New Study Focuses on Whole-of-School Physical Activity Opportunities and their Impact on Student Performance

A new study by CHPPR researchers looks at the connection between Whole-of-School physical activity opportunities and student academic performance and physical fitness. Working with the Cooper Institute and NFL Play 60 FitnessGram Project, researchers have collected school- and student-level data from more than 200 schools currently implementing school-based physical activity opportunities in order to provide insights on disparities, academic and fitness outcomes, and best practices for implementing similar programs.

“The Whole of School approach means integrating physical activity into every segment of the school day,” said Derek Craig, PhD, principal investigator on the project. “That means active before- and after-school programs, PE, recess, and even active learning approaches in the classroom, like doing jumping jacks while learning multiplication tables or acting out the movements of the solar system.”

Physical activity promotion is critical to the prevention of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic conditions. Schools are well-positioned to support physical activity promotion efforts given their broad reach and history of providing health services, yet implementation remains a persistent challenge due to a variety of factors.

“Some teachers think that if you provide opportunities for physical activity during class, it will take away time from instruction,” said Craig. “That’s not the case. We’ve seen that students are able to at the least maintain their academic scores in various subjects, if not improve them. Newer teachers are often trained in more active learning approaches, but some of the more traditional teachers are still concerned these approaches might disrupt student learning.”

The new study, “Whole-of-School Physical Activity Promotion to Prevent Cancer and Chronic Disease,” has three primary aims:

• Identifying school-level characteristics such as Title 1 status or student body demographics, that are associated with a school’s success in providing Whole-of-School physical activity opportunities;
• Examining the degree to which implementation of Whole-of-School programs relates to students' performance on standardized academic achievement tests; and
• Evaluating the extent to which implementation of Whole-of-School programs relates to students' physical fitness.

The results of the study will provide an in-depth understanding of the physical activity practices currently being used by a national sample of schools and the impacts of those practices on students’ academic performance and physical fitness. These insights could inform the development of a comprehensive set practices to improve the implementation of WOS physical activity programs in the future.

This study is funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).