular physical activity programs so that they’re serving all 

kids, and, most critically, we can ensure that all schools meet prevailing national standards for the quality and quantity of physical 

education that they provide to the students. 

Now, we all know that, in recent years, schools have come under 

heavy scrutiny with regard to their effectiveness in producing academic achievement. Unfortunately, I believe that an unintended 

negative consequence has been a diversion of resources away from 

physical education. But, if the goal is to enhance student academic 

achievement, there’s mounting evidence that reducing a child’s 

physical activity may, very well, negatively impact his or her academic achievement. And I quote from the conclusion of a very recently released CDC report, 

‘‘There is substantial evidence that physical activity can improve academic achievement, including grades and test scores. 

Increasing or maintaining time dedicated to physical education 

may help, and does not appear to adversely impact academic 

performance.’’ 

Finally, I’m convinced that we must create a system in which the 

schools are held accountable for the delivery of high quality physical activity programs. You all know that the FIT Kids Act is under 

consideration, recently passed in the House. I’m very hopeful that 

it’ll pass in the Senate, as well, and I strongly support your taking 

that action. 

Thank you very much for having me here today. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Pate follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF RUSSELL R. PATE, PH.D. 

Senator Harkin and members of the committee, I am honored to have the opportunity to participate in today’s hearing, and I greatly appreciate the attention that 

you are focusing on the health and well-being of our Nation’s youth. 

My 25 years of experience in conducting research on physical activity in children 

and adolescents and my service on a number of national panels and Federal advisory committees related to promotion of physical activity and prevention of childhood obesity have led me to four important conclusions: 

1. To achieve and maintain good health our young people should engage in 60 or 

more minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. 

2. The vast majority of American children and youth do not meet that guideline; 

indeed most do not come close to meeting it. 

3. If our students are to meet physical activity guidelines and accrue the associated health benefits, our schools must deliver physical activity programs of the highest quality. 

4. An essential step toward insuring that our schools effectively provide and promote physical activity in their students is to hold those schools accountable for providing physical education and other physical activity programs that meet best-practice standards. 

6 

Over the past several decades our society has changed in ways that have profoundly affected our physical activity behavior. We have drastically reduced the demand for physical activity by building work-saving innovations into almost every aspect of our lives—elevators have replaced stairs, automobiles have replaced bicycles, 

and computers have replaced physical labor. At the same time our culture has become saturated with forms of entertainment that are sedentary and that tend to 

draw us away from physically active leisure pursuits. The net effect has been a 

marked decrease in our physical activity levels. And make no mistake about it, our 

children live in the same world we do—and it is one that demands very little physical activity, presents many barriers to physical activity, and is littered with sedentary distracters. Indeed, today’s children have never known a world like the one 

that many of us grew up in—one in which walking to school was the norm, moms 

pushed kids out the door after school with the directive to go out and play until 

dinner, and school physical education was a much more prominent component of the 

curriculum than it is in many schools today. 

Reversing the downward trend in physical activity in our children and youth will 

require changes in many components of our society. Just 2 weeks ago I was here 

in Washington, DC with my colleague Dr. Yancey for the release of the first U.S. 

National Physical Activity Plan, private-public multi-organizational initiative calling 

for implementation of over 200 policies and practices across eight societal sectors. 

The Education Sector is prominently featured in the National Plan and it will be 

central in our efforts to increase physical activity in young people. In my view, it 

would not be fair or realistic to expect our schools to solve the entire youth physical 

activity problem that we confront. Clearly parents must play a central role, and 

community providers of youth services will be important too. However, I do believe 

it is both fair and indeed essential that our schools lead the way and do everything 

they reasonably can do to help us overcome this problem. 

What should our schools do? Both the Institute of Medicine and the American 

Heart Association have called for children and youth to receive at least one-half of 

the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity during the school day. 

Schools can insure that kids achieve this goal through multiple strategies. They include adoption of active transport initiatives like ‘‘safe routes to school,’’ daily provision of recess breaks, inclusion of physically active teaching-learning methods in 

classrooms, expansion and enrichment of extracurricular physical activity programs, 

and collaboration with community-based youth service providers in delivery of afterschool physical activity programs. Most critically, all schools should meet prevailing 

national standards for the quality and quantity of physical education provided to 

students. 

As we all know, in recent years our schools have come under heavy scrutiny with 

regard to their effectiveness in producing academic achievement. I believe that an 

unintended negative consequence has been a diversion of resources away from physical education. But if the goal is to enhance student academic achievement, there 

is mounting evidence that reducing a child’s physical activity may well negatively 

impact his or her academic achievement. I quote from the conclusion of a very recently released CDC report: 

‘‘There is substantial evidence that physical activity can improve academic 

achievement (including grades and test scores). Increasing or maintaining time 

dedicated to physical education may help, and does not appear to adversely impact, academic performance.’’ 

Finally, I am convinced that a step that we must take is creation of a system that 

holds the schools accountable for providing students with physical education and 

other physical activity programs that meet accepted national standards. The FIT 

Kids Act, which recently was passed by the House of Representatives, would help 

create such a system and, I believe, would be an enormous step forward. Accordingly, I strongly encourage you to support the FIT Kids Act. Thank you very much 

for having me here today. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Dr. Pate. 

Now, let’s turn to Mr. Shriver, someone I worked with a lot 

through the Special Olympics. 

STATEMENT OF TIMOTHY P. SHRIVER, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, 

SPECIAL OLYMPICS, WASHINGTON, DC 

Mr. SHRIVER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Enzi, 

Senator Franken. Thank you for the chance to be here. 

7 

Thank you for welcoming me to Iowa, Mr. Chairman, for your 

support of the work of our organization, and for your generationslong leadership on behalf of people with intellectual disabilities and 

other developmental disabilities. And, in particular, for your support of our most recent work, which we labeled Project UNIfiscal 

year, an effort to bring the best of physical fitness and socialization 

and health-oriented activities to schools in ways that are inclusive 

and ways that involve youth leadership and invite young people to 

take charge of their own futures. 

Last month, I received an e-mail, Senators, and I’ll read you just 

a few sentences. It comes from one of our athletes, now in her mid20s, from the State of Virginia. She wrote, in part, 

‘‘When I was growing up, it always seemed that I was different from my brother and my sister. I always dreamed of 

having what they had. I always knew, deep down, that I was 

different. I asked myself, ‘Why was I in this family? What was 

my purpose?’ The hardest part for me was learning that I had 

a learning disability. Every day, I would wake up feeling OK, 

but once I realized I had to go to school, I just wanted to pull 

the covers back over my head. I wanted to go back to sleep, 

find some way I could stay home. Because each day, I was 

teased, I was ignored, and I just kept feeling smaller and 

smaller, until I could not take it anymore.’’ 

She goes on to describe, sadly, a suicide attempt in high school, 

which, luckily, was unsuccessful. She goes on then to describe joining into a physical activity program, Special Olympics, and having 

the relationships and hope that has come through a long and slow 

recovery to live a healthy adult life. 

Sadly, this is not a symptom of one struggling child. This is a 

symptom of an epidemic I’ve highlighted in my written testimony, 

Senators. This is not just for children with intellectual disabilities; 

the level of struggle across the data of dropout, the data of promiscuous sexual activity, the data of binge drinking—26 percent of 

high-school students binge drinking, five or more drinks within an 

hour, within the last 30 days. This is the underachievement of our 

generation. We are producing yet another generation that is entering adulthood without anything resembling the proper attachment 

to positive values, the sense of their own potential, their purpose 

in life, or their capacity to make a difference and be good employees. 

No Child Left Behind Act made a sea change in education; asked 

us to measure, asked us to hold ourselves accountable, asked us to 

have standards in learning. I, for one, welcome that change. It is 

time to match that change with a focus on children. It is not 

enough to focus on tests. It is time we focused, also, on teaching 

and learning, on what it takes to bring children into full participation in the life of their school, the life of their community, and the 

life of their country. 

Our efforts in Project UNIfiscal year are focused on this—in particular, for our population. Our population shows a risk level of up 

to 45 percent for obesity, somewhere between two and five times 

the national prevalence—or national risk rate. We have an inactive 

population that is inactive, in large part because of social isolation, 

8 

and in large part that social isolation breeds a lack of community 

engagement, lack of extracurricular activities. 

They are bullied disproportionately. Almost 10 percent report 

being bullied within the last week in school. We’ve had terrible examples of that in the news recently. 

Then we have role models in the press, like Sarah Silverman— 

world-class, hugely popular comedian, using ‘‘retard’’ jokes to drive 

her career in places like TED and on HBO, making fun of adopting 

retarded children, and making sure that they’re very, very chronically ill, so that she wouldn’t have to live with them for too long. 

This kind of attitude that dominates our community still, sadly, in 

my view, represents a scandal. 

Our work around young athletes, starting children at age 2; our 

work in unified sports; our work to train children as volunteers— 

to promote service learning, to promote a culture where young people themselves are challenged to make the difference—we don’t just 

rely on teachers and professionals, but we rely on young people to 

recognize the epidemic, and to respond to it—has shown promise. 

We work with organizations like Lions; we promote a healthy lifestyle; we distribute glasses; we do health screenings for things like 

oral healthcare problems. The data, at least preliminary data, is 

very promising. 

The most important data, though, is the data of the kids. You 

have wonderful stories of—stories like this, where third-graders are 

helping second-graders, where unified activities are promoting a 

sense of understanding at the earliest of ages, that, despite difference, we have much in common, and, despite all the challenges 

we face, to play is to learn, to engage, to understand, and ultimately to value all people. 

I know that we’ve had cutbacks. I know we live in difficult times. 

Fit kids should not be expensive kids, play should not be an expensive act. Enacting the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Act, which you, 

Senator, have championed, should not be beyond our scope as a 

Nation. Title IX opened the doors of opportunity to women. No one 

would think of discriminating against women, in contemporary 

times in sports, or no one ought to think about it. Yet, we still 

leave generations of young people with disabilities on the sidelines, 

as though it were OK. 

These kinds of changes do not have to break the bank, but they 

can make a difference in our country. The larger context is to promote a broader vision, a paradigm shift in education, to teach all 

children to recognize that physical health and emotional health 

drive attention, and attention drives learning. All the data we have 

on programs that promote social competence, emotional development, and physical activity suggest wide-ranging benefits, from behavioral benefits to academic benefits, even to standardized-test 

gains. The data is there, it’s time for action. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Shriver follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF TIMOTHY P. SHRIVER

Good afternoon Chairman Harkin, Ranking Member Enzi, and members of the 

committee. My name is Timothy P. Shriver and I am CEO of Special Olympics, and 

Board Chairman of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 

9 

or CASEL. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the health, wellness and academic achievement of our Nation’s young people. 

My background now includes some 30 years of experience in these issues. 

Throughout my many roles in the world of Special Olympics and through my experience in public education, I have always considered myself an educator first. I began 

in the field of education as an Upward Bound counselor in 1981 and then became 

a teacher and then Supervisor of Social Development in the Public Schools of New 

Haven, CT in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. I earned advanced degrees in religious education, in education administration, and in educational psychology. In 

1993, together with a small group of pioneering colleagues, I helped shape the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), where I now 

serve as Board Chairman. CASEL is the world’s leading organization advancing research, school practice, and public policy focused on the development of children’s 

social and emotional competence. Our mission is to establish evidence-based social 

and emotional learning (SEL) as an essential part of preschool through high school 

education. 

For the last 15 years, I have been on the worldwide team at Special Olympics focused on the gifts of people with intellectual disabilities. In my capacity there, my 

focus has been to make Special Olympics a powerful force for teaching young people 

these same lessons—the power of service, joy, and dignity. As you know, Special 

Olympics now reaches over 3.3 million athletes around the world with over 44,000 

events per year. My hope is that each of these events is a classroom all unto itself— 

that as the athletes of Special Olympics run their races and score their goals, they 

are making a bold and unconditional proclamation to their peers, their communities, 

and their countries—everyone counts. No exceptions. No one can be left out!! What 

a privilege it has been to have a front row seat watching some of our country’s most 

inspiring human beings—young people with and without intellectual disabilities— 

claim their place as leaders in renewing our national belief in freedom, dignity, and 

opportunity. It has been a joy. 

In preparing my testimony, it was clear that the work of both Special Olympics 

and CASEL has a direct bearing on the issues before this committee and before the 

Nation. Special Olympics uses sports, school-based classroom activities, service opportunities, and school climate programs to promote acceptance, inclusion and respect for individuals with intellectual disabilities. CASEL translates the latest scientific advances to inform school-family-community programming that improves social, emotional, and academic outcomes for all children. Both organizations emphasize the value of relationships and of improving the climate for learning. Both focus 

on building students’ capacity to take charge of their own success. And, both recognize the crucial connection between health, wellness, and academic achievement. 

The fundamental beliefs that drive both Special Olympics and CASEL are more 

than just good ideas. Rigorous research shows that how a person feels—physically 

and emotionally—and how they interact with others—has a direct bearing on school 

and life success. 

We see this daily at Special Olympics as the sting of stigma and loneliness creates 

a cancer that blocks learning and life success. For nearly 42 years, Special Olympics 

has fought that cancer. We have always understood that young people with intellectual disabilities will not be able to reach their potential in learning, in personal development, in independence, and in full societal participation, if school environments 

are not accepting, supportive, and responsive to their needs. In recent years, this 

conviction has been validated through research. Where intolerance, rejection, or indifference toward youth with intellectual disabilities are the prevailing attitudes in 

schools, they are inflicting lifelong damage on those children. And, let me be quick 

to add, they are inflicting damage on those who discriminate as well. 

CHILDREN WILL STRUGGLE UNTIL WE MEET THE NEEDS OF THE WHOLE CHILD

No Child Left Behind provided a focus on academic rigor and accountability that 

brought important progress. Achievement gaps have been exposed. ‘‘Data’’ is now a 

decisionmaking watchword. Performance and improvement is now expected for all 

children. I welcome these changes. But, the job is far from done. Far too many children are still achieving well below their potential and far too many children are still 

exhibiting a level of stress and disengagement that suggests an epidemic of behavioral and social problems. Even a small snapshot of the statistics can be shocking. 

Bullying and safety concerns. Feeling unsafe has a negative impact on learning, and as high profile tragedies illustrate, we have not made the grade: 

10 

1 U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, School Crime Supplement (SCS) to 

the National Crime Victimization Survey, 2005. 2Developmental Neurorehabilitation 2009, Volt. 12, No. 3, Pages 146–51 , DOI 10.1080/ 

17518420902971356 3Public Agenda Survey, April 2010. 

4 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance—United 

States, 2007. MMWR 2008; 57 5Siperstein, G.N., Parker, R.C., Norins Bardon, J., & Widaman, K.F. (2007). A National Study 

of Youth Attitudes toward the Inclusion of Students with Intellectual Disabilities. Exceptional 

Children, 73, 435–455. 6White House press release, March 2009. 

7Klem, A.M., & Connell, J.P. (2004). Relationships matter: Linking teacher support to student 

engagement and achievement. Journal of School Health, 74(7), 262–273. 8 Yazzie-Mintz, E. (2007). Voices of students on engagement: A report on the 2006 high school 

survey of student engagement. Bloomington, IN: Center for Evaluation & Education Policy, Indiana University School of Education. 9 Center for Disease Control, http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/Suicide/youthsuicide.htm, down 

loaded 5/13/10. 10 APA Stress in America Report, 2009. 

• Twenty-eight percent of students say they were bullied at school within the last 

6 months.1 Among students with intellectual/developmental disabilities, some estimates suggest that up to 9 percent are bullied or victimized once a week or more.2

• Seventy-five percent of parents and adults feel bullying and violence are serious 

problems in local schools.3

• In 2007, 35.5 percent of students reported being in a physical fight within the 

previous year.4

Disconnection and disengagement. Students who feel connected to their 

schools and engaged in their learning are more successful academically and have 

healthier behavior, yet: 

• Isolation for children with disabilities remains the norm. Only 10 percent of 

youth say they have a classmate or friend with intellectual disabilities.5

• 1.2 million students drop out every year, or 7,000 every school day.6

• By high school, 40 percent–60 percent of students are chronically disengaged 

from school.7 Only 55 percent of high school students feel they are an important 

part of their school community.8

• Substance abuse and early sexual activity remain rampant with 26 percent of 

high school students reporting engaging in binge drinking (five or more drinks within a couple of hours) within the last 30 days, 14.9 percent of high school students 

report having had sexual intercourse with four or more persons during their life, 

and 18 percent reported carrying a weapon (a gun, knife, or club) within the last 

30 days. • Only between 11 percent–25 percent of persons of employment age with intellectual disability have jobs as their transition from school to work leaves huge numbers lost and alone. 

Emotional distress and unhealthy behavior. Students must be healthy, safe 

and ready to succeed; yet, many are struggling: 

• Despite rising obesity, only 34 percent of students engage in enough regular 

physical activity. 

• Fifteen percent of high school students say they have seriously considered suicide within the last year, 11 percent have made plans for suicide, and 7 percent 

have actually attempted to take their own lives.9

• Forty-four percent of children report stress-related sleeping difficulties.10

In short, the business of making our schools places of success for all children is 

unfinished. For that reason, I am honored to be able to share some of the challenges 

and possible solutions I believe our country faces as we seek to reauthorize NCLB. 

SCHOOL DISTRICTS ARE HUNGRY FOR STRATEGIES TO TEACH THE WHOLE CHILD

The challenges are real, but not insurmountable. Rigor and accountability alone, 

however, cannot improve teaching and learning. NCLB has focused the Nation on 

how we measure and monitor achievement, but the reauthorization should match 

that focus on accountability with a focus on teaching and learning, on school climate, on community engagement, and on the ways in which schools can respond to 

the crisis facing far too many of our children nationwide. 

The good news is that solutions exist and are ready for scale. Thanks to you, Senator Harkin, and to the colleagues you have brought to this issue, Special Olympics 

was able to launch Project UNIFY (PU) in 2008, a new national demonstration 

project (now a program) to address the challenges that we saw and experienced over 

11 

four decades. PU is a strategy to activate youth, engage educators, and promote 

school communities of acceptance and inclusion where all young people are 

agents of change—fostering respect and dignity for people with intellectual disabilities, utilizing the sports and education initiatives of Special Olympics. PU utilizes four main approaches: youth leadership development, unified activities including Unified Sports®, communications strategies including social networking, and 

standards-aligned service learning curricula. 

PU is designed to bring all the resources of Special Olympics together and to implement them in schools in such a way that we can achieve a tipping point in our 

progress toward healthier and more accepting schools. We were fortunate to have 

a portfolio of successful initiatives developed over the years that we could pull together in an integrated way and supplement with new approaches that take advantage of our research findings and the emerging social networking strategies among 

young people. 

The building blocks of PU are as follows: 

• Special Olympics Young Athletes Program, a developmental physical activity 

program for children ages 2–7. 

• Special Olympics Get Into It classroom activities focused on service learning 

and the values of diversity. 

• Special Olympics Games and Sports Events, our traditional joy-filled celebrations of sports. 

• Special Olympics Unified Sports Teams where athletes with and without intellectual disabilities compete on the same teams. 

• Special Olympics R–Word campaigns, assemblies and rallies. 

• Special Olympics inclusive Athlete Leadership Programs where our athletes and 

their non-disabled peers are trained to speak publicly, serve on boards, advocate for 

their own interests and officiate at sports events, among other roles. 

These components are being implemented by our leaders in States around the 

country in partnership with teachers, community leaders, and administrators. We 

are now coming to the end of year 2 of PU and are anxious to start year 3. We are 

performing rigorous evaluation and will continue to apply the lessons learned as 

best practices going forward. 

Even though PU is still in its early stages, I would like to share some select data 

about how well this program is being received and some of the positive impacts it 

is having. 

There are a number of important lessons that we have learned from PU thus far: 

• 45 U.S. State Special Olympics Programs have been involved; 1,700 schools are 

participating; 667,000 youth have been exposed to PU; 11,000 new SO athletes have 

been recruited; and, 85,000 youth have engaged with PU. 

• In participating schools, 27 percent have principal involvement and 76 percent 

of the schools have teachers as the key administrators of the project; 36 percent involve four or more teachers or adults. 

• Schools are involving students with and without intellectual disability in the 

planning and implementation of PU, as well as other school-based groups, which are 

developing leadership skills among youth with and without intellectual disability. 

• Young Athletes, serving 21⁄2–7-year-olds, has now reached 17,446 children in 

North America. Evaluation demonstrates that 75 percent of teachers reported improvements in cognitive development; 65 percent of teachers reported improvement 

in social development; 69 percent of teachers reported improvement in self help 

skills; and, 62 percent of teachers reported improvement in communications development. 

• For Unified Sports athletes, they, their families, and coaches report substantial 

gains in self-esteem, self-confidence, social skills, sport skills, and health; interestingly, similar findings were made regarding Unified Sports partners (without ID). 

• The R–Word ‘‘Spread the Word’’ campaign has secured 131,248 pledges to not 

use the R–Word and discourage its use by others and there are 36,591 members of 

the Facebook community. 

• PU is a fun, gateway experience that helps bridge the divide between children 

with and without disabilities. Sports remain a powerful factor in breaking down 

stigma, in contributing to personal satisfaction, and in promoting health. 

• PU addresses the primary determinants of school climate—social norms, behavioral expectations, and interpersonal relationship patterns. 

• Young people want to be part of a meaningful movement and can be entrusted 

with leadership. 

• Social justice is a theme that young people respond to and sports can be a concrete demonstration of social justice. 

12 

• Young people themselves can advance true inclusion at school and in their communities through sports and education activities. 

• PU is very inexpensive and government funding is being highly leveraged 

through volunteer and community resources. 

The early success of Special Olympics Project Unify is promising and leads to key 

conclusions: 

First, physical education and sports remain powerful vehicles for promoting health and for fighting social and attitudinal barriers. ESEA ought 

to elevate the importance of physical education and sport for all students. Play and 

physical activity are serious business and ought to be treated as such. 

Second, children with intellectual disabilities will only be successful if 

school climates establish the expectation that they are full and valued 

members of the school community. The barriers to their life success are frequently social and relational. ESEA ought to include a new focus on school climate 

that will enable proven strategies that create supportive and respectful climates to 

be at the core of educational progress. 

Finally, young people themselves must be invited to lead. Education is not 

simply a knowledge transmission business; it is also a process of discovery, of 

unleashing the spirit within each child, of recognizing that young people have gifts 

to give, not just brains to receive. ESEA ought to encourage schools to implement 

effective student leadership and service—learning strategies that are both classroom 

and community-based. 

THE LARGER CONTEXT

As proud as I am to be a small part of the extraordinary work being done by Special Olympics athletes and volunteers and by the educators who have welcomed 

them to a place of central importance in schools, I also realize that we are only one 

part of what it will take to make schools more responsive to the needs of all children—to all of their needs and potential. For that reason, I am a firm believer in 

the need for a new approach to school reform that blends the breakthrough science 

and proven practices of the entire field of social and emotional learning with the 

accountability culture of contemporary education. I believe that the social and emotional elements of development are the missing piece in school reform and that the 

neglect of the social and emotional factors in learning is one of the reasons why it 

has been so difficult to enable students with intellectual disabilities to be accepted. 

That same neglect is contributing to frustration on the part of non-disabled students, but also on the part of thousands of teachers, administrators, and parents. 

A school improvement strategy that has an integrated SEL framework will be 

rooted in a fundamentally different vision that integrates the science of child development with a more complete concept of what it means to be an educated person. 

Our expectations of young people will include, but go beyond, academic competence. 

Success as a student must also mean becoming a caring, compassionate, and confident citizen. Schools will go beyond knowledge transfer to become sites for community building and development. 

CASEL has reviewed research and educational practice literatures from the past 

30 years and has established guidelines for effective strategies and programming to 

promote children’s social, emotional, and academic growth. State-of-the-art SEL 

practice has the following characteristics: 

1. Grounded in theory and research. It is based on sound theories of child development, incorporating approaches that demonstrate beneficial effects on children’s attitudes, behaviors, and school performance through scientific research. 

2. Teaches children to apply SEL skills and ethical values in school and 

daily life. Through systematic instruction and application of learning to everyday 

situations, it enhances children’s social, emotional, and ethical behavior. Children 

learn to recognize and manage their emotions, appreciate the perspectives of others, 

establish positive goals, make responsible decisions, and handle interpersonal situations effectively. They also develop responsible and respectful attitudes and values 

about self, others, work, health, and citizenship. 

3. Builds connection to school through caring, engaging classroom and 

school practices. It uses diverse teaching methods to engage students in creating 

classroom and school atmospheres where caring, responsibility, and a commitment 

to learning thrive. It nurtures students’ sense of emotional security and safety, and 

it strengthens relationships among students, teachers, other school personnel, and 

families. 

4. Provides developmentally and culturally appropriate instruction. It offers developmentally appropriate classroom instruction, including clearly specified 

13 

learning objectives, for each grade level from preschool through high school. It also 

emphasizes culturally, sensitivity and respect for diversity. 

5. Helps schools coordinate and unify programs that are often fragmented. It offers schools a coherent, unifying framework to promote the positive 

social, emotional, and academic growth of all students. It coordinates school programs that promote positive behavior and youth development, problem prevention, 

health, character, service-learning, and citizenship. 

6. Enhances academic achievement by addressing the affective and social 

dimensions of teaching and learning. It teaches students social and emotional 

competencies that encourage classroom participation, positive interactions with 

teachers, and good study habits. It introduces engaging teaching and learning methods, such as problem solving approaches and cooperative learning, that motivates 

students to learn and to succeed academically. 

7. Involves families and communities as partners. It involves school staff, 

peers, parents, and community members in applying and modeling SEL-related 

skills and attitudes at school, at home, and in the community. 

8. Establishes organizational supports and aligns policies that foster suc- cess. It ensures high quality program implementation by addressing factors that determine long-term success or failures of school-based programs. These include leadership, active participation in program planning by everyone involved, adequate 

time and resources, and alignment with school, district, State, and Federal policies. 

9. Provides high-quality staff development and support. It offers wellplanned professional development for all school personnel. This includes basic theoretical knowledge, modeling and practice of effective teaching methods, regular 

coaching, and constructive feedback from colleagues. 

10. Incorporates continuing evaluation and improvement. It begins with an 

assessment of school/district resources and needs to establish a good fit between the 

school’s concerns and aspirations with the best evidence-based SEL programming 

approaches. It continues gathering implementation and student outcome data to assess progress, ensure accountability, and shape program improvement. 

In summary, quality SEL-based school reform efforts have three main 

components: 

Classroom.—Successful SEL-based school reform equips teachers to support and 

engage students in their classrooms using evidence-based SEL strategies. Teachers 

are able to teach school and life skills such as problem solving, stress management, 

and conflict resolution; are able to infuse the curriculum with core values such as 

respect for self and others, truth telling, and responsibility; are able to promote self 

awareness, empathy, and caring all in ways that are compatible with academic goals 

and which improve time-on-task and classroom discipline. These competencies are 

not only designed to improve classroom performance, but are also highly correlated 

with life and work success and engaged citizenship. 

Climate.—Successful SEL-based school reform programs also improve school climate and student connection to their schools and teachers. In recent years, school 

climate has become an increasingly important indicator of school effectiveness. The 

best evidence-based SEL programs help schools become sophisticated architects of 

a productive and trusting learning environment, providing tools and strategies to 

help teachers and administrators transform discipline practices and convey consistent messages of inclusion, respect for all children, safety, and service. Students 

are able to apply the social and emotional competencies they learn outside the classroom, becoming agents for positive change and full partners in the life of the school. 

Special Olympics activities are particularly focused on school climate change and 

present hopeful strategies for improvement. 

Community.—Successful SEL-based school reform efforts promote strategies that 

engage students in community activities, while also engaging parents and community leaders in the life of the school. Parents are routinely involved in planning and 

support roles and invited to reinforce learning and healthy development at home. 

Service activities, after school enrichment programs, and cooperative partnerships 

with community-based organizations become the norm. An atmosphere of openness 

fosters new relationships that integrate new resources into a coherent plan that 

support student success. Again, Special Olympics activities can help by offering children didactic lessons in human exceptionality while also connecting them to meaningful service learning opportunities in the community. 

RESEARCH TELLS A HOPEFUL STORY: SUCCESS IS POSSIBLE

Several decades of research, practice, and policy innovation now demonstrate that 

it is possible to promote the academic, social, and emotional growth of preschool 

through high school students and the adults who care for them. The research indiVerDate Nov 24 2008 15:15 May 10, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00017 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\56645.TXT DENISE
14 

11Durlak, J.A., Weissberg, R.P., Dymnicki, A.B., Taylor, R.D., & Schellinger, K.B. (in press). 

‘‘The Impact of Enhancing Students’ Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-analysis of Schoolbased Universal Interventions.’’ Child Development. 

cates the classroom and school-wide programming benefits are powerful. In a landmark study that will appear in Child Development next year, CASEL analyzed 213 

school-based SEL studies—with experimental and control groups—involving 270,034 

students, and found that students who experienced high-quality SEL programming 

benefited in multiple ways: 

• Improved attendance, enhanced social relationships, and stronger commitment 

to learning and healthy development; 

• Decreased negative behavior and emotional distress and more constructive 

classroom behavior; 

• Decreased aggressive behavior and substance use that can lead to school failure; 

• Standardized test scores 11 percentile points higher than the control group. 

This study also showed SEL can be effectively delivered by regular classroom 

teachers,11 meaning it can be brought to scale in the schools we have now. 

THE POLICY OPPORTUNITY

There are many States and school districts that include the promotion of children’s social and emotional skills as part of their student learning goals and standards. One State, Illinois, has adopted formal ‘‘SEL Student Learning Standards’’ 

which have helped educators address the fragmentation that plagues schools and 

sets a framework for an integrated, child-development driven, education policy. 

Similar to English-language arts and mathematics standards, the SEL standards 

highlight the social-emotional competencies that students should know and be able 

to do. The Illinois SEL standards and developmental benchmarks are organized 

around three learning goals: (1) Develop self-awareness and self-management skills 

to achieve school and life success; (2) Use social awareness and interpersonal skills 

to establish and maintain positive relationships; and (3) Demonstrate decisionmaking skills and responsible behaviors in personal, school, and community contexts. Leaders within Illinois are now developing a regional model to support district-wide SEL in a cost-effective way across districts and schools. Similarly, in Alaska’s Anchorage School District, comprehensive SEL Learning Standards have been 

adopted and teachers have developed innovative teaching strategies that integrate 

SEL instruction into academic subjects. Finally, Ohio’s school climate guidelines 

now embrace SEL and the State is retooling its teacher preparation standards to 

include SEL. At the same time, the State PTA recently voted to put SEL at the top 

of its policy agenda. 

MOVING FORWARD WITH ESEA

Without a cohesive national strategy to integrate the many dimensions of learning, many students will not get the help and support they need. Social and emotional learning offers a positive solution that has already benefited children in thousands of classrooms, schools and districts. Now, ESEA provides an opportunity to 

put this solution into the hands of more young people and schools. A practical first 

step would be incorporating the provisions of the Academic, Social, and Emotional 

Learning Act into ESEA. 

The Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning Act (H.R. 4223) was introduced with bipartisan support in December. The bill authorizes the Department of 

Education to address the substantial rise in demand for SEL and builds the longterm infrastructure to bring SEL to scale. 

• Reach More Children with Evidence-based Social and Emotional Learning. Award 5-year competitive grants for district or State SEL initiatives. 

• Rigorously Measure and Broadly Share Results. Conduct an independent 

evaluation of grantees to determine the program’s impact on student achievement, 

attainment, and behavioral outcomes. 

• Build a National SEL Support System for Teachers, Administrators, 

School Districts, and States. Establish a national training and technical assistance center to provide high-quality information about research-based practices, professional development, and student assessment, and implementation tools. 

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. I hope our brief moments 

together can help set the stage for a future ESEA that benefits all students in new 

and meaningful ways. 

15 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Shriver, for all your 

work, and I thank you for that great testimony. 

Now we turn to Dr. Yancey. 

Welcome, Dr. Yancey. You have had a long and distinguished career. We welcome you here. Please proceed. 

STATEMENT OF ANTRONETTE (TONI) YANCEY, PROFESSOR, 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SERVICES, USL SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, AND CO-DIRECTOR, UCLA KAISER PERMANENTE CENTER FOR HEALTH EQUITY, LOS ANGELES, CA 

Ms. YANCEY. Thank you very much, Senator Harkin and Senators Enzi and Franken, for this invitation. 

Physical activity and sedentary behavior are really important 

targets for disparities reduction, because the very diseases that are 

responsible for most of the chronic disease disparities—namely, 

heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and so forth—are, in fact, 

driven, in part, by physical inactivity. 

We have a real problem, as I’m sure most of us know, with the 

childhood obesity epidemic. Rates have not only increased across 

the board, but communities of color have been particularly burdened by this excess in obesity. 

Similarly, in lower-income communities and communities of 

color, obstacles to an active lifestyle are quite daunting. These 

neighborhoods have fewer recreational and fitness facilities. There 

are fewer gardens, there are fewer appealing vistas, like oceans 

and mountains and lakes. There are fewer pedestrian amenities, 

like sidewalks and pedestrian bridges and crosswalks. In fact, what 

we’ve created in many of these communities are activity deserts, 

and people are move-insecure, kind of like being food-insecure. 

One study that we recently published in the Milbank Quarterly 

demonstrated that in lower-income communities, and communities 

of color, the numbers of outdoor ads, particularly for health-compromising behaviors that promote sugary beverages and fast foods, 

are particularly high. Something that, to my knowledge, no one 

had documented before was that there are also way too many ads 

for television shows and video games and other sedentarypromoting goods and services. There really are very few physicalactivity-promoting ads in any community, but those that exist are 

mostly concentrated in the affluent communities. 

Now, my colleague Dr. Pate and I have served on a number of 

committees, and certainly activity-focused physical education is a 

prime opportunity, but there are so many barriers to it. In fact, a 

recent California audit showed that fewer than half of the schools 

were actually meeting the elementary school target of 200 minutes 

every 10 days. We, in fact, conducted a statewide survey looking at 

public schools and the actual activity during PE, because many of 

the policies that have been promoted focus on increasing the duration of physical activity. In fact, if you increase the duration without addressing the quality, you just get a lot more time sitting 

around. In fact, we found that, in the best schools, the most affluent schools, about 40 percent of the time is spent during PE in 

moderate to vigorous physical activity. In the less affluent schools, 

only about 14 percent of the time is spent in actual moving around, 

at least at a brisk-walk level. 

16 

That’s one particular place that we need to focus, in terms of 

quality. And in California there’s actually a bill, AB 2705, that 

would require active physical education and active after-school programs. 

I’d like to highlight a couple of programs that I’m involved in, in 

the State of California. One is the Healthy Eating Active Communities Program of the California Endowment. It’s a statewide effort 

to mobilize collaboratives in six communities to really start to focus 

on the environments that surround children and that promote inactivity and poor eating, so that we can do something a little bit better. We’ve actually been involved in evaluating a portion of that 

project. The schools have done some pretty impressive things; 

they’ve actually lengthened PE periods, purchased new equipment, 

upgraded facilities and training, and taught teachers to deliver active PE. We still found that the schools that lengthened PE, most 

of them did not lengthen the amount of time kids spend in moderate to vigorous physical activity. So, that’s still something that 

really needs to be addressed from a policy standpoint. 

In my last bit of time, I’d like to address one other project. This 

is something that we started when I was the director of Chronic 

Disease Prevention and Health Promotion for the Los Angeles 

County Health Department, and it’s called Instant Recess. It’s 

something that people can do anywhere, anytime, anyplace, in any 

attire, and it’s been demonstrated that, in schools where they have 

these activity breaks, kids are more on task, they concentrate better, they have better grades, they have fewer visits to the nurse’s 

office and to the vice principal’s office for disciplinary problems. 

Also, in these schools, many times there are no PE specialists, so 

the other opportunities to increase activity are challenging. 

I brought you a copy of one of these Instant Recess breaks, that 

Dave Winfield of the San Diego Padres and ESPN actually worked 

on with us. We’re working with the Los Angeles Sparks and other 

organizations to drive this out into the communities. There are also 

some healthier options in the ballpark menus that we’ve gotten 

them to adopt, including veggie-dogs and sweet pepper hummus 

with baked pita chips and grapes. 

Thank you, and I look forward to the discussion. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Yancey follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF ANTRONETTE (TONI) YANCEY

SUMMARY

Low-resource communities are plagued by poor health and low educational attainment. Physical activity and sedentary behavior are particularly important as targets 

achieving health equity, since physical activity is protective against a host of the 

most common chronic diseases. Obstacles to an active lifestyle are more daunting 

in underserved communities. Neighborhoods in these communities have fewer recreational and fitness facilities, parks, private or community gardens, appealing vistas, and pedestrian amenities. Not coincidentally, substandard schools are the norm 

in these neighborhoods, with overcrowding, crumbling infrastructures, and fewer 

highly trained teachers. 

I would like to highlight two promising projects in which I am involved in California to illustrate innovative approaches to school physical activity: Healthy Eating 

Active Communities (HEAC), and Instant Recess®. The California Endowmentfunded HEAC initiative emphasizes practical interventions with low start-up and 

maintenance costs accessible to low-resource communities. School intervention strategies included lengthening PE periods, purchasing new equipment, upgrading facilities and training teachers to deliver active, enjoyable PE. Smaller class size, conVerDate Nov 24 2008 15:15 May 10, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\56645.TXT DENISE
17 

ducting PE outdoors vs. indoors, and activities involving the majority of participants 

in running and walking were generally associated with higher activity levels. These 

findings underscore the priority of quality improvement policies to promote physical 

activity during PE. PE is worthy of further policy attention because it is the only 

activity program that can benefit essentially all students, usually on a daily basis. 

Instant Recess, a public-private partnership between UCLA, the State and county 

health department and professional sports, is an evidence-based approach to render 

prolonged sitting as socially unacceptable as smoking, or drinking and driving. The 

approach taps the many cultural assets available in communities of color such as 

collectivism, strong civic and religious institutions touching most community members, and the centrality of music, dance and sports traditions to culture expression. 

Instant Recess 10-minute activity breaks are simple, structured, low-impact and 

music-driven, with sports or ethnic dance-based moves, and disseminated by DVD 

or CD and photo guide for ease of use by lay audiences. Venues with captive audiences such as schools, youth programs, worksites, sports arenas are targeted to 

drive fitness-promoting cultural change. We recently completed a systematic review 

of 40 studies, including several from our research team, documenting the effectiveness of brief activity breaks in increasing physical activity and improving organizational outcomes such as worker productivity and student academic performance. 

Widespread societal change will be required to get America moving and arrest the 

growth of childhood obesity. I have identified several guiding principles that will be 

important in building the social norm change and political will for aggressive legislative change: 

1. Focus on decisionmakers governing high-exposure settings across sectors of society. 

2. Emphasize approaches tailored to the needs of sedentary populations to reduce 

health disparities and generate the greatest organizational and individual return on 

investment. 

3. Rely less on individual motivation, supportive cultural values, or widespread 

access to active leisure opportunities. 

Senator Harkin and members of the committee, thank you for this invitation. 

During the past 5 years, I have been pleased to serve on several Institute of Medicine Committees focused on childhood obesity prevention, and with Dr. Pate on the 

Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee and National Physical Activity 

Plan Coordinating Committee. Last month I was honored by my appointment to the 

Board of Directors of the Partnership for a Healthier America, to work with Honorary Chair First Lady Michelle Obama in her campaign to end the childhood obesity epidemic. 

I have been engaged in research for the past 20 years on disparities in chronic 

disease risk and burden affecting socioeconomically marginalized communities, and 

in designing and testing feasible and effective interventions to achieve health equity. Physical activity and sedentary behavior are particularly important as targets 

for reducing health disparities and achieving health equity. Obesity and most diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes for which physical activity is beneficial are more prevalent in communities of color. Physical activity levels in these 

communities are generally lower than those in the population at large, and disparities may be increasing. 

Obstacles to an active lifestyle are indeed more daunting in underserved communities. Neighborhoods in these communities have fewer recreational and fitness facilities, parks, private or community gardens, appealing vistas such as oceans or 

lakes, and pedestrian amenities like sidewalks and crosswalks. Proximity to activity-promoting resources is important, because people are more likely to use nearby 

resources. Many poor neighborhoods are, in fact, ‘‘activity deserts’’—unsafe, dirty, 

and poorly lit and maintained. There is more stress-inducing noise, traffic congestion, and information overload from outdoor ads, including those promoting products 

associated with sedentary behaviors like films, TV shows, and autos. Few ads, such 

as for sporting equipment or fitness clubs, promote physical activity in any community—a scant 1 percent according to our recent study. Not coincidentally, substandard schools are the norm in these neighborhoods, with overcrowding, crumbling infrastructures, and fewer highly trained teachers, including PE specialists, 

resulting in lower levels of academic achievement and persistence. 

Activity-focused physical education (PE) represents an effective, evidence-based 

method of improving physical activity and fitness. Increasing PE and recess duration and frequency have been primary policy targets for arresting youth obesity. Yet, 

research, State-level legislative policy changes and authoritative recommendations 

have not produced substantive improvements. Existing requirements in most States 

18 

are poorly supported and enforced as a result of competing priorities for fiscal, 

scheduling and spatial resources, in part due to legislative pressure emphasizing 

standardized test scores as the yardstick of school performance. For example, a California Department of Education PE audit found that fewer than half of school districts met the mandated elementary school PE requirement of 200 minutes per 10 

days. UCLA, in collaboration with Samuels and Associates, studied a random sample of public school districts throughout the State. We found that the average percentage of time in PE that kids were at least moderately active was only 26 percent, 

ranging from 14 percent in low-resource schools scoring low on fitness tests to 40 

percent in the high-fitness-scoring, higher resource schools. The proportion of active 

time in PE was positively associated with standardized test scores, in both higher 

and lower resource schools. Thus, ensuring that school PE is active could improve 

both academic performance and health. 

There are promising ways of increasing physical activity in school and after-school 

settings to augment PE. In a recent University of Kansas study, for example, integrating brief activity-focused lessons into the academic curriculum not only increased elementary school children’s physical activity, in and outside of school, but 

also improved academic performance across several content areas. Those intervention schools that added at least 75 minutes per week in active lessons significantly 

slowed the weight gain observed in the control schools. Institution of after-school 

program guidelines recommending certain types and amounts of physical activity 

are also emerging from State departments of education and health. I want to call 

to your attention to bill AB 2705 in California that would require that PE and afterschool programs be active. 

I would like to highlight two promising projects in which I am involved in California to illustrate innovative approaches to school physical activity: Healthy Eating 

Active Communities (HEAC), and Instant Recess®. The California Endowmentfunded HEAC initiative emphasizes practical interventions with low start-up and 

maintenance costs accessible to low-resource communities. School intervention strategies included lengthening PE periods, purchasing new equipment, upgrading facilities and training teachers to deliver active, enjoyable PE. Smaller class size, conducting PE outdoors vs. indoors, and activities involving the majority of participants 

in running and walking were generally associated with higher activity levels. These 

findings underscore the priority of quality improvement policies to promote physical 

activity during PE. PE is worthy of further policy attention because it is the only 

activity program that can benefit essentially all students, usually on a daily basis. 

Instant Recess, a public-private partnership between UCLA, the State and county 

health department and professional sports, is an evidence-based approach to render 

prolonged sitting as socially unacceptable as smoking, or drinking and driving. The 

approach taps the many cultural assets available in communities of color such as 

collectivism, strong civic and religious institutions touching most community members, and the centrality of music, dance and sports traditions to culture expression. 

Instant Recess 10-minute activity breaks are simple, structured, low-impact and 

music-driven, with sports or ethnic dance-based moves, and disseminated by DVD 

or CD and photo guide for ease of use by lay audiences. Venues with captive audiences such as schools, youth programs, worksites, sports arenas are targeted to 

drive fitness-promoting cultural change. The approach has been adopted by the San 

Diego Padres, the Los Angeles Sparks, school districts and worksites throughout 

California, in Winston-Salem, NC and in Washington, DC, the latter supported by 

daily Pacifica radio broadcasts of the breaks. We recently completed a systematic 

review of 40 studies, including several from our research team, documenting the effectiveness of brief activity breaks in increasing physical activity and improving organizational outcomes such as worker productivity and student academic performance. 

Widespread societal change will be required to get America moving and arrest the 

growth of childhood obesity. In the course of my research, and my experience in the 

practice of medicine and heading a health department, I have identified several priorities that will be important in building the social norm change and political will 

for aggressive legislative change: 

1. Focus on decisionmakers governing high-exposure settings—one employer, politician, or school principal or board member can influence the social and cultural environments of hundreds or thousands of people for years at a time. 

2. Emphasize approaches tailored to the needs of sedentary population subgroups 

to reduce health disparities. Helping at-risk communities be more active should generate the greatest organizational and individual return on investment. 

3. Rely less on individual motivation, supportive cultural values, or widespread 

access to active leisure opportunities. Telling individuals to ‘‘just do it’’ cannot work 

19 

when many Americans live in activity deserts and PE and recess have been taken 

out of schools. 

We have a great deal of evidence about how to make our schools and communities 

more activity-friendly for children and adults. With physical inactivity being the 

fourth leading cause of death and childhood obesity continuing to rise, all sectors 

of society need to take action to get Americans moving. 

Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Dr. Yancey, thank you very much. I want to 

know more about Instant Recess and the 10-minute breaks. 

Dr. Levin, welcome, and please proceed. 

STATEMENT OF BARBARA LEVIN, MPH, MD, CEO, CHOTA 

COMMUNITY HEALTH SERVICES, MADISONVILLE, TN 

Dr. LEVIN. Good afternoon. I’d like to thank you, Chairman Harkin and Ranking Member Enzi, Senator Franken, and my home 

Senator, Lamar Alexander. 

I’m honored to be asked to speak with you today as a representative of Chota Community Health Services, a federally qualified 

community health center operating a school-based clinic in Monroe 

County, which is a rural Appalachian community in east Tennessee. I’m excited about sharing with you the achievements of this 

10-year program, which has impacted the lives of thousands of children and their family. 

This is a homegrown project that works and can be reproduced 

throughout the country. The school-based clinic is both a basis for 

healthcare as well as a launching point for some of the other things 

about nutrition and wellness that we know are so important. 

As a public-health physician, I believe that school health is the 

most effective way to put prevention to work for our communities’ 

children. We know that healthy students learn better. Healthcare 

in the schools represents a win-win situation. The success of this 

project comes from a well-developed team of healthcare providers, 

school officials, county agencies, and third-party payers. 

Let me introduce myself and two members of my team. I came 

to this community in 1979 as a National Health Service Corps volunteer. 

Sonia Hardin, sitting behind me, is a nurse, and in 1989 she was 

the only school nurse for the entire county. With the help of grants 

and supportive school administration, we now have school nurses 

in all the county schools, and nurse practitioners in eight of those 

schools. We also have a full-scale mental health program with psychiatric social workers. 

Laura Harris, sitting next to Ms. Hardin, was hired as a school 

clinic administrator in 2000, and it’s her careful management of 

the grant and reimbursement dollars which has transformed a 3- 

year project into an ongoing entity partially funded by grant moneys from Chota Community Health Services. 

The health needs of our students are extensive: lack of access to 

primary care and dental services, limited mental health services, 

and insufficient health education. My message today is one of success and challenge. To meet these identified needs, we began a program for sports physical and dental screenings before we knew 

from where the funding would come. 

Then, in 2000, the successful Rural Health Outreach application 

made the dream of a school-based clinic a reality. The first site was 

20 

in a community 35 miles from the closest hospital. There was not 

a physician in town. Children who were ill traveled for care, and 

frequently to an emergency room at night because their parents 

work during the day. 

Throughout the 10 years, we’ve built on this plan. Today, our 

school-based services provide care for 5,600 students, everything 

from injury evaluation to catheterization, as well as acute and 

chronic care. Last year, there were 46,000 visits in our program. 

Beyond the numbers, this program is successful in bringing individual care to our students. The impact on physical and mental 

health has been tremendous. 

Through the school-based clinic, our providers have diagnosed 

appendicitis, hepatitis, a brain tumor, diabetes, hypertension, social-anxiety disorder, just to name a few. We’ve educated parents 

not to use ‘‘old timey’’ remedies. We’ve treated MRSA, strep outbreaks, and acute asthma, all to keep students out of emergency 

rooms. In addition, we focused on these preventive services including well-child care and sports physicals. 

In partnership with our educators, we provided in-class instruction for nutrition, tobacco prevention and cessation, anti-bullying 

programs, and, of course, physical education. 

Working with the county, a dental health program has been put 

into place. The program actually picks students up at the school, 

provides needed preventive and restorative services, and then returns them to class. 

One of our greatest challenges is the obesity epidemic, a national 

crisis. In Monroe County, only one-half of our students maintain a 

healthy weight. Many environmental changes were made in the 

last 5 years; and, while we have more obese children entering kindergarten, we’ve at least stabilized the trend once they enter 

school, and have increased community awareness of this issue. 

One story of individual success is about Billy, a high school student whose distraught mother sought medical care for his early hypertension. The problem was his weight, 285 pounds at age 14. The 

doctor collaborated with the schools and Billy began meeting with 

the school nurse. He lost 20 pounds and his blood pressure went 

down. Billy learned lifelong lessons about weight management and 

exercise. Adding physical health and emotional support services are 

essential to a student’s success in school. Educating the whole child 

requires the whole community. Monroe County brings the community into the school as a resource. The lessons learned from our experience is that serving children in school is not only efficient, but 

highly successful. To change the status of America’s health, we 

must focus on our children. What is at stake here is actually the 

future of our country. 

Thank you for your time, and I’m happy to answer any questions. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Levin follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF BARBARA LEVIN, MPH, MD 

I am grateful for this opportunity to submit written testimony on behalf of Chota 

Community Health Services, a federally qualified community health center in Monroe County, TN that operates school-based health centers (SBHCs). SBHCs ensure 

that 1.7 million children and adolescents across the country gain access to comprehensive medical care, mental health services, preventive care, social services, and 

21 

youth development. These services are provided without concern for students’ ability 

to pay in a location that meets children and adolescents where they are: at school. 

First, I would like to thank the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

Committee for their tireless work on ensuring that school-based health centers were 

included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. 

In addition, I would like to thank Chairman Harkin, Ranking Member Enzi, 

members of the committee, and in particular Senator Alexander’s office and the 

Tennessee Primary Care Association for the opportunity to share with you the 

achievements of a 10-year-old school-based health care program, which has impacted the lives of thousands of children and their families in Monroe County, a 

rural Appalachian community in east Tennessee. It is exciting to able to talk with 

you about a homegrown project that works, and can be reproduced throughout the 

country. As a public health physician, I have found the school program to be the 

most effective way to put prevention to work for our community’s children. The success of this project comes from the well-developed team of health care providers, 

school officials, county agencies, and third party payers, who work closely together 

to assure the positive health status of each child. 

To begin, let me introduce myself and two members of the team. I am a family 

physician, working in this community since 1979. I have medical training from the 

University of California, San Francisco, a public health degree from the University 

of Texas at Houston, and a residency in Family and Community Medicine from the 

University of Missouri Columbia, where I was trained to be a rural physician. 

Sonia Hardin, sitting behind me, is a RN who was raised in Monroe County and 

has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee, and is working on her 

master’s in school administration. She worked with me at the Monroe County 

Health Department, and left to join the school health program in 1989. At the time 

she was the only school nurse for over 4,800 school children. Working together with 

the help of grants and a supportive school administration, we now have school 

nurses in each of the 12 county schools and school-based clinics staffed by nurse 

practitioners in 8 of those schools. There is also a full-scale mental health program 

with psychiatric social workers seeing students for needed emotional health concerns. 

Laura Harris, sitting next to Ms. Hardin, grew up in Tellico Plains Tennessee and 

has a degree in non-profit health administration from the University of Tennessee 

Chattanooga. In 2000, she was hired as the school clinic administrator for the new 

School-based Clinic Grant. It is her careful management of grant and reimbursement dollars which grew a 3-year Rural Health Outreach grant into an ongoing 

project, which is partially funded at present by monies from Chota Community 

Health Center’s Federal HRSA 330 Grant. General school health service is a 

$400,000 line in the Monroe County School System budget. Chota Community 

Health Services contributes about $200,000 from the Federal 330 grant monies of 

$650,000. An additional $150,000 was earned last year through patient care revenues. This budget covers all school nurses as well as the school-based clinics as well 

as other school health programs, such as the Coordinated School Health Program. 

Chota Community Health Services provides 3.4 FTE nursing personnel, 5 days of 

nurse practitioner time, a medical director, and the equivalent of one licensed clinical social worker. 

When the school health services were beginning in 1992, the extensive needs were 

clear: 

• Children often were without access to primary medical and dental care. 

• While there was a shortage of medical personnel, the shortage of mental health 

providers was critical. 

• Health education for children and their families was woefully insufficient. 

Many of these problems were clear from the county’s description; Monroe County 

was an ‘‘at-risk’’ unit as described by the Appalachian Regional Commission. With 

a chronic need for health care providers, Monroe County continues to be a manpower shortage area. With economic figures that vary from concerning to terrible, 

the County continues to meet a number of socio-educational challenges. Only 10.8 

percent of the population has a degree above high school; 27.6 percent of the adult 

population is functionally illiterate. The school free and reduced lunch data for February 2010 was 72.8 percent. This is in a county in which the unemployment rate 

has gone from 7.2 percent in September 2008 to over 20 percent in May 2009. The 

rate is now stabilizing at near 16 percent. 

Initially, Sonia was able to identify specific financial resources to meet some of 

these challenges. This is the mixed message of success and challenges, which I will 

present today. Monroe County’s School Health Program has made a positive impact 

on our community and we are financially stable; but we have been frugal, innovaVerDate Nov 24 2008 15:15 May 10, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00025 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\56645.TXT DENISE
22 

tive, and lucky. Hopefully, the funding streams which you in the Senate are considering will make this type of development much easier. The lack of clear Federal 

CMS guidelines for billing for school-based services limits the development of such 

programs. Fifty percent of funding is constantly being sought through grant funding. 

Without clear funding, we began a program for sports physicals, and dental 

screenings. An advisory group of local health care providers was formed to work 

with the School Board on addressing these concerns. When an application for Rural 

Health Outreach grant dollars was accepted in 2000, the dream of a school-based 

clinic, staffed with nurse practitioners to provide primary care became a reality, and 

we were on our way. 

The original site was Tellico Plains, a community of 4,500, in the Tellico Plains 

Mountains, 35 miles to the closest emergency room. Initially, there was not a physician in the community. Children who were ill had to travel for such care; and frequently showed up in an emergency room at night because their parents were working and unable to take them earlier. (One of the original evaluation measures for 

this grant was a decrease in the utilization of the emergency room by school-aged 

children for non-emergency care.) While prescriptions were written for necessary 

medications, some medicines were provided on site to start a child’s recovery as soon 

as possible. The original plan included mental health coverage and outreach workers. Many of these children were uninsured, which created greater havoc in accessing resources for them. 

Through the 10 years, we have built on this plan. The school-based services provide daily health supervision for 5,600 students as well as acute and chronic care. 

The clinics also provide services for the Monroe County school staff and their immediate families. We now have eight school-based clinics, with school nurses in each 

county school. In 2008–2009, there were 39,000 visits with school nurses and 2,800 

billable visits with nurse practitioners. Last year, there were six mental health providers (licensed clinical social workers) who provided care to over 300 children in 

a total of 3,800 visits this school year alone. In the current year, this component 

of the program has grown with more than 170-plus intakes for behavioral health 

services, and 3,619 one-on-one counseling sessions from August through March. The 

increase in mental health services can be attributed to many factors, including the 

positive impact of these services as well as the economic challenges facing the community at the present time. 

In the past, mental health concerns have often been glossed over and under-diagnosed in this community. For example, the first year of the rural health outreach 

grant, a teacher approached the behavioral health counselor, and said she was concerned about a child in first grade who rarely spoke to anyone all year. The child 

did not talk to the teacher, the other students, or anyone at school. The same thing 

had occurred the year before while this student was in kindergarten. The teacher 

knew the child was learning well, completing assignments, and followed directions 

well. The teacher was just concerned because this student spoke to no one. 

The Licensed Clinical Social Worker followed up with the parent for a meeting 

and an intake for family history, etc. The mother stated this child was always ‘‘like 

that’’ and did not think anything of it. The counselor referred the student for a medical evaluation and medications for social anxiety disorder were prescribed. Within 

a week, the child was talking with other children in her room and interacting with 

the faculty and staff. The story clearly demonstrated one factor in this child’s lack 

of treatment was the failure of anyone to realize that there was a problem. Without 

the clinical services consultation, this child might have continued through school 

without any social interactions. 

Behavioral health addresses children of divorce, grief, physical and sexual abuse, 

bullying, alcohol and drug abuse, and teen pregnancy. 

• One child being currently seen had had problems at school and was failing all 

classes and was in the principal’s office weekly for discipline problems. After receiving counseling services working on anger management, the child is now passing all 

classes and is rarely in the principal’s office. He is being promoted to the eighth 

grade because of the improvements in his grades. 

• Another child was home-schooled because of anxiety and difficulty adjusting in 

the school setting. The child returned to school and entered counseling to see if the 

issues would improve. The child is now passing all classes, and he has no unexcused 

attendance! The mother attributes this success to the individual counseling sessions 

she receives in the school setting. 

• An angry student whose family was going through divorce was fighting all the 

time, and received counseling for anger management and issues of divorce. This 

child is no longer experiencing problems with fighting. 

23 

• Another child, whose parents are in drug rehab, is living with grandparents, 

and has been belligerent to family, school faculty and friends. With counseling, his 

grades and behavior have improved. 

The impact on the physical health of the children has been as great. Through the 

school-based clinic, our providers have diagnosed appendicitis, hepatitis, a fatal 

brain tumor, diabetes, and hypertension in middle and high school children, to name 

a few. We have educated parents to treat ear infections, and not to use old timey 

remedies such as urine in the ear. We have controlled and treated MRSA and strep 

outbreaks, immunized children and obtained treatment for numerous acute diseases 

such as conjunctivitis, otitis media, urine infections, and acute asthma episodes— 

all to keep children out of the emergency room. 

In addition, the school-based system is focused on preventive services—primary, 

secondary, and tertiary prevention. This year we project that over 500 well-child 

physicals will have occurred during school hours with an additional 250 sports 

physicals. One high school student, who had not had a visit in a medical office since 

his kindergarten entrance exam, was recently seen for a sports physical. 

All children with asthma and diabetes have individual action plans. These numbers should not obscure the fact that this program is successful, individual by individual. The child with an acute care problem which is quickly resolved so he/she 

can return to class is as important to us as the one with chronic health care needs 

which require daily interventions. Managing and educating children on diabetes 

management about how to give their insulin injections and how to count carbohydrates, is a normal daily activity for one of our school nurses. 

Working with the County, a dental health program has been in place since 1986. 

This program actually picks children up at school, provides needed preventive and 

restorative services, and returns them to class. All preschool and kindergarten children in the county are screened for dental health needs. 

One of greatest challenges is the obesity epidemic which is impacting Monroe 

County as well as the body mass index (BMI’s) on all children annually. Initially 

in 2002–2003, 51.6 percent of the 5,000 students had normal body weight, while 

46.3 percent were found either to be obese or at risk of obesity. We have instituted 

a number of environmental changes, including changing the cafeteria food options, 

altering school rewards to deemphasize food, and removing soda machines from the 

primary schools. We have monitored a measurable difference with these interventions, which focus on dietary changes, increased physical exercise, and health education. Over the last 7 years, the figures for children with healthy weights have decreased from 54.4 percent to 52.1 percent in 2009–2010. This remains a critical 

issue for the combined school-based clinical and coordinated school staff. 

The most heart warming are the stories of individual success: Billy, a high school 

student was brought to his family doctor by his distraught mother to deal with early 

hypertension. The basis of this problem was his weight; he weighted 285+ pounds 

at age 14. The doctor collaborated with the school system, and Billy began a program of meeting a few minutes each week with his school nurse. He lost more than 

20 pounds by the end of the school year, and his blood pressure went down. The 

additional exercise he was getting helped both problems; he learned some life long 

skills about weight management and health from this experience. 

At the end of the original 3-year Federal Rural Health Outreach grant, the evaluation showed that we had impacted school attendance, and particularly teacher attendance. How does one measure all the impact of such a program? Studies suggest 

that adding various physical health, social, recreational, and emotional support 

services are essential to children’s success in school. Nearly a century of research 

has come to one conclusion: children develop along multiple, interconnected domains 

and when one developmental domain is ignored, other domains may suffer 

(Brainerd). 

Monroe County has integrated the Centers for Disease Control Coordinated 

School Health Model to address such non-academic barriers to success. Through this 

model the basic physical, mental, social, and emotional health needs of young people 

and their families are recognized and addressed. In addition, community engagement, together with school efforts, promotes a school climate that is safe, supportive, 

and respectful. Educating the whole child requires the whole community. Monroe 

County brings the community into the school and has the school see the community 

as a resource. Strong community partnerships developed through the Coordinated 

School Health Model are interweaving their resources into the school setting. 

The lessons learned from the Monroe County experience is that serving children 

in their natural habitat is not only efficient, but highly successful. As one famous 

criminal reportedly said, ‘‘Why do you rob banks, because that is where the money 

is!’’ Success with changing the health status of America must focus on our children. 

While families can not remove themselves from this responsibility, there must be 

24 

an active partnership between the child, his/her family, the school and the community to assure the appropriate utilization of services and positive outcomes. 

What is at stake here is nothing less than the future health of our country. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Dr. Levin. 

Now we’ll close up with Beth Kirkpatrick, who’s also had a long 

and distinguished career in this field. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Welcome. 

STATEMENT OF BETH KIRKPATRICK, CO-DIRECTOR, GRUNDY 

CENTER PE4LIFE ACADEMY, GRUNDY CENTER, IA 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Thank you so much, Senator Harkin. 

I’m very, very much appreciative to be here Senator Harkin, Senator Enzi, and Senator Franken. 

One of the great things about living in Iowa is that our representation is fantastic. 

Senator Tom Harkin, I can’t imagine anybody better to head up 

this committee, so we appreciate that. 

[Laughter.] 

In fact, when you look at this, Health, Education, Labor, and 

Pensions, it doesn’t look like it even goes together. In this generation, as a third of these kids are going to be disabled by age 50, 

they will no longer be able to pay into the pensions, they won’t be 

able to pay into portions of the healthcare industry. It will take another 5 percent of our population to care for this generation when 

they’re 50 years old. So, this does all work together. 

I’m from the farm. My parents were farmers, my grandparents 

were farmers. When something doesn’t work, you don’t keep doing 

it. Now, I’m a very practical individual. When I started teaching 

physical education and the sports-skill model was utterly failing, 

only 10 percent of my kids and my students in my classes were actually being moderate to vigorous. We weren’t using the technologies that were invented for the field. Doing a heart-rate monitor test or a cardiovascular test without a heart-rate monitor was 

shocking. I was using Third World technologies, a stop watch, to 

test 65 kids at a time with a cardio test, where I knew that the 

obese child would fail, that the kid who has asthma would fail, that 

the kid who is being left behind would be in a vulnerable position 

for exercise abuse. 

So, in my mind, the revolution had to start. And I think when 

you look at what happens, and when you really have a true revolution, you fix what’s wrong in your own school. I’ve lived in Grundy 

Center for 35 years; live in the same house with the same husband. 

We’ve gotten a project going on there. What we believe is that we 

need all 2,500 people to get on board. When our daily physical education program was failing, we realized we had to go after everybody in the community. 

What we did was modernize. We took technologies that were invented. We took heart-rate monitors. We put them on every kid. 

We downloaded. It takes Rick Schupbach—I think, the best teacher 

in America—it takes him 15 minutes a week to download all of the 

heart-rate data from every class, from every kid, from the entire 

elementary or the entire high school. We then used the same facilities that—we ended up taking the wrestling room from the wresVerDate Nov 24 2008 15:15 May 10, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00028 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\56645.TXT DENISE
25 

tlers, we have them wrestle in the elementary gym—we took the 

room, filled it with fabulous equipment, got some grants, went after 

some things. We opened up the doors from 4:30 a.m. until 8 a.m., 

and from 3:30 p.m. until 8 p.m., so that we could go after the parents and community members. It’s one thing to say we want to fix 

the kids, but, actually, by fixing the kids—and our motto is ‘‘not 

our kids’’—we will not let our kids go into life in an unhealthy way. 

This energy that we’ve taken with the community coming in, we 

didn’t know if we could even get those parents to come in and use 

our facilities. We had to have Healthy Living seminars. Once every 

3 weeks, we had to do free fitness testing. We do a body-age assessment. We had to look at lifestyle indicators beyond functional fitness. I could never understand why would we continue to do a pull 

up test, which is all-or-none, when 8 out of 10 kids can’t do a single 

pull up. There are other ways to measure, other things to measure. 

Weak arms are not a risk factor for any major or minor disease. 

What we looked at was blood pressure. We looked at electromyograms to assess stress. We have 11 million kids who are on antidepressants. We have to look at the things that matter. 

What our program has been about is going after everybody. We 

put heart-rate monitors in the day in the life of 700 people in our 

community. We got kids to volunteer their parents to come in. It’s 

one-on-one consultation. By putting on the heart-rate monitor and 

letting the parents see what they were doing all through the day, 

and putting these printouts up on the wall of our gymnasium, as 

Senator Harkin has seen, you walk in and you see hundreds of 

heart-rate printouts that show, shockingly, not one person was anything other than sedentary. The reason obesity has tripled in the 

last 10 years is because we have an entire sedentary population, 

which stunned and shocked us. 

It’s also true that if you put the heart-rate monitor in the day 

in the life of a kid in school when they don’t have physical education, you have a sedentary child. This is the thing that would 

concern anyone who sees this. I believe that the lack of modernization in a profession that belongs as a preventive arm of the 

healthcare industry has been left aside. We have people talking 

about what’s going on in physical education. We have a modern approach. We use classical music. We use overhead projectors that 

are built into the ceiling to shoot our concepts onto the wall. And 

what we have is a movement. 

We have people who believe in what we’re doing. What we’ve had 

is, we’ve lifted up the entire student body. Our academics scores 

have increased when we increased physical education. We believe 

that we want a whole child, we want energy, and we want people 

to go into our society that feel good about themselves that come out 

with lifestyle prescriptions. 

Our kids our filling out seven different lifestyle prescriptions, 

starting in fourth grade; so, by the time they get to be a senior, 

they have backup plans. If their lives aren’t going the way they 

want, they’ve got plan B, plan C, plan D. 

We believe that suicide is an awful, awful thing to have as a No. 

1 cause of death from ages 15 to 25. We’re out there. And we believe that the change and the implementation of these strategies is 

what physical education should be all about. 

26 

[Applause.] 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Kirkpatrick follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF BETH KIRKPATRICK

SUMMARY

Lifestyle illness and chronic diseases that begin in childhood and result in early 

death and early disabilities are changing the dynamics of our society. Lifetime illnesses will require lifetime investments and a ‘‘Rethinking, Retooling, and Retraining’’ of our physical education professionals. My pioneering efforts introducing EKG 

accurate and downloadable Heart Rate monitors to our students more than 25 years 

ago, has led to the documentation and visual evidence of what is working with our 

students and what is working with our curriculum and class format design. 

The ability to retrieve quantitative data from every student in every physical education class and athletic practice has provided us with a vision and a change in 

focus for our program. Physical Education must reach outside the walls of the gymnasium and specific strategies to accomplish that are in place. Old fashioned fitness 

testing has been replaced with lifestyle assessments that include health risk appraisals, blood pressure, stress assessments, and full heart rate information in the 

new Cardio Testing Protocol for students that includes the visual portrait of the 

cardio testing. The information from this revolutionary testing protocol includes documentation that is sent to student record automatically, with the time and more importantly, with the heart rate results of pre-exercise heart rate, heart rate throughout the cardio testing, and recovery heart rate from this known intensity during the 

cardio testing. 

Revolutionizing our approach, changing our fitness tests to lifestyle assessments 

that provide us with lifestyle indicators for present or future health problems, using 

heart rate intensities during physical education class with continuous feedback that 

gives all children the permission to adjust intensity throughout class and throughout all cardio fitness testing, and the information that wearing a heart rate monitor 

throughout the day and night, now provides us with a clear picture of each student’s 

lifestyle issues. Our physical education program includes reaching the entire community through specific strategies of lifestyle assessments that are offered free to 

all community members, membership in a fitness center situated inside the high 

school fitness center, healthy living seminars each month for our community, and 

using a lifestyle curriculum STAR TECH PE. 

This change in focus, change in class format, change in assessment, change in our 

tools from the past to the technologies of the future, and change in our scope of students that now include their parents as well as the full community, has given us 

an evolution over the past 20 years that now is providing us with a clear vision for 

the future. 

I am pleased to be invited to speak about the academic and non-academic benefits 

of physical education and to discuss ways schools can integrate comprehensive and 

high-quality physical education into the curriculum and daily school routines. Special thanks go to Senator Tom Harkin and Senator Mike Enzi for their dedicated 

efforts to help children achieve the potential that is theirs through an active and 

healthy life. As documenting evidence, I want to include particularly significant 

findings from 22 separate documents, each of which either demonstrates the health 

status of children in America and the alarming trends associated with the data, or 

which provide support to the role of Physical Education programs in the schools to 

be part of an effective intervention to treat and especially to prevent these ‘‘Lifestyle 

Diseases’’ that are endemic to our society. 

In the past few years, we have seen large population studies that demonstrate the 

contributions of physical activity to the prevention of obesity and its relating effects, 

and to the contributions of quality physical education programs to not only the preventive health measures, but also to school attendance, academic achievement, and 

improvement in student behavior. 

The California Study and the recent Texas study provide data on millions of 

school children that show a direct and positive relationship between physical fitness 

achievement in quality physical education programs and academic achievement as 

measured by standardized test scores. Our research in the rural population of 

Grundy Center, IA, has also shown very similar findings within our student population. 

Significant in all of the studies completed to date were findings highlighted in 

documents below, demonstrating that reducing time in academic subjects to allow 

27 

for increased time in physical education did not reduce academic achievement, and 

that allowing time in the school day for quality physical education programs and 

other physical activity demonstrated an improvement in academic achievement. 

Coupled with the reduced health care costs to be faced by obese children who become obese adults, providing for a program that also boosts academic achievement 

seems to be an investment in the children of this Nation that will provide nothing 

but benefits. 

1. In looking at the CDC’s At-A-Glance, the chart on p. 4 and the graph on p. 

5 indicate declining activity levels among young people. On p. 5, the first Idea 

for Improvement states, ‘‘Well-designed programs in schools to increase 

physical activity in physical education classes have been shown to be effective.’’ 

2. Perhaps the most powerful evidence is found in the American Heart Association’s article found in the medical journal Circulation. Specifically, attention 

should be drawn to PP. 1216–1217, the section entitled Evidence: Physical 

Activity During the School Day and on p. 1220, Policy and Practice Recommendations 1, 2, and especially, 4. 

3. In their 2006 Report on National Health Priorities: Reducing Obesity, Heart 

Disease, Cancer, Diabetes and Other Diet- and Inactivity-Related Diseases, 

Costs and Disabilities, the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity 

(NANA) found that two-thirds of premature deaths in the United States are 

due to poor nutrition, physical inactivity and tobacco use. Also, over the past 

25 years, obesity rates have doubled among U.S. adults and tripled in children and teens. Diet and inactivity are cross-cutting risk factors, contributing significantly to four out of the six leading causes of death (i.e., heart 

disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. The report also states that, according to the 

U.S. Department of Agriculture, healthier diets could prevent at least $71 

billion per year in medical costs, lost productivity, and lost lives. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that if all physically 

inactive Americans became active, we would save $77 billion in annual medical costs. 

4. In matters of school policy, the issue of Governance and Leadership, from 

the American Association of School Administrators, was distributed to EVERY 

school superintendent in the United States during the past year as a part of 

Healthy Living News. Also addressed in this document are factors related to 

funding. 

5. In Active Education, a summary from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, each of the bold-faced, highlighted statements are drawn from a strong collection of extensive research relating to physical activity and academic 

achievement. 

6. In the Journal of Exercise Physiology study, the California Study examining 

the relationship between physical fitness achievement and academic performance, 

among 884,715 students, demonstrates a direct and powerful relationship between 

these variables. See especially the chart on p. 16 and related results. 

7. A reprint from the December 2007 issue of State Legislatures, entitled, PE 

Makes a Comeback, highlights a series of findings that have shown in State 

legislation in States around the country, and the effects these are beginning 

to see. On p. 1, Senator Jane Nelson of Texas States, ‘‘There’s mounting evidence 

that physical activity not only reduces the risk of chronic diseases, it also 

helps academic performance.’’ 

The Following Articles Relate Specifically to Issues for QUALITY PROGRAMS: 

8. Ken Cooper, M.D., was the first cardiologist for NASA, and worked directly 

with each of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts. In addition, he founded 

the Center for Aerobic Research and the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, and served 

for many years as the team physician for the Dallas Cowboys football team. Being 

a close and consistent supporter of quality physical education programs, his statement on the New Emphasis should be a clarion-call for all to follow. 

9. In the articles, Exercise Seen as Priming Pump for Students’ Academic 

Strides, Dr. John J. Ratey, a clinical associate of psychiatry at Harvard Medical 

School refers to exercise as the ‘‘Miracle Gro’’ for the brain. Specifically, he states 

that ‘‘exercise prompts the brain to produce greater amounts of a protein called 

brain-derived neurotrophin factor, or BDNF, which Dr. Ratey likes to call ‘‘Miracle 

Gro’’ for the brain . . . Other research also suggest that exercise plays a role in 

neurogenesis, the production of new brain cells . . . ’’ This article describes the 

Physical Education program in Naperville, IL, supported as one of the PE4Life CenVerDate Nov 24 2008 15:15 May 10, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00031 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\56645.TXT DENISE
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* For a complete description of his findings, refer to Ratey’s book entitled: SPARK: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. 

ters, an exemplary program that provides documenting evidence of the effectiveness 

of the lifestyle changes that occur.* 

There is a Case Study in this book that describes the Physical Education Program 

at Naperville Central High School in Illinois. Based on a strong fitness-based 

and social skills-enhancing Physical Education Curriculum, students at 

Naperville Central H.S. recently was ranked #1 in the world in science 

achievement and #6 in the world in math achievement. 

10. In the article, School Physical Education: Effect of the Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health, the conclusions state: ‘‘The implementation of a standardized curriculum and staff development program increased students’ MVPA (moderate to vigorous physical activity) in existing school PE classes 

in four geographic and ethnically diverse communities. 

10. In the article, Study: phys ed may boost academic achievement, a number 

of significant findings in this large student support the role that physical activity plays in bringing about improvement in academic achievement and 

classroom behavior in girls. 

11. In the January 2009 edition of the Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, a meta-analysis of long-term studies demonstrates significant 

ways in which Physical Education has been linked to academic achievement. This 

article provides studies that indicate the following: 

• When students receive daily quality physical education, the rate of learning per 

unit of time appears to increase. 

• Physical education is positively related to increased academic performance. 

• Allocating time for quality physical education does not negatively influence academic achievement. 

• Reducing time for physical education does not guarantee improvement in academic achievement. 

• Engagement in physical activity is associated with academic achievement. 

• When children engage in physical activity, their cognitive performance significantly improves. 

• Physical fitness levels are related to student achievement on standardized tests. 

12. To show the psychosocial factors to be considered in developing and implementing a quality program whose purpose is to focus on the development of the 

total person, see the findings in the article, The Effect of Weight on Self-Concept, 

and Psychosocial Correlates of Physical Activity in Youths. These factors impact not only participation patterns in physical activity, but in overall school performance and in all life situations. 

13. The September 2000 Research Digest of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports reviews all pertinent research related to Motivating 

Kids in Physical Activity. The findings of this and other studies informs curriculum planners and teachers in approaches that may be the most successful in 

helping children develop lifestyle behaviors that will lead to a healthy, active life. 

14. In her Alliance Scholar Lecture at the 2004 AAHPERD convention, Dr. Amelia M. Lee examined critical factors necessary to Promoting Lifelong Physical Activity Through Quality Physical Education. Challenges and implications were 

described that will help guide all physical education teachers in planning and implementing programs that will have the greatest likelihood for lifelong learning and behaviors. 

15. Reporting on statewide data for the 2007–2008 year on well over 1 million 

children in the schools of Texas, results of the Fitnessgram testing instrument demonstrated clearly that those students possessing higher levels of physical fitness also 

possessed higher scores on the Texas schools academic testing program. 

A number of agencies have established recommendations regarding the amount 

and intensity of physical activity (ACSM, 1988: CDC, 1997; USDHHS, 1996). One 

recommendation is that all individuals should participate in regular moderate activity. For adolescent (ages 13–18) populations, Sallis and Patrick (1994) determined 

that Adolescents should engage in three or more sessions per week of activities that 

last 20 minutes or more at a time and that require moderate to vigorous levels of 

exertion. 

The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) released 

guidelines for appropriate physical activity participation for children ages 5–12 in 

Physical Activity for Children: A Statement of Guidelines (Corbin & Pangrazi, 1998). 

One of the recommendations is that at least 60 minutes per day is encouraged for 

29 

elementary school children and that some of the child’s activity be in periods lasting 

10 to 15 minutes or more and should include moderate to vigorous activity. 

Furthermore, this report also stated that students should be able to self-monitor 

themselves to see how active they are and should also have individualized intensity 

of activities. 

Several methods of measuring physical activity have been used and tested with 

adults and children. These include self-reporting, activity counters, and monitoring 

heart rate by various means. 

Heart rate monitoring has been identified as a valid means of estimating energy 

expenditure and intensity of physical activity. Children’s behavior patterns have 

suggested that the use of heart rate telemetry (wireless heart rate monitors) is the 

most effective means of tracking physical activity of children, especially in field settings (Gilliam, Freedson, Geenen, and Shahraray, 1981: Saris 1986). In fact, this 

method has been used to validate other methods and instruments. Heart rate monitors were used to validate activity counters such as Caltrac accelerometer (Sallis, 

Buono, Roby, Carlson, & Nelson, 1990), the Tritrac-R3D activity monitor (Welk & 

Corbin, 1995), the Computer Science Application (CSA) accelerometer (Janz, 1994), 

as well as interviewer and self-administered physical activity checklists for fifth 

grade students (Sallis, et al., 1996). 

The implementation of heart rate monitors by this program in the early 1980’s 

(LIFE Magazine, February,1987), has provided the link to what is going on inside 

every student’s body while they are engaged in the lesson. Beyond measurement for 

moderate to vigorous activity, the heart rate technology has proven to be the technology that validates a student’s understanding of intensity. Observation that is 

used as a means for evaluating intensities of students has no objective evidence to 

confirm the teacher’s perception or the student’s perception of exercise intensities. 

With no objective data to reflect upon by the teacher and by the student, there have 

been generation after generation of students in Physical Education classes that have 

been disconnected to what is being referred to as intensity or how hard they are 

working. 

Physical educators’ interpretation for moderate to vigorous activity has been simply through observation and not a measurable outcome for individuals on a daily 

basis. Consequently, there has always been a complete disconnect to exercise prescriptions for both students and teachers. We must take the guessing out of assessing. 

When using the heart rate technologies, the teachers and the students are connected to each other through the technology. The student has been given permission, through the use of the heart rate monitor, to adjust their individual pacing 

throughout class according to what is really happening second by second inside their 

own bodies. 

This connection and this ability to respond individually using appropriate intensities, provides a total immersion for individualized learning and individualized response that is self-directed. The teacher has the ability to recall all student data 

from heart rate monitors and deliver these reports to the parents as well as to the 

school board. This is a revolutionary system for which there is no other possibility 

to report intensities recorded from accurate readings from what is going on inside 

the body on a daily and individual basis. The heart rate data is automatically stored 

in student records and can be sent to the report card that has been invented for 

physical education: The PE Manager. Moderate to vigorous activity is clearly identified in these reports using bar graphs that are color-coded as well as data that is 

both in percentages and minutes and seconds. 

The data that is provided through this individual recording is also a part of the 

group data collection for each class period. The teacher and the student will be able 

to see the effects of the lesson intensities that provide the reflection for achievement 

both individually and collectively. This is a student and teacher relevance issue for 

all lessons. There is a contributing partnership from both the student and the teacher that is being objectively measured. The teacher is responsible for presenting lesson designs that can achieve the desired outcomes and the students have the ability 

to adjust their intensities to achieve their personal goals, and ultimately affect the 

group goals. 

The heart rate graphs are also the basis for examining the dynamics of a lesson, 

along with the use of digital cameras to record pictures throughout class. This has 

provided a detailed description for what is going on throughout the specific time segments of each class. This has become the relevance that links our lessons, our student achievements, our time-on-task lesson design and response, and our visual and 

data-driven communication to our community. 

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uate students are recruited to live in Grundy Center while embedded in a contextually based, fully immersed Masters Program that links practice to theory while 

teaching part time in the Grundy Center Physical Education Program. One of the 

significant strategies is to incorporate strategies to inspire community health and 

fitness. 

One strategy that has been essential in linking our physical education program 

to the community is the ‘‘Day In The Life’’ project (Lessons From The Heart, 1997). 

The graduate students have specific homework assignments that engage the parents 

of their students to contribute to their own health and well-being and also to inspire 

one another to live better. One avenue for linking this physical education program 

to the community is to invite as many adults as possible to wear a heart rate monitor for an entire day. Hundreds of adults have participated in this lesson and their 

heart rate printouts are part of an ongoing program to inspire others to live better. 

The ability to see their heart rate on a colorful graph and interpret the data is powerful. It is the connection for each of these individuals with their own lives as well 

as to reflect on the daily lives of their own children and others in the community. 

These heart rate printouts are posted on the walls of the gymnasium so that all 

who enter this facility can reflect on not only the day in the life of so many adults, 

but also to become aware of what their own day in the life may look like. So far, 

100 percent of the day in the life graphs exhibit sedentary lifestyles. Not one individual in this community has demonstrated anything other than complete sedentary 

living during their work day. This was an opportunity to not only document their 

daily sedentary lifestyle using this strategy, but also became the best avenue for 

educating our community members to cardio fitness and healthy diets. 

This technology provided a link to their own daily life patterns and this same technology was being used during the school days by their children. The education 

and the awareness for correct pacing during exercise and holding students and 

teachers accountable, was important for the families to understand. Through their 

own experience from actually using this throughout their day, this became a personal lesson. For many families, this was a starting point for making family health 

a priority and established a strong bond between the community and the physical 

education department and school system. 

This astonishing data from our community was part of the inspiration to open our 

school fitness center to the community during before and after school hours. A partnership with a YMCA in a nearby city has now developed using the school facilities 

to house the YMCA programs and its director for this rural Iowa community. The 

Polar Scholars are a contributing source for personal training and for leading specific youth and adult fitness programs outside the school day. This is considered to 

be a part of the total immersion of this program. It is through the YMCA programs 

that the Graduate students provide free BodyAge Fitness Assessments to the community at no cost. This is a very high tech assessment using the TriFit Assessment 

System. 

The Polar scholars are also involved in planning and delivering health living seminars each month for the community. These seminars are designed to continue to 

reach out to the community and to continue to inspire and educate one another. 

Community members are also being recruited to offer health living seminars and 

share their own inspiration with others. 

LCD projectors have been permanently mounted into the ceilings of the gyms and 

fitness room. These audiovisual projection systems are a part of the teaching and 

learning strategies that enhance the learning opportunities for all learners. The 

learning points are easily seen from the projection system that is displayed on one 

of the walls. Video, heart rate graphs, rules of games, lesson concepts, etc. are examples of the learning opportunities that are improved with the visual capabilities 

in the physical education classes. The expectations for the Polar Scholars are that 

they must produce all lessons using the projection system that will help deliver a 

high rate of learning success. 

There are sophisticated audio systems that are in place in each gym. Music is an 

important part of enhancing the learning environment and in moving students from 

one transition phase of the class time to the next. Aerobic time would have music 

that is upbeat. Warm-up time would have music and instructions that would have 

been programmed into the system by the instructor for the week. Classical music 

is used during the warm-up phase of class, with each month focusing on a different 

composer. 

A wireless microphone is also in place for all instructors so that instructions can 

be clearly heard by everyone and the voice of the physical educators is at a normal 

level. Shouting in large gyms can be interpreted by students as an instructor who 

is angry. It is important for students to hear the instructions and to understand 

what the instructor is saying. 

31 

High-tech fitness testing is in place in this program. All cardio testing is done 

with all students using a downloadable heart rate monitor to record heart rate 

throughout the cardio testing protocol. This means all testing is done with all students first resting in the gym during the pre-exercise phase of the cardio protocol. 

Students are then stagger-started for the actual cardio test. This important strategy 

is used to insure that obese students do not finish last during a mile run test and 

to insure that no student is exercising at too high an intensity. 

Because of the use of heart rate monitors, there is a record for the entire protocol 

and this heart rate graphing is recorded automatically inside their student records 

for future reference. These visual graphs are also used to teach using the data for 

heart rate education. Students are asked to evaluate their heart rate response 

throughout the cardio test. Using their own graphs from the previous day provides 

the link for personalizing this learning experience. This is exactly what the Workplace Competency, Standard 5, is seeking: New knowledge by evaluating, combining, 

and extending information using multiple technologies. 

Beyond the heart rate information, there is also use of activity monitors that students and parents can wear throughout the day and night for an entire weekend. 

This information can be downloaded and looked at by the entire family. Each family 

member is assigned the activity monitor and as a family fitness strategy, they log 

into the web-based program and record their personal information each day. It is 

a matter of discussion and mutual interest in seeing if all family members are getting daily moderate to vigorous activity. 

The multiple technologies that are invented for the profession must be embraced, 

and will be part of the modernization of the physical education profession. We believe that with the lifestyle illnesses at such high levels, lifestyle indicators must 

become the center of our high tech evaluations for lifestyle wellness. Beyond functional fitness, our testing must include relevance to occupations. Three other assessments that Grundy Center is embarking on will include the fitness tests for all 6th 

through 12th grade students for the Military Fitness Test, the Firefighters’ Test, 

and the Police Force Tests. In addition, we are also looking carefully at what Insurance Companies are now including in their screening tests for reduced premiums. 

If we can show parents and students that their children in high school are able or 

unable to be employed because of the ability to pass these tests, it is a wake-up call 

that can be motivating in new ways for our populations. If our high school students 

do not qualify for reduced insurance rates because of poor fitness and health, they 

may be destined to a life of high insurance rates and early disabilities. 

Lifestyle illnesses will require lifetime investments for us all. The new physical 

education programs must reach outside the walls of the gym and into the hearts 

and minds of our entire communities. 

Thank you again for this opportunity to present this information, and I will be 

a tireless supporter of your actions on this bill. 

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REFERENCES

1. Definition of A Physically Educated Person (NASPE Outcomes Project). 

2. U.S. Surgeon General: Recommendations for School and Community Programs 

Promoting Physical Activity Among Young People. 

3. Circulation. 2003; 107:1448. Obesity, Insulin Resistance, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Risk in Children. An American Heart Association Statement. 

4. Nature Clinical Practice Endocrinology & Metabolism. Nov 2007. Management 

Approaches for Pediatric Obesity. (Accessed through Medline). 

5. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Physical Activity and Health, A Report of the Surgeon General. At-A-Glance, November 

1999. 

6. Circulation 2006; 114; 1214–1224. (Journal of the American Heart Association). 

Promoting Physical Activity in Children and Youth: A Leadership Role for Schools: 

A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association Council on Nutrition, 

Physical Activity, and Metabolism (Physical Activity Committee) in Collaboration 


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With the Councils on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young and Cardiovascular 

Nursing. 

7. National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity. Reducing Obesity, Heart Disease, 

Cancer, Diabetes and Other Diet- and Inactivity-Related Diseases, Costs, and Disabilities. 2006. 

8. AASA. School Governance and Leadership. Spring 2006. School Policy and 

Practice: Taking On Childhood Obesity. 9. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Active Living Research. Active Education: 

Physical Education, Physical Activity and Academic Performance. Fall 2007 Research Brief. 

10. Kenneth Cooper, M.D. The New Curriculum Emphasis in Physical Education. 

11. State Legislatures. December 2007. PE Makes A Comeback: Lawmakers are 

looking at physical education to improve kids’ health and academic achievement. 

12. Journal of Exercise Physiologyonline (JEPonline). Volt. 8 No. 1 (Feb. 2005). 

Grissom JB. Physical Fitness and Academic Achievement. Details and highlights The 

California Study (N=884,715). 

13. Education Week (Feb 2008). Viadero, Debra. Exercise Seen as Priming Pump 

for Students’ Academic Strides. 14. Preventive Medicine. Volt. 25, Issue 4, July 1996, Pages 423–431. McKenzie, 

Thomas L., et al. School Physical Education: Effect of the Child and Adolescent Trial 

for Cardiovascular Health. 15. USA Today. Heather Terwilliger. Study: Phys ed may boost girls’ academic 

achievement. 

16. Smith, Nicole J. and Monica Lounsberry. Promoting Physical Education: The 

Link to Academic Achievement. JOPERD (Jan 2009), PP. 39–43. 

17. Corbin, Charles B., Guy C. Le Masurier and Dolly D. Lambdin. Fitness for 

Life. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publishers. 2007, PP. III–V. 

18. Loughrey, Thomas J., Physical Fitness/Healthy Lifestyle Strand: Content 

Structure and Emphases. 2000. 

19. Welk, Gregory and Roxane Joens-Matre. The Effect of Weight on Self-Concept, 

and Psychosocial Correlates of Physical Activity in Youths. JOPERD (October 2007), 

PP. 43–46. 

20. President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Research Digest: Motivating Kids in Physical Activity (September 2000). 

21. Lee, Amelia M. Promoting Lifelong Physical Activity Through Quality Physical 

Education. JOPERD. May/June 2004. PP. 21–55. 

22. Kirkpatrick, Beth and Burt Birnbaum. Lessons From The Heart. Champaign, 

IL: Human Kinetics Publishers. 2000. 

The CHAIRMAN. Oh, boy. Now you can see why I had Secretary 

Duncan go to the Grundy Center school. 

[Laughter.] 

I wanted him to see, with his own eyes, just what can happen 

to kids who have access to quality physical activity and wellness 

programs when they first enter kindergarten on through high 

school. They measure these kids, they keep track of them as they 

go through school. And as Beth said, they went out and got the 

whole community involved so that the parents now know what the 

kids do, and they know what’s happening to them, too. It has been 

a whole community effort, and what they’ve done at that school has 

just been phenomenal. 

What’s the population of Grundy Center? 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Twenty-five hundred, and we’re in the middle 

of a cornfield. 

[Laughter.] 

The CHAIRMAN. I always say, ‘‘If a town of 2,500 can do this, obviously we can do it other places, too.’’ It’s not rocket science, it’s 

just determination—as you say, ‘‘using modern technology’’ to improve health and wellness for these kids. 

The one thing you didn’t mention that I wanted Tim Shriver to 

hear is, I’ve been there a couple times, and I’ve seen kids with disabilities and how you get them integrated into that whole process. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Yes. 

41 

The CHAIRMAN. They can’t do some of the exercises other kids do, 

so they have exercises tailored to them, to get their heart rate up. 

Whether they’re in a wheelchair, or whether they have an intellectual disability, you have them get their heart rate up. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Yes. We had a global conference last week, 

where we had—3 years in the planning—we had 100 professionals 

from the world; 25 countries came in for 3 days to study and look 

at what we were doing. When the people talk about philosophy and 

theory, they came to see solutions. It was shocking to see how the 

people that came in from all over—we had representatives from, I 

think, almost 25 countries. It was phenomenal. That was one of the 

things they looked at. 

The CHAIRMAN. I always say Rick Schupbach and Beth Kirkpatrick are better known outside the country than they are in our 

own State, which is kind of sad, really, as a matter of fact. 

One thing I want to cover—oh, we started the vote. I just want 

to ask all of you this, If we want to encourage physical activity, if 

we want to get schools to really think about the whole child, should 

this be a part of the grading system? 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Yes. 

The CHAIRMAN. In other words, if you don’t get graded on something, you tend to push it off, but if you’re getting graded on it, and 

it can add to your grade point average, as you go through—well, 

I don’t know. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Yes. 

The CHAIRMAN. You’re saying yes. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Absolutely. 

The CHAIRMAN. Do you do that in Grundy Center? 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Absolutely. 

The CHAIRMAN. It’s part of—— 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. We measure on what’s fair. Leveling the playing the field means that, if you’re going by heart rate, how many 

minutes you’re in or above the target zone—it means that it’s right 

for the obese kid, for the skinny kid, for the athlete. The athlete 

has to work hard to get his heart rate in that zone. The obese kid 

doesn’t have to work as hard, but is working as hard. That’s why 

we have to have multiple pieces of equipment; so I can ride an exercise bike—there are bikes invented that produce energy. We’re 

getting a bank of bikes that will produce energy. You hook it up 

to the electrical grid, and we believe that we can save 20 percent 

of our cost for energy by having the electrical grid. 

I want to get people that are mowing lawns, I want to buy 25 

of the hand lawnmowers—once every 3 weeks the PE class could 

go out, we could mow the entire grounds every 3 weeks. 

The CHAIRMAN. You may have just lost me there. 

[Laughter.] 

It’s a joke. 

How do you feel about the grading system, Dr. Pate? I mean, 

having this as part of the grades? 

Mr. PATE. I absolutely believe we should grade our schools in 

this area. I believe this should be part of the school report-card system across the country, and it is not, now. If you look at the accountability systems that have been adopted by the States, they 

very consistently focus only on the core academic subjects, and they 

42 

leave out physical education and health education. I think we’re 

unlikely to level the playing field, here, until we incorporate PE 

and health education into the school report cards across the country. 

The CHAIRMAN. That’s what the FIT Kids Act does—grade 

schools. We’re still working to address this. Should schools be encouraged—we can’t tell them what to do, but should we have incentives in ESEA to encourage schools to grade the kids, to give them 

grades in physical education, nutrition and wellness? I don’t know. 

Tim. 

Mr. SHRIVER. Just briefly, Senator. I think the grading—the balance scorecard for schools is desperately needed. The corporate 

world moved in this direction generations ago, to have multiple 

measures of performance, multiple measures of outcomes, not just 

one bottom line; double, triple, quadruple bottom lines. Schools 

need a balance scorecard, an array—a scorecard that gives them a 

clean and balanced view of what goes on in schools. 

I would add, I think grading is an empowering tool for kids. The 

country’s moving toward the potential for electronic health records, 

people would be empowered to know their own health status, to be 

able to monitor their own health indicators. That can start very 

young. Children can begin—maybe we don’t have to measure pullups anymore, but we can measure how many something-elses we 

can do—not just to be able to judge teachers in schools, but to empower young people. Young people want—when you say to them, 

‘‘You’ve run a mile in 7 minutes and 35 seconds,’’ they want to get 

their time down. They want to get better, they want—they see 

these scores, goals, and measures as inspirational things, so I think 

it’s not just about assessment. It’s also about empowerment. 

I would strongly encourage the committee to consider multiple 

ways of looking at assessment in schools, not just as a way to 

evaluate what schools do, but also as a way to empower parents 

and children to take control of their own learning and their own 

health. 

The CHAIRMAN. Dr. Yancey, how do you feel about grading? 

Ms. YANCEY. Well, I think that, as long as the grading system 

is really focused on the long-term objectives that we want—so, if 

what we’re looking for is to build skills for lifetime physical activity 

participation and to get kids in shape, as opposed to building the 

next generation of revenue-sport athletes, then we need to have the 

types of grading that Ms. Kirkpatrick is talking about. We need to 

have grading that’s based on effort, based on showing up, based on 

learning a set of skills, but not so much based on how fast you are 

or how far you can jump. 

I also think that we need to have the grades that kids get included in their GPA so that when colleges look at it, that’s a part 

of the system; that shows that we think that this is important. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

We have a vote on, and we’re in the second round of voting. We 

will just have to recess for a few minutes and come back. OK? 

[Recess.] 

The CHAIRMAN [resuming the chair]. The committee will resume 

its sitting. 

43 

Senator Enzi has an amendment on the floor and will not be able 

to come back, at least not right now. 

When we left, I was asking all of you about this idea about grading, and whether they should be incorporated somehow in the 

structure of how schools are assessed. I asked everyone, but I 

didn’t ask Dr. Levin. 

Dr. Levin, you’re batter up. 

Dr. LEVIN. Thank you. 

I’m sort of not thinking that grading the kids is the best idea. 

It somewhat seems punitive. I really do think we need to grade 

schools—I agree with Dr. Pate—particularly in the question of 

whether we’re providing certain levels of services. Obviously, if a 

child has not had access to any sort of healthcare, much less wellchild care, I don’t know that hoping that physical education alone 

is going to make the difference in their health status. 

I think that we should have a report card that allows that, somewhere in a community, either through a school-based clinic or 

through a community health center or through the regular other 

sets of health services, every child has access to primary care so 

we can assure that they’re ready to exercise. Then it may become 

important to start grading the kids on their effort. 

I think we have so many communities—in your State of Iowa, 

and clearly in my home State of Tennessee—where kids may actually have tickets to ride, but no one to take the tickets, in terms 

of healthcare services. The school-based clinic becomes very important in providing some sort of—what is the word you used—‘‘leveling ground’’, to make for certain that everybody’s ready to exercise and be ready to put out their full effort. 

The CHAIRMAN. Well, obviously we’ve examined that in the past, 

too, about school-based clinics and about health interventions for 

kids in school. It sounds like you’ve done a pretty good job of that 

down in Tennessee, though, with your school-based clinics. 

Basically, all of you are thinking that we ought to have some system of evaluating schools on how well they do to encourage and 

provide for physical exercise. Now, a lot of times, people use the 

word ‘‘physical education.’’ I talk about ‘‘physical exercise,’’ I don’t 

say ‘‘physical education.’’ I assume there is an education component 

to it, but it’s more just getting kids moving and exercising. 

You all feel pretty strongly—I think I found a consensus that we 

ought to at least have some system of evaluating schools on this 

basis. We’re going to change No Child Left Behind in this way. No 

Child Left Behind, the annual yearly progress was based upon how 

close you got to a goal, like—an unattainable goal. It’s got crazy 

kinds of situations, like Secretary Duncan and others have talked 

about, where you could have a teacher that had a couple of kids 

who were two grade levels behind; at the end of the school year, 

they were only one grade level behind. Yet, the teacher was designated ‘‘not a good teacher.’’ When, really, that teacher was a good 

teacher. 

We’re looking into a growth model, to account for the gains that 

students and schools make. I’m also thinking about, how we incorporate, into a growth model, encouragement for schools to provide 

physical exercise to get these kids moving? You’ve all had experience in that area. What are the best strategies? What are the most 

44 

effective strategies? And how can the Federal Government promote 

those? We provide only 9 percent of the funding for elementary and 

secondary schools. As we’ve shown in No Child Left Behind, we can 

provoke and promote, changes in different things. What are some 

of the best strategies that we can use? How can the Federal Government promote those? This is an open question. Anybody want 

to take a shot at that, at all? 

Mr. PATE. I’ll take a shot. 

The CHAIRMAN. All right. 

Mr. PATE. There are systems for systematically evaluating the 

caliber of physical education that is delivered. Unfortunately, those 

systems are not widely applied. And there are a number of reasons 

why they aren’t. In some cases, resources are required that haven’t 

been made available. In some cases, the schools themselves have 

been resistant, just because of the burden. But, the systems exist 

and they are validated, they do work; and if they were widely applied—and, I think, if incentives were provided, then the schools 

would be much more open to adopting them—but, if they were 

widely applied, I’m convinced they would have an enormous impact 

on the quality of physical education that’s delivered around the 

country. 

Ms. YANCEY. Senator Harkin. 

The CHAIRMAN. Yes. 

Ms. YANCEY. I definitely agree with Dr. Pate’s comment. Physical 

education time, that time that is designated, and usually mandated 

to be a certain amount of minutes per day or per week, is the primary opportunity, and we need to make that time more active. 

There are evidence-based programs, like sports play and active 

recreation for kids, or CATCH. I’ve forgotten what CATCH stands 

for, but it’s a Texas-based program that has been implemented nationally, as well. 

I think that that’s a starting point, but I also think that there’s 

increasing evidence that inactivity—long periods of inactivity—is 

hazardous to your health. And I think that, for that reason, activity 

breaks integrated into the school day, to get kids up and moving, 

both helps the school’s mission and it also helps the kids’ health. 

If you’ll bear with me, I just would encourage you to—just everybody standup for a moment, I’d like to demonstrate what we’re 

talking about with Instant Recess. 

The CHAIRMAN. You’re on. 

Ms. YANCEY. OK. So, let’s everybody march in place. Everybody 

march in place. OK. Now, we’re doing something that you can literally do just about anywhere. I’m going to introduce you to one 

that we just developed, in concert with a Native American reservation in Montana, and so it’s based on pow-wow dance. While you’re 

marching, keep marching, hands on your hips. OK. Now, bend just 

a little from the hips, keep your back straight. Arch your back a 

little bit. OK, keep your back straight, keep marching. OK, now I 

want you to just flap your wings. Flap your wings. 

[Laughter.] 

Now, doesn’t that feel good? Really, your back is a little stiff and 

tense—five, four, three, two, and one. You may sit down. 

[Applause.] 

45 

The CHAIRMAN. All right. Well, that kind of leads me to a question I was thinking about. Most people think about physical exercise during the day as—you’ve got to round up all these kids, send 

them outside, they’ve got to put on their tennis shoes—it takes 

time to do all that kind of stuff, go to their locker, come back. 

There’s a lot of things you can do by your desk to promote activity. 

That’s one of them. 

I’ve seen this happen before, where kids would get by their desk 

and do certain things, and some teachers, who were more learned 

in yoga, had kids doing certain stretching exercises and things like 

that, that helped them be more limber. Just things like this, you 

could do by your desk. 

Ms. YANCEY. You can, but one thing that I will say, in school it 

works fine to have kids doing it by their desks. I also think that 

if we really want to create a movement in this country, we’ve got 

to get everybody moving. I would love to see you do this on the 

Senate floor. 

[Laughter.] 

The CHAIRMAN. Uhhhh. 

[Laughter.] 

Ms. YANCEY. We’ve got the DVD. 

Mr. SHRIVER. During the State of the Union Address. 

Ms. YANCEY. There we go. 

The CHAIRMAN. What did you say, Tim? 

Mr. SHRIVER. I was saying, ‘‘Why not during a State of the Union 

Address?’’ 

[Laughter.] 

Dr. LEVIN. I’d like to say, innovation, I think is really most important for the—answering the question that you were asking. 

This happens to be one of the positive things about being in 

school health. This is a thank you note from Vonore Elementary 

School, thanking us for a garden. We just have a grant, that 

they’re building a garden. The important thing is that the garden, 

while they’re growing food and they’re learning about natural food, 

they actually had to get out and make the garden. They had to get 

their parents involved in helping them do the garden. I realize this 

is modeled off of something that’s been happening here in Washington, as well, but I think that if we had gardens happening at 

all of our elementary schools, there’s a lot of physical activity that 

goes on. I think we have to be open to the fact that all sorts of 

things, Instant Recess, time after school gardening—you know, 

Wiis, whatever it is to move ahead. 

The CHAIRMAN. Well the First Lady is working with Secretary 

Vilsack, and some of us also on the Agriculture Committee, to promote more school gardens. That’s sort of a nascent movement, but 

it’s catching on, more and more around the country. That is happening. 

Ms. YANCEY. Senator Harkin. 

The CHAIRMAN. Yes. 

Ms. YANCEY. There’s also something called the Moving School 

Concept that has been used in Europe some. I’m aware of a couple 

of articles from Germany. They actually restructure the school day, 

and not in a way that would require a huge investment of capital, 

but just reorganizing the classroom space so that kids have to move 

46 

around from station to station. Putting kids on balls instead of 

seats, so that you kind of have to move and juggle a little bit. I 

actually use a ball at my workstation at work. Actually makes me 

feel a lot better just looking at the ball, rather than a regular desk 

chair. I think that there are these kinds of strategies—and again, 

it’s innovation, but it—since I’m mostly concerned about the lowresource schools, it has to be kept simple. It has to be things that 

people can do just about anywhere, without the kinds of resources 

to completely revamp the entire school, which we hope will happen. 

Mr. SHRIVER. If I could just, briefly, Senator, this issue of measurement, I think, is really at the heart of this reauthorization process. What are schools accountable to do? What are they accountable 

for? How will accountability be measured? I think most educators 

see accountability as here to stay. Although some would like that 

to not be the case, I think most recognize that that’s a positive 

change. What I find, when I talk to teachers, principals, school 

board members, superintendents, and so on, is—the problem is how 

accountability has, up until now, been defined. As you say, annual 

yearly progress measures just don’t work. They’re not accurate. 

We’re in the nascent stage of figuring out how to measure school 

performance. This is a whole new thing. When I started an education in 1981, there was no Federal accountability. There was no 

standard in education, at all. 

I would put my strongest voice in favor of trying to invite your 

staff and other experts to shape a balance scorecard that could 

form a new era of accountability, that would look at issues that 

parents know and want to know, that kids know and want to know, 

that educators want to know more about. Some of the data exists, 

some of it could be around attendance. There’s a whole range of behavioral measures of schools: attendance, dropout rates, suspension 

rates, referral rates to—for violence and fighting, and those kinds 

of things. They’re really important indicators for parents about 

whether they want their child to go to that school or that school 

is getting better, or not, if violence rates are going up or down. 

But, again, systematically, the Federal Government hasn’t asked 

people to be accountable for those kinds of data. Same thing is true 

of physical—in Special Olympics, we have, what I would consider, 

process measures, we ask people to set standards for the number 

of hours. It’s not a particularly precise measure, but at least it invites people to recognize that number of hours, frequency of exercise, frequency of training, and frequency of skilled practice is a 

standard of quality. It’s not particularly sophisticated. It, as you 

point out, uses the leverage of the Federal Government to get people asking the questions. Then the innovation can take place at the 

local level. You don’t strangle the local districts. You don’t strangle 

teachers. You just say to teachers, ‘‘These are the kinds of things 

the country has a vested interest in.’’ Then you inspire the kind of 

innovation that you’re seeing to my left and right here. The local 

control is there, but the Federal Government is playing its role, I 

think, in a very healthy and productive way. 

The CHAIRMAN. That’s where I hope we’re headed. One thing 

that’s different now, that’s going to happen next month, is, States 

have signed on to Common Core Standards. We’ve never had that 

before. Common standards has been a long fought battle. FortyVerDate Nov 24 2008 15:15 May 10, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00050 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\56645.TXT DENISE
47 

eight States, as you know, 2 or 3 months ago, signed on to develop 

this Common Core Standards, which are supposed to come out next 

month, if I’m not mistaken. That is a huge step forward. 

Mr. SHRIVER. Huge. And those standards are much different 

than NCLB-type measures. 

The CHAIRMAN. That’s very true. 

Mr. SHRIVER. Figuring out how the standards now become the 

platform for a new range and a new generation of measures is really, maybe—I heard Senator Enzi say, ‘‘We need to fix,’’ he used 

that word, which I found extremely—as I was saying to his colleagues, extremely powerful. To me, the centerpiece of the fix will 

center on how the Federal Government, and how this Congress and 

Senate, decide to shape what we’re going to ask people to be held 

accountable for. 

The CHAIRMAN. Ms. Kirkpatrick. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. I’m concerned about the rampant discrimination that’s going to happen across this country. They’ll have two 

people they’ll interview, and there’ll be an obese person, who could 

be brilliant, and someone who is in shape, and they won’t be quite 

as brilliant; that person there is going to be left out. As we see 

this—it scares me to death to think that the same amount of minutes are being put into physical education classes or activity for the 

obese kid as the skinny kid. 

Somewhere along the way, we have to have remedial physical 

education or remedial help. We have to identify these kids very 

young, because when you start to look at hiring practices, the 

trends are out there, that these States—and I’m not going to say 

the name of the State—but they’re worried about getting businesses to come because they know that if they have an obese population, they’re going to miss more work days—there’s a lot of things 

going to happen because of discrimination. I don’t think we’ve even 

imagined what’s going to happen on that. 

The CHAIRMAN. I’m not certain I understand this. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Well, what will happen is, the data shows that 

the obese worker has taken more work days, spends seven times 

as much money because of healthcare cost. We’ll come back to 

these small—— 

The CHAIRMAN. I understand all that. Are you suggesting that, 

in school, that somehow kids who are more obese need more time 

for exercise. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Yes, I am. 

The CHAIRMAN. They have more exercise—— 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. I am. We’re doing that in Grundy Center. We 

have our partnership with the University of Northern Iowa, their 

graduate program, with seven grad students—is that we can pull 

students out of study hall, or before or after school, and give personal training to get these kids on track before they graduate. If 

a teenager graduates obese, 28 out of 29 remain obese their entire 

lives, which affects their entire cost of everything. 

The CHAIRMAN. One thing I don’t know about what you do there, 

do you also have nutrition? 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Oh, absolutely. 

The CHAIRMAN. You do. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Yes, absolutely. 

48 

The CHAIRMAN. Yes. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. In fact, I was impressed with your lunchroom 

down here, in the Senate, the great choices. I think so many people 

have—and you had some grants that were available, that we were 

unable to get, with giving away fruits and vegetables. 

The CHAIRMAN. Yes. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. That was a great idea. 

The CHAIRMAN. Fruit and vegetables. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Yes, we have no pop machines, no soda machines, we have really revamped the entire thing. Yes. 

The CHAIRMAN. I guess I just worry that—let’s face it—some kids 

who are obese get picked on, they get bullied, and then, if they’re 

somehow separated out for special attention—— 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. It’s a tricky thing. 

The CHAIRMAN. That kind of bothers me a little bit. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Yes. 

The CHAIRMAN. Should it bother me? 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. If they couldn’t read, you’d have a reading 

teacher help them. 

The CHAIRMAN. Well, you’re right about that. I have to think 

about that one. That’s interesting. You could have—well, I guess 

maybe it’s like individualized instruction for kids. Right? I’ll have 

to change my thinking about that. 

Dr. Yancey. 

Ms. YANCEY. Well, Senator, one thing I think that we’re going to 

have to do before you could do that is to make sure that physical 

activity framing stops being something that’s punishment and 

starts being something that is fun and exciting and relaxing and 

all that sort of thing. Then if the obese kids were selected out to 

get more of it, they might be happy about that. 

The CHAIRMAN. And something—— 

Ms. YANCEY. But, not the way that it is right now. 

The CHAIRMAN [continuing]. That’s attainable, something that 

the kid can do. 

Ms. YANCEY. Absolutely. It has to be something they can do. I’d 

also like to say that, because of what Ms. Kirkpatrick is saying, we 

also need to focus on what’s going on in the pre-school day period, 

and the after-school period, because those are great opportunities 

to get kids more physically active—if, in fact, the teachers had the 

training. 

That brings me to the point of—we really need to focus—and I 

think the Federal Government could use its leverage in this way— 

on the pre-service and the in-service period. The President’s White 

House Childhood Obesity Task Force report points out that we 

need to get teachers more training to do things like activity-focused 

PE and recess breaks, and that sort of a thing. We also need to require it of elementary school teachers before they ever get into the 

classroom. 

The CHAIRMAN. Yes, what you’re saying is that this shouldn’t 

just be the domain of the PE teacher. 

Ms. YANCEY. Right. 

The CHAIRMAN. Every teacher. 

How do you do that in Grundy Center? 

49 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. We have the ‘‘brain breaks’’ that we have built 

in. We have 52-inch screens in all of our classrooms, so we’ve 

tapped into people who have produced videos. 

The CHAIRMAN. I mean, are your teachers trained in physical exercise? 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Yes, they have the ‘‘brain breaks.’’ You can 

buy the videos, and you pop them in—and the kids stand up every 

20 minutes and do some activities that are 2 to 3 minutes. Yes. 

The CHAIRMAN. So, not just PE teachers, but all of your teachers 

are trained in physical education and wellness? 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. All of our teachers. 

Dr. LEVIN. Actually, when they—it gets more tight financially. 

Frequently there aren’t PE teachers, so your regular teachers have 

to do these things. 

The CHAIRMAN. That’s right. 

Dr. LEVIN. Some of them are excellent, and some of them are not 

so excellent, and that goes back to, ‘‘How can you encourage excellence?’’ which I think she has some good ideas on. 

I think that it’s important to recognize that it’s everybody’s responsibility. I’m a big believer that you have to get—you can’t exclude the family—that you’ve got to get the family involved. That’s 

somewhat challenging, because the child can’t come to school and 

live in one culture and go home and live in another culture. It’s 

really important to—what she’s been doing has been wonderful. 

We’re doing some of that in our neighborhood, as well. 

The CHAIRMAN. Dr. Pate. 

Mr. PATE. Senator Harkin, I think it is appropriate for the 

schools to be involved in providing special services for kids who are 

already overweight. I think that that can happen in some cases effectively by making good linkages between the schools and community-based providers of special services. I think the real lesson of 

the childhood obesity epidemic is—we have to take actions to prevent it. Because treatment of this problem is just awful. We wish 

it worked better than it does. It’s an enormous challenge to treat 

it effectively and to help a child gravitate toward a normal weight 

that will be maintained in the long-term. So, without in any way 

overlooking the needs of kids who are already overweight, I think 

we have to focus on prevention, because this is a problem that just 

requires it. 

Mr. SHRIVER. Senator, yes, I would just make one, maybe, slightly different point, just picking up on what some of my colleagues 

are saying. Most elementary and middle schools do not provide 

after-school sports. It’s mostly done by park recreation departments, in most places in the country. While the physical education, 

the old model, which was done in schools—sports, which is, in general, what kids like—they want to play, they want to go out and 

race around and play. It doesn’t mean they don’t want nonsports 

physical activity. They love sports—kids—younger kids, especially. 

Most of that’s provided by community—nonschool-based institutions, either park rec departments or community-based organizations—— 

The CHAIRMAN. Right. 

Mr. SHRIVER [continuing]. Similar to ours, Boys and Girls Clubs 

are here, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts organizations. These kinds of 

50 

organizations form a massive network of community assets that are 

still, in most respects, outside the schoolhouse door; they are not 

fully integrated into the life of the school. 

We think about indicators of things like school climate, school 

community’s cooperation, when you think about, particularly in 

vulnerable communities, the integration of parents and community 

resources into the governance of schools, these are primary factors 

in contributing to learning. Yet, most schools are structured to, in 

effect, draw a fairly strong line between themselves and those community-based organizations. I don’t know how you legislate this, 

I’m not necessarily proposing a specific element of NCLB or the reauthorization process, but I think we have to think creatively, and 

we have to encourage educators to think creatively, about the role 

that community-based resources can play. 

A little bit of personal history—when you look at our population, 

people with intellectual disabilities, who are managed with tremendous neglect, for generations, and kept inactive, and had life spans 

that are a fifth what they are today. Just 20, 30 years ago, what 

changed the attitudes was community-based physical activities, it 

was Lions Clubs, it was Rotarians, it was those kinds of groups. 

It was men’s and women’s organizations, it was them—they we 

went out and they said, ‘‘We’ll run sports activities, we’ll do the 

training, we’ll be partners in this.’’ 

In a time of very tight budgets, how the Federal Government 

sets standards is critical. How local districts, State education districts, think about implementation may have to require that we be 

creative, in ways that might not include necessarily having a traditional structure of classroom instruction and professionalized 

teachers in the school day. I don’t mean to downplay in any way 

the importance of that activity, but it’s only to say we might have 

to think more broadly. 

The CHAIRMAN. I was just talking to my staff about this. We’ve 

had a hearing with Mr. Johns about how schools can coordinate 

with other entities. With the limited funds that we have, if schools 

were to do the things you were talking about, Mr. Shriver, then we 

would provide some kind of incentives to promote this, and to build 

the kind of examples that other schools could pick up on. 

Mr. SHRIVER. I think some of that is in your legislation, Senator. 

Some of it’s in the Fit Kids Act. 

The CHAIRMAN. Yes. 

Mr. SHRIVER. I’m sorry. 

The CHAIRMAN. I’m just told, also, in the Health Reform bill that 

we put in, we had this whole section on prevention and wellness. 

We have the Community Transformation grants. 

Mr. SHRIVER. Right. 

The CHAIRMAN. To encourage communities to also coordinate 

with schools to do things like this. I’ll see how we—I think that 

there’s someplace in ESEA reauthorization or this, somewhere. I’ll 

have to figure it all out, but there’s someplace for this. 

Mr. SHRIVER. Right. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. I think we have to keep the heat on the parents, too. I think that that’s drawing them in. We’ve been putting 

activity monitors on the entire family, and they go home for the 

weekend, and we find out how much time they’re all active—the 

51 

mother, the father, the grandparent, if need be—and even how 

much time they’re sleeping. And if you look at kids, a lot of the 

obese kids are not sleeping as long. That’s one of the things that 

I read today in one of the newspapers, was that, that is a trigger, 

that not enough sleep is causing obese kids, or I think it is causing 

one of the factors of obesity. When we see that we can see how long 

kids are sleeping, we can sort of make recommendations to the entire family, that, ‘‘Your kids are getting 7 hours of sleep at night. 

Ten hours of sleep is what you need to have, or 11 hours of sleep.’’ 

The activity patterns of an obese child and his entire family has 

been shocking. You’re going to see very close correlations between 

these. It’s an eye opener. It’s something that our community is 

looking at very carefully. 

The CHAIRMAN. We’ve been joined by Senator Casey. 

Senator, welcome. 

STATEMENT OF SENATOR CASEY

Senator CASEY. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. 

First of all, I want to thank the Chairman for calling and organizing this hearing, one of many that we’ve had that have really 

gotten to a level of detail and substance that doesn’t always happen 

around here. We’re grateful for his leadership. 

I have to apologize that I missed a lot of the hearing. I wanted 

to ask a couple of questions. 

First of all, thank you for being here, bringing your expertise and 

your experience to bear on these critically important questions. 

I have a couple of questions, in the time that we have, I guess, 

in about three or maybe four areas. Some of this will be repetition 

for you and for the audience who are behind you, but it doesn’t 

hurt to do that in Washington, to repeat ourselves and focus on 

what’s important. One question revolves around the role of the 

Federal Government and State governments and local governments. It’s kind of one question which is difficult to get sometimes 

very specific about. The other questions revolve around resources 

and access, and one question about age, but—try to make it three. 

First of all, I’ll just work backwards—for the whole panel, is 

there an age at which the work that has to get done, or the emphasis and focus that has to be brought to bear on a child’s health and 

wellness—is there an age at which it’s ideal, or is there an age at 

which you begin to lose the battle, that it’s too late? Or is it not 

as much dictated by age as it is by circumstance or family or school 

environment or the approach that’s brought to bear? Is there a definitive age factor here that we have to be cognizant of when we 

enact new legislation? 

Mr. PATE. I’ll try that one. Having thought a lot about the factors 

that influence a child’s physical activity behavior, while I wish 

there was an age at which we could intervene and inoculate a child 

against a future of physical inactivity, I’ve concluded that there 

isn’t one. I think kids’ physical activity behavior is very shaped by 

the environment that they’re in, at any age. I think we have to be 

concerned about that environment—school environment, home environment, community environment—throughout the developmental period. I think a kid can be active at one stage and not acVerDate Nov 24 2008 15:15 May 10, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00055 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\56645.TXT DENISE
52 

tive at another, depending upon the characteristics of the environment where he or she spends their time. 

Senator CASEY. Anyone else? 

Dr. LEVIN. I think you may have these graphs, this connection 

to my comments. These are body-mass index reviews on entire 

school populations for a very small rural county. The sad thing to 

note is that the kids come into school with better healthy weights, 

and they get worse as they approach their puberty. Then there’s a 

little bump back. It seems to me that there’s something in that age 

group, what we call ‘‘latency’’ or whatever, around ages 8 to 12, 

that we really need to do something better, because that’s where 

we seem to lose the—at least we, in Monroe County, vis-a ́-vis our 

statistics—seem like we’re losing the game there. 

Now, do I have an intervention that will make things different? 

I don’t, at the moment, but we’re at least aware of where we’re 

looking to do something different. This is when you’re really in traditional physical exercise time—the kids go to recess, they do whatever. It’s obviously not enough. So, we have to come up with something else. 

To answer your specific question, there does seem to be a general 

upward trend, in terms of weight; downward trend, in terms of 

healthy weight. 

Senator CASEY. Why do you think that is, if I can ask that? 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. I’d like to answer that. I taught 20 years at 

the middle school. If 94 percent of all kids coming into elementary 

school have high self-esteem; by the time they get to middle school, 

only 20 percent have high self-esteem. I worried about whether we 

were part of the problem. 

One of the first things that happens at the middle school is that 

you require them to shower, or you require them to get naked in 

front of others. I really felt that that was probably humiliation for 

quite a few kids. What we put in was individual dressing and 

showering on the boys and girls side, 6th grade through 12th 

grade, to eliminate that possibility that that might be one of the 

obstacles for humiliation. It was a huge change in the willingness 

to get dressed, to put on something, to go—even the ease of it. 

I think we’ve done some things that were very hard on kids, who 

don’t have good self-esteem to begin with, and then we put them 

into this scenario. We also put the doors on every single bathroom 

stall, because, we thought, you have a right to privacy. 

Senator CASEY. Mr. Shriver. 

Mr. SHRIVER. Just briefly, Senator, yes, I would say that what 

holds true for—I would agree with other panelists—there’s no vaccination here. Public policy, you always want to fix. There is no fix. 

You know, we grow and develop. 

I would say, what we found, particularly in developmental disability, is—young is good to start; the younger you start, the better. 

And that’s true—we’ve known that for a long time, in brain development. We’ve known it a long time, in language development, in 

social competence, emotional development—starting early is important. We found it, with physical development; it seems obvious, we 

should have known it before. 

We’ve started, just in the last few years, a program we call 

‘‘Young Athletes,’’ which is a home- and childcare-based program to 

53 

get children active at the age of 2, which is sort of a strike zone 

for a lot of diagnosis around developmental disability. We’re seeing—we don’t have the research on our work, but we’ve seen in the 

neurodevelopmental research, a high correlation between brain development and physical activity. I’m not a medical doctor, so I can’t 

speak with authority here, but there seems to be a strong basis— 

again, common sense—if you’re physically active, more alert. It 

suggests, also, stronger brain development, which may lead to increases in things like IQ, even, over time. So, I think the message 

would be, ‘‘Start early and continue throughout the lifespan.’’ 

I would not suggest, however, that there’s a place where, ‘‘If you 

can just get in here, or if you can get to them by this age’’—I have 

never seen evidence to suggest that possibility. 

Ms. YANCEY. Senator Casey, just a couple of comments. One comment—and again, tying in with some of the other panelists—that 

there does seem to be a drop off point in terms of physical activity, 

and that usually happens earlier for girls. More in the middleschool age range for girls, a little later for boys. I would say one 

piece is to prevent that dropout; that’s one opportunity for intervention. 

I would say there’s another opportunity—and this gets to my 

point of, ‘‘We can’t just focus on what’s happening in the school environment if we’re going to really deal with the problem,’’ and that 

some of what’s going in the school environment is affecting the 

next generation, because we’ve got a lot of teenagers that are getting pregnant. 

The prenatal period is a critical place, in terms of obesity prevention, because we know that low-birth-weight kids and kids that are 

heavier at birth, both have increased risk of obesity in their lifetimes. Also we know that parents’ support of physical activity is 

very important. The high-school age, in this case, mostly, gives us 

an opportunity to start to cultivate those habits for the next generation. 

Senator CASEY. Thank you. 

Can I have one or two more? I know we’re the only ones here, 

so we have a little more freedom, as long as the Chairman allows 

it. 

The CHAIRMAN. Go ahead. 

Senator CASEY. Also, another question—I know I mentioned several, but I’ll try to be more focused—the question of resources—and 

you may have already covered this, but I just want to get a sense 

of it—with regard to this ‘‘problem,’’ writ large, is it a problem of 

a lack of resources combined with a lack of commitment, or is it 

simply just that school districts and parents and families and communities have gotten away from it? Or is there a resource question, 

where they say, ‘‘We’d like to be more focused on health and 

wellness and phys ed, but we can’t afford it.’’ Can I have you comment on that, about just the narrow question of resources? 

Dr. LEVIN. Well, I’m from a small rural county which has very, 

very limited resources, and those resources obviously have to be, 

according to the No Child Left Behind, focused on reading. We’ve 

lost a lot of things—music and other things. I think it’s got to be 

a community decision, to see what other resources can be brought 

to bear. What we found—I’m sorry, you have my comments—but, 

54 

in working together between a number of different community 

agencies—public health and a community health center—the resources can be found to do some of these things in collaboration. 

In the end of the day, the local health school system is actually 

putting considerable amount of funding in to the programs that 

we’re talking about, but they’re being matched, or at least partially 

matched, by other resources. 

I think a lot of it goes back to something we’ve all talked about, 

which is innovation, creativity, and commitment, to saying, ‘‘This 

is important and we’re going to make it happen.’’ 

They are not easy resources to get, and it is, maybe, something 

that could be incentivized, which I think is a good idea. I always 

think that works well. 

Senator CASEY. Thanks. 

Anybody else, on this question? 

Mr. PATE. Yes. 

Senator CASEY. Go ahead. 

Mr. PATE. I think it’s both. I think many of the initiatives that 

would be very meaningful, in terms of increasing the amount of 

physical activity that kids get during the school day, really are just 

a matter of the policymakers deciding that it’s important enough 

to do it. An example would be, most schools have a policy that kids 

in the elementary schools will have recess every day. That tends 

to be a poorly enforced policy. If the principal decides, on Monday 

morning, that it’s going to happen the way it’s supposed to happen, 

and the kids have the recess, and they have it in an environment 

that’s conducive to physical activity, that will add one little dose of 

activity to those children’s lives. That doesn’t cost anything. 

It doesn’t cost anything to deliver physical education, better, in 

a way that the kids enjoy it, and there’s a high exposure to moderate to vigorous physical activity when they’re there. 

Now, to double the exposure to physical education costs money, 

because that’s more teacher time and maybe more space and more 

equipment and so on. 

I think it’s both, but I think we can do a lot just by enforcing 

reasonable policies that are not very costly. I think, to do it all, in 

some cases, would take new resources. 

Ms. YANCEY. I agree with Dr. Pate in that regard. We actually 

completed a health impact assessment for this—a statewide project 

funded by the California endowment, in looking at what would be 

the best way to get kids more physical activity. We looked at things 

like walking to and from school, extending the duration of PE, extending the duration of recess, and also getting more of the time 

that kids spend in PE class active. And just because of the exposure level—because almost all kids are there, and that requirement 

exists—we found that just getting more activity time during the existing PE sessions would actually deliver more minutes of moderate 

to vigorous physical activity. 

It’s not to say that we don’t need more resources, and we certainly do; but, in the current climate, that’s probably not going to 

happen. These opportunities of both extending the activity minutes 

during PE and also incorporating brief bouts of physical activity 

throughout the school day and, really, throughout the society—because I think that happens in Japan and China and other places, 

55 

where people stop in the grocery store and start doing these activity breaks that are broadcast. We think of it, in this country, as, 

‘‘Wow, well, that’s something different, and we’re into rugged individualism.’’ In fact, the majority of communities of color, dancing 

as a group is something that’s done throughout the lifetime; it’s a 

form of cultural expression. 

And that’s my other point, that we really should capitalize on 

cultural assets. 

Mr. SHRIVER. I agree. I would just say one thing, and maybe I’ll 

go out on a limb here, Senator, and just say, everything in 

schools—that is not standardized-test-measured—has been under 

massive pressure. We have cultural issues, we have time-on-task 

issues, as my colleagues have said here, and I think those are—the 

truth is, I believe that the vast majority of educators will tell you 

that, in the era of NCLB, everything—everything—has been 

squeezed, massively squeezed. These people are under extraordinary pressure to eliminate anything that is not going to drive 

standardized-test performance. 

Sadly, as you know very well, as a result of that, they have created a learning environment that is unlikely to lead to standardized-test improvements over the long run. 

It’s a little bit of a catch-22 here again. Not to say we throw out 

the baby with the bath water, but just to say, that, to be blunt, 

‘‘Yes, physical education is under pressure,’’ as arts education is 

under pressure, work around problem-solving and decisionmaking 

skills are under pressure, service learning is under pressure. The 

whole fabric of public education, that roots itself in this country for 

150 years around citizenship and the development of caring and 

committed Americans, is under pressure if it is not being tested in 

the current environment. 

Senator CASEY. That is consistent with what I’ve heard. 

The CHAIRMAN. Very good. 

Senator CASEY. And we didn’t talk before this. 

[Laughter.] 

Thank you very much. 

The CHAIRMAN. I think what Mr. Shriver just said is right on 

target. 

Talking about resources, in Grundy Center, you bought all these 

electronic devices and technology, got all this high-tech stuff. That 

costs money. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Well the technology funds in schools—last 

year, $7 billion was spent by school districts on technology. For 

some reason, the physical education profession doesn’t think that’s 

part of their money. In the schools themselves, Grundy Center 

schools will spend $300,000 this year on technology. That doesn’t 

mean it’s for math or for the library or for the food service or for 

whatever. A portion of that money is for PE. I was really upset 

with Sioux Falls, SD, one time when I was doing a workshop, and 

I said, ‘‘Why don’t you’’—I was eating lunch with the superintendent—I said, ‘‘How come you don’t give those physical educators some of that tech money?’’ And he had a great answer. He 

said, ‘‘I would hardly give money to people who haven’t asked for 

it and, if so given, wouldn’t know what to do with it.’’ 

[Laughter.] 

56 

In this day and age, that technology money is out there. We don’t 

have to have a new computer lab again until everybody else is up 

to speed. We have to have an interest in holding people accountable. I think it does go back to having the physical educator, with 

responsible data-collecting abilities in this century, presenting it to 

the school board and saying, ‘‘Look what we’ve done.’’ When you’ve 

done that, the money will come, and the resources will follow that. 

You can’t keep asking for something that doesn’t work. 

One of the big wake-up calls in my profession should have been 

that when they take you out of the curriculum, they’re not very 

happy with what you’re doing. Make a change. 

We have to go to a more health-club atmosphere in the high 

schools, more individualized activities, more Dance Dance Revolution, more gadgets, more gizmos, more rock-climbing walls. We’ve 

got to have a different look at what it is that we think will attract 

people to be healthy and well and fit. Team sports, that’s not going 

to do it. One percent of all people over age 24 play team sports. 

That’s not the future for these high-school kids. It’s a health-club 

atmosphere. That money has come from all kinds of resources. But, 

where there’s a will—we’re able to show results. 

The CHAIRMAN. Well, I hope there’s room for both—that which 

you talk about, and also for team sports. Team sports build up the 

kind of social interactions that allow people to develop friendships, 

overcome integration, break down barriers. I don’t mean the kind 

of teams where you’ve got to be so good, that you’re on the football 

team or the basketball team. I just mean, pickup basketball, like 

we played when I was a kid. I was never on a basketball team, but 

we always played basketball or we played touch football or soccer— 

no, we didn’t play much soccer. 

[Laughter.] 

My kids played soccer. I think there’s something to be said for 

team sports. Just so they don’t think that they’ve got to be the best 

to get on the football team. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Well, the reality is, 90 percent of all kids, by 

age 15, drop out of organized athletics. There just isn’t room in 

intramurals. 

Mr. SHRIVER. If I could add, that because there’s no organized 

athletics for them to participate in. There is only elite organized 

athletics. 

Ms. KIRKPATRICK. Right. 

Mr. SHRIVER. The State of Maryland has adopted a title IX-like 

law to require after-school competitive sports activities for children 

with disabilities, intellectual and developmental disabilities—like 

title IV—saying that competitive team sports should be an option 

for people of all ability levels. 

There is a culture that says team sport, by the time you get to 

a certain age, is elite sport. That culture is profoundly problematic, 

because most kids, most adults, if they were given the chance, 

would still like to play, but they believe that they have been sort 

of ‘‘seniored-out’’ because they weren’t able to make the next level 

of competitive rigor. It particularly punishes women and girls. 

The CHAIRMAN. Yes. 

Mr. SHRIVER. Because elite performance in women and girls 

tends to be smaller numbers, and women and girls tend to have a 

57 

lower self-image, they tend to think they’re not as good as they 

even are. They almost self-select out of these sports, because the 

mentality says, ‘‘You have to be performing at a certain level.’’ 

I agree with you that, over the lifespan, you can’t hope 

everybody’s going to be able to do three practices a week for—if 

you’re a U.S. Senator, you can’t show up at practice and play on 

weekends. The idea that team sports and organized sports has 

been denied to people, I think we just have to be honest and say 

that—and this is not a cost issue, Senator. There are thousands 

and thousands of American community leaders, parents, who would 

be happy to be volunteers. 

The CHAIRMAN. Yes. 

Mr. SHRIVER. You’ve seen this in your State. When asked, they 

will respond. 

The CHAIRMAN. Yes. 

Mr. SHRIVER. We don’t have to create a whole superstructure of 

Federal Government enterprise to do these things. This doesn’t 

have to be a budge issue in its primary characteristics. It can be 

very much a community—and this is where the leverage of the 

Federal Government, the platform of the Federal Government, the 

invitation of the Federal Government, to renew its commitment to 

health, to sport, to physical activity, to invite community organizations to challenge schools, to set standards, to remind people that 

we believe in a balanced and healthy lifestyle and strong citizenship and social competence and emotional self-awareness. 

This is the American vision. It’s not of children who pass—who 

get good scores on reading scores. Of course you’ve got to do reading, of course you’ve got to do math. No one’s questioning that. But, 

that’s not the full vision of the country, and never has been. And 

I think we’ve lost some of the broader view. 

The CHAIRMAN. Well said, and I think that’s the point of all this. 

We’ve had hearings on the whole child—to discuss the importance of developing the whole child in school, focusing on the whole 

child. This is part of it. You’re right, we’ve got to figure out how 

we bring these other entities into play—you mentioned the Rotarians, the Kiwanis, the local Ys, and how we get them involved. 

And, you’re right, there are a lot of people out there who want to 

volunteer, but they need a structure in which to volunteer. 

[Off-mic witness agreement.] 

‘‘Sure, I’ll do it, but who’s going to lead me, who’s going to guide 

me, who’s going to pull this together?’’ 

[Off-mic witness agreement.] 

People will do it if they have that kind of structure out there. 

What we’ve got to do is identify the best ways to promote that. 

How do we provoke that, here? As I said, we’re trying to accomplish some of this through the FIT Kids Act, including bringing in 

these outside entities. The question is, in ESEA, how do we start 

moving our schools to a fully integrated health approach, a healthy 

environment for kids, that promotes mental health, physical activity and wellness? 

I was taken by your testimony, Dr. Levin, about all the kids and 

how many trained social and child psychologists you had there to 

help students. Some of these kids have tough lives, they have 

tough days, they have tough homes and they just need some supVerDate Nov 24 2008 15:15 May 10, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00061 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\56645.TXT DENISE
58 

port and some help. If they get that, then they’ll probably be better 

off playing in sports and getting involved in positive kinds of activities. 

That’s what we’re looking at in ESEA. We have one more hearing, next week, focused on early childhood education. That hearing 

will complete our series of 10 hearings, covering all the aspects of 

elementary and secondary education. I really wanted this panel 

here, because I feel so strongly that we’re not doing right by our 

kids if we’re not involving them in daily activities that promote 

health, improve well-being wellness and increase physical activity. 

We’re just not. I’m trying to figure out how we best incorporate, in 

our bill, those kinds of measures that use the ‘‘leverage,’’ as you 

said, Mr. Shriver—the leverage of the Federal Government to try 

to move positive physical ed exercise, nutrition and wellness. 

Dr. Yancey, I think you, maybe, are going to have the last word. 

Ms. YANCEY. OK. Well, I just wanted to say that we need a sea 

change. We need culture change. Thirty years ago, somebody would 

have been smoking in this room, and 20 years ago, we’d probably 

have sodas on the desk. We’ve made some major strides. Really, 

physical activity is kind of a last frontier here, because the prevalence rates are just so low. Fewer than 5 percent of adults get 30 

minutes a day, 5 days a week. I think we need to figure out, in 

terms of the policymaking that sets this up, how we can encourage 

it with incentives. Also, everybody’s got to look in the mirror and 

make a determination about what each of us can do. 

The CHAIRMAN. Well, that is a good way to end this hearing. 

Thank you all very, very much. 

We’ll leave the record open for 10 days. 

I ask each of you to keep tabs on what we’re doing here and I 

hope you all have our special e-mail address. It’s very easy. It’s 

ESEAcomments at HELP—H-E-L-P—at HELP DOT Senate DOT 

gov. So, ESEAcomments@HELP.Senate.gov. We have established 

that just for people to provide comments and recommendations. As 

you follow what we’re doing here, I invite you to keep giving us 

your input. Hopefully my staff or I can be back in touch with you 

as we move ahead to, maybe, bounce some more things off you, 

‘‘Are we going the right way? Are we doing this right?’’ that type 

of thing. 

I hope, in the next several weeks, we can have that open exchange with each of you. 

Well, thank you very much. Great hearing. I really appreciate it. 

The committee is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 4:30 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.] 

Æ