The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Mar 6, 2008
A study published online in the American Journal of Public Health suggests that time spent in physical education classes does not detract from elementary school students' academic achievement and may boost girls' test scores, USA Today reports. To assess the relationship between P.E. duration and academic success, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention evaluated over 5,000 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. They found that girls who participated in 70 to 300 minutes of P.E. per week consistently scored higher on standardized math and reading tests than girls who participated in 35 minutes or less of P.E. weekly.