Virginia Beach gym teachers may be on the spot

VIRGINIA BEACH

A third-grade math teacher might be reprimanded if too many students fail to understand basic multiplication, but nobody is held accountable if those same students can't do a push-up.

That could change if School Board Chairman Dan Edwards has his way. Edwards and others on the School Board said they eventually want gym teachers to be held responsible if out-of-shape children don't show improvement.

Gym teacher accountability is one of several suggestions gaining momentum across the country as schools deal with increasingly overweight students. Many divisions have begun tracking weight and fitness in an attempt to improve student health. But they're running into ethical questions about what to do with the data and with whom to share it.

In May, the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity recommended that schools begin measuring student fitness and tailoring lessons and activities to make improvements.

In Virginia, schools are already required to test students in five fitness areas - aerobic endurance, abdominal strength, upper-body strength, back strength and flexibility. Divisions have been reporting those results to the state the past few years, but the fitness data weren't analyzed locally in Virginia Beach before this past school year.

As part of the change, gym teachers were required to report the student fitness scores to parents and principals.

A preliminary review of last year's data shows a drop-off in fitness once students enter high school, said Joe Burnsworth, assistant superintendent for curriculum.

"We're looking at that and trying to determine why that is," Burnsworth said.

Other divisions in South Hampton Roads have tracked student fitness, but all of them stop short of holding individual instructors responsible.

Portsmouth gym teachers use student fitness data recorded at the start of the year to plan the curriculum, a spokeswoman said. In Suffolk, administrators said they have begun comparing student fitness scores with statewide data to identify weaknesses across the division.

Next year, every school in Virginia Beach will be equipped with an electronic fat-loss monitor to measure students' body mass indexes - a common measure of body composition. The devices will help teachers track changes in student fitness and alert parents of possible health problems, Burnsworth said.

Other school divisions across the state, including Fairfax County, are already measuring BMI. Sending students home with a fitness grade has been a growing trend over the past few years, with several states adopting policies requiring schools to list a BMI calculation on children's report cards, often with exercise or nutrition tips.

Opponents of such measures argue that pushing students too hard or focusing on their weight could damage self-esteem and lead to eating disorders.

"If schools are serious about improving student health, they should focus on teaching students to eat healthy by serving fresh, quality food in the cafeteria," said Jeanine Cogan of the Eating Disorders Coalition in Washington.

Some parents have pushed back. Rhonda Coffman said she was outraged when she learned her 15-year-old daughter's fitness score was mistakenly passed out in front of other students at First Colonial High School. The score card contained sensitive information, Coffman said, including the girl's weight.

"If my child is failing in geometry, I want to know that from the school," Coffman said. "If my child is 20 pounds overweight, I don't need to know this from the school. I have a pediatrician who can tell me this."

Parents can opt their children out of taking the health exams, Burnsworth said. And students who feel uncomfortable working out in front of their peers can take the Beach's online gym class, which equips students with heart-rate monitors and gives them freedom to work out whenever and wherever they want.

"Our goal is to produce students who recognize the value of lifelong fitness," Burnsworth said.

The fitness push reflects a national movement in response to the childhood obesity epidemic - the rate of high BMI has tripled over the past three decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and close to one in three American children is now overweight or obese.

Gone are the days when gym class meant lining up to shoot free throws or picking teams for kickball, said Edwards, the board chairman, who is also an avid runner.

"You need to keep it fun," he said. "But you also need to keep it so a kid gets out there and keeps his heart rate up for a sustained period of time."

Many physical education teachers support gym-class standards, but tying teacher evaluations to the health of students is troubling, said Henry Castelvecchi, director of the Virginia Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.

Gym teachers don't spend enough time with students to have a meaningful impact on fitness, said Castelvecchi, who is an elementary school gym teacher.

"There are too many variables involved in a student's fitness level," he said. Teachers, for example, "don't have control over a student's diet," he said.

Testing students on concepts learned in gym class is a more reasonable way to hold teachers accountable, Castelvecchi said.

Beach School Board Vice Chairman Bill Brunke said he likes the idea of bringing measurable standards to physical education but said he has concerns about the possibility of working children too hard.

"If you give a kid too much to read, he might wake up with a headache," Brunke said. "You push a kid too far on a track, there are possibly very serious health consequences."

Mike Hixenbaugh, (757) 222-5117, mike.hixenbaugh@pilotonline.com