Study links physical fitness with test scores among poor students
Researchers say cutting physical education classes for more classroom time could have adverse academic effect
- Topics:
- Education
ATLANTA — As the national discussion over how to improve public education continues, one area that some researchers feel has gotten short shrift is that of physical fitness and physical education. New research, presented Wednesday at the Obesity Week conference here, shows that ignoring that area in favor of adding more time in class may be self-defeating, as improved fitness and improved test scores seem to go hand in hand for students who are most in need of a boost.
To conduct their analysis, researchers from the New York City Department of Health used data from 87,000 public school students in the district who passed from grades 6 to 8 between 2006 and 2010. In looking at fitness test scores and classroom test scores, they found that boys and girls from high-poverty homes who improved their fitness scores relative to their classmates also had a corresponding increase in test scores, and those who had a decrease in fitness saw test scores drop.
While the researchers only showed an association between physical fitness and classroom