On Tuesday, December 4th, the Campaign to End Obesity, American Heart Association, the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, the Trust for America's Health, Nike, Inc., National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity, Shaping America's Health, National Association for Sport and Physical Education and the YMCA of the USA held a briefing hosted by Senator Tom Harkin to discuss the correlation between physical activity and academic achievement.

At the briefing, those in attendance heard remarks from Alana Beard of the Washington Mystics, Darla Castelli, PhD, University of Illinois, Charlene Burgeson from the National Association for Sport and Physical Activity (NASPE), Jeff Levi from Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and Sheila Franklin from the National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity (NCPPA).  The consensus among the presenters was that there is a strong correlation between increased levels of physical activity and childrens' academic achievement.

Click here to view the comments of Darla Castelli, PhD, University of Illinois.

Click here to view the comments of Jeff Levi from Trust for America's Health.

Click here to view the comments of Charlene Burgeson from the National Association of Sport and Physical Education.

Click here to view the comments of Sheila Franklin from the National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity.

If you have any questions about the event or about other initiatives underway to help promote physical activity in schools, please contact Chris Fox at chris@obesitycampaign.org.