Mounting Evidence Suggests Link Between P.E., Educational Achievement

Feb 22, 2008 (RWJ Foundation)

• A growing body of evidence supports a connection between physical activity and academic achievement, Education Week reports.


• A study published last year in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology suggests that children who performed well on two measures of physical fitness tended to score higher on state reading and math exams, regardless of gender or socioeconomic status.


• A study in the December 2007 Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, meanwhile, followed 163 Augusta, Ga., schoolchildren and found that those who exercised for 40 minutes daily demonstrated the greatest improvements in cognitive function, with gains roughly twice as large as children who exercised for only 20 minutes daily.


• In 2004, schools in Naperville, Ill., implemented “learning readiness” P.E. classes for students who had received low scores on certain academic tests. Under the program, roughly a dozen students struggling with reading participated in early-morning P.E. sessions and attended a specialized literacy class.

Often, there seems to be an "either/or" attitude when it comes to physical fitness and academic success. NCLB and the resulting "drill" approach to reading and math performance on standardized tests gobble up the lion's share of the school day. Is this the best strategy???

After one semester, children participating in the "learning readiness" PE classes in Naperville Central High program showed 1.34 year’s of growth on standardized reading tests, compared with seven-tenths of a year’s growth among struggling students who attended only literacy classes.

We hope that more school District's explore programs that integrate physical activity and academic success - and remember that a child brings a brain and a body into the learning equation. (Viadero, Education Week, 2/12/08 [registration required]).