Article analysis and implications: EJ936015

Physical Fitness and Academic Achievement

Attached a draft Project 3.8. We worked article analysis implications. I a conclusion covers validly attached referenced article (EJ936015.pdf)

Blom, Lindsey C. John Alvarez, Lei Zhang, & Jerome Kolbo. (2011). Associations between health-related physical fitness, academic achievement and selected academic behaviors of elementary and middle school students in the state of Mississippi. International Council for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Sport, and Dance Journal of According to Blom (2011), teachers and school administrators often find themselves in a bind: how do they make room in the school day to meet students' educational needs while still justifying physical education classes? The need for PE is supported by the escalating numbers of obese and overweight middle school students. But previous studies have also sought to justify the continued incorporation of PE in schools based upon student's improved academic performance when they participate in physical activities.

Study results have been inconclusive thus far, although all indicate that participation in PE is not harmful to student achievement (Blom et al. 2011: 13). But while fitness levels and academic achievement have shown to be consistently linked, studies which attempt to track student improvement have occasionally yielded surprising results, such as showing increases in academic performance for boys but not for girls. "Inconsistencies in physical education instruction and curriculum and variations in the amount of time spent in moderate to vigorous activity during class may contribute to the discrepancies in the results" (Blom et al. 2011: 13). Also, the fitness state of participants before the study can influence results. Girls tend to be less active than boys and thus could have shown more notable gains. Race and socio-economic status may also influence results, given that students of disadvantaged backgrounds may have fewer opportunities to play outside of school or access to healthy foods, which could mitigate the positive impact of PE.

The specific study of the researchers in the article focused on students in grades 3-5. The study sample was 52.4% male, 52.3% white, the majority of the participants were within a healthy weight range (54.1%), and qualified for free/reduced price lunch (63.7%). "Participants' overall fitness level was determined by the number of healthy fitness zones they achieved on the test battery, ranging from zero to six" on the Cooper Institute Fitnessgram (Blom et al. 2011: 14). Student's academic achievement was assessed based upon performance on the Mississippi Curriculum Test (MCT2) and absentee rates. When controlled for race, ethnicity, socio-economic status and gender, a significant positive correlation was found between fitness and "standardized test scores in both Language Arts and Math. For Language Arts, the likelihood of high academic achievement increased with each additional fitness zone achieved (up to three times); for Math, a similar trend was found" (Blom et al. 2011: 14).