The Center For Disease Control ( Cdc ) And The World...

Introduction: The Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) note that when children participate in the recommended level of physical activity of at least 60 minutes per day multiple health benefits ensue. Nevertheless, since the creation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) increasing focus has been dedicated to bridging the achievement gap between students and less emphasis has been placed on non-academic curriculum such as, physical education. Research has shown that approximately 3.8% of elementary schools provide formal physical education with this percentage steadily declining as children continue onto middle and high school. This decrease in physical activity is in line with reports from†¦show more content†¦Similarly, the National Association for Education of Young Children (NAEYC) stressed the importance of physical activity in cognitive development, refining motor skills and socialization among young children. While, research highligh ted the importance of physical activity and education it has been inconsistent in establishing a direct link between physical activity and academic performance. This analysis will investigate whether children who participate in physical activity are more likely to succeed academically. I hypothesize that children who participate in physical activity, on average, will perform better academically. Data: This analysis uses data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Program Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K: 2011) a study supported by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) that tracks children’s educational experiences and development as they progress along the school system. Although, the ECLS-K: 2011 provides comprehensive data about multiple aspects of a child’s educational experience only select data points (11,027 degrees of freedom) were used in this analysis and are summarized in table 1.1. The variables that comprise my analysis are: (1) number of days per week of exercise (day_weekYN), (2) participation in-group sports (P2GRPSPT) and (3) gain score for math and reading (gainmathreading). Furthermore, I omitted observations with missing values from my data set, 7,145 observations were dropped. My