Are Fit Kids Smarter?

The lengths school districts, education officials and law makers will go to in order to improve standardized test scores within their districts or explain away poor scores are astonishing. The latest scheme to help explain away poor standardized test scores involves a series of viscous and flawed experiments that strive to help schools blame their low standardized test scores on their less physically fit students.

Believe it or not, several recent studies, conducted by school districts and researchers looking for ways to “improve student performance” have come to the conclusion that there is a correlation between students’ level of physical fitness and their level of academic achievement.

One such study was conducted by Dr. Kenneth Cooper and his team of researchers at the Dallas-based Cooper Institute. According to Dr. Cooper’s findings, which were published by the Texas Education Agency, students’ level of physical fitness directly correlates with their quality of academic work. Dr. Cooper’s findings also went one step further to conclude that the fitter students were inclined to have less discipline problems and better attendance records. Interestingly, during the course of this study, Dr. Cooper and his researchers learned that certain schools had a higher level of academic success which was balanced by a higher level of physical fitness amongst their student body.

Another note-worthy study on this subject was conducted by Dr. William J. McCarthy and his team of researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles and published in the Journal of Pediatrics. Dr. William J. McCarthy’s study concluded that physically fit students score higher on standardized tests than their less fit peers. When conducting this study the team of researchers measured the time it took middle and high school students to complete a 1-mile run/walk fitness test. They found that test scores dropped more than one point for each extra minute it took the students to complete this fitness test.

The most comprehensive study of the correlation between physical fitness and academic achievement was conducted in 2009 by NYC’s Health Department, in collaboration with NYC’s Department of Education (DOE). In NYC, where nearly 40% of the public school students are overweight or obese, the study found that, “students who scored in the top 5% on their NYC FITNESSGRAM assessments outscored the bottom 5% by an average of 36 percentile points on standardized academic tests”.

So, as parents, teachers, and education officials we are safe to assume that fit kids are smarter than their less fit peers.

• But, does correlation establish causation?
• Are fitter students more academically successful because physical fitness leads to higher IQ’s or because of other factors such as their socioeconomic status and the quality of the physical education programs offered at their schools?
• Are standardized tests a true measure of a student’s academic achievement or intelligence?

To answer these questions, which were left out of the above mentioned studies, we must first determine what makes kids fit.

1. Lifestyle: It is a well known fact that the number one factor contributing to a family’s overall level of physical fitness is lifestyle. In other words, children whose parents lead a healthy and active lifestyle are more likely to be physically fit themselves.
2. Socioeconomic Status: Those families who can afford to enroll their children in various extracurricular activities and after-school sports programs, such as dance, football and Karate, are usually also better able to help their children with school work at home or pay for expensive tutoring programs.
3. High Quality Physical Education Programs: It’s a well known fact that schools located in high socioeconomic neighborhoods have enough resources to hire the best staff and implement highly effective fitness and academic programs, while other schools, like those located in inner-city NY neighborhoods don’t even have a lawn for the students to play on.

Given these, and many other factors, it is no wonder that the schools with a higher than average fit student body also perform better on standardized tests. Unfortunately, it is very likely that we are going to see more such studies being conducted in the near future. That is why it is imperative that we, as a nation, take a stand and not allow school districts and law makers to use such methods to marginalize, demean and devalue large groups of children based on such trivial matters as their physical fitness levels.

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