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The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the level offitness among fifth-grade students who attended Title I schools and those who did notattend Title I schools. A quantitative research design was utilized to examine therelationship between independent and dependent variables. The two-group categoricalindependent variables were Title I status and gender. The dependent variables wereaerobic capacity, left and right leg lower body flexibility, and muscular strength. Thepopulation of this study was comprised of fifth-grade boys and girls whose fitness levelswere tested in their physical education classes. The current study was conducted in aMidwest suburban school district during the 2015-2016 school year. Fitness levels weretested using the FitnessGram®assesements, which consisted of the Progressive AerobicCardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) test to measure aerobic capacity, the back saversit-and-reach test to measure flexibility, and the push-up test to measure muscularstrength. Hypotheses regarding the relationship between gender and Title I school statuswere developed. The current study utilized a non-parametric research design with fourcategorical variables, and the fitness tests were conducted by certified, elementaryphysical education teachers. Participants were categorized by their achievement of theHealthy Fitness Zone (HFZ) or Needs Improvement (NI) in aerobic capacity, left andright leg lower body flexibility, and muscular strength based on their individualassessment results from the 2015-2016 fitness testing session.Based on the results related to the research questions it was discovered that for allfifth-grade students, there was a statistically significant difference in three fitness levelsof Title I and non-Title I students in aerobic capacity, right leg lower body flexibility, and muscular strength. The percentage of Title I students in the HFZ was significantly lowerthan the percentage of non-Title I students in the HFZ. No statistically significantdifference was found in left leg lower body flexibility.The other independent variable was gender. Boys and girls were analyzed byTitle I school status but were not directly compared with each other. The results showedsignificant differences in fitness levels. For boys, there was a significant difference inaerobic capacity, right leg lower body flexibility, and muscular strength. There was nosignificant difference in fitness levels in left leg lower body flexibility for boys in Title Iand non-Title I schools. For girls, there was a significant difference in aerobic capacityand muscular strength, however, there was no significant difference in fitness levels inleft and right leg lower body flexibility for girls. |
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