In-school sports equals brain power

By Cindy Landrum  

OCTOBER 30, 2011 10:36 a.m. (0)

When William Brown went to Dallas for a preventative physical and a weeklong wellness program at the Cooper Institute, he expected to get a new diet, a new exercise program and a roadmap to better health.

He didn’t expect to come home with the motivation for a new school that would improve students’ academic performances, in part, by requiring physical education five days a week.

Brown, a former high school basketball coach, had been thinking about starting a charter school to serve Greenville’s poorest neighborhoods where students faced formidable challenges.

Instead of starting a brand new school, Brown got involved with the former Fuller Normal School.

The school changed its name (to Legacy Charter School), changed its location (to the old Fine Arts Center and the old Parker High on Greenville’s west side) and changed its curriculum.

Legacy is the only public school in South Carolina to require 45 minutes of physical education each day.

The connection between physical activity and increased cognitive ability was one Brown heard about from Dr. Kenneth Cooper, a pioneer in aerobic fitness and founder of The Cooper Institute in Dallas.

“It seemed crystal clear that’s what we should be doing,” Brown said.

But only one state – Illinois – requires all students to take physical education five days a week. And since the advent of high-stakes testing, most schools have cut back on physical education to make more time for reading, math and English.

“It might seem like a good idea on the surface, but what we’re finding out is constricting play and physical activity out of the day makes it harder for children to learn,” said Connie Tyne, vice president of external affairs with The Cooper Institute. “Physical activity improves a child’s ability to learn.”
A study completed by Furman University associate professor of health sciences Dr. Julian Reed shows that’s true.

While previous studies have shown a link between exercise and increased cognitive abilities, Reed’s study was the first showing cognitive changes in elementary and middle school children.

Reed came up with tests to measure “fluid intelligence,” or ability to reason quickly and abstractly, and “perceptual speed,” something that is related to higher cognitive abilities.

Neither test relied on previous knowledge.

Legacy students improved on 92 percent of the fitness measures tested compared to 8 percent by students of similar demographics who attend two other county schools with just one period of physical education each week. At the middle school level, students at the other schools actually performed worse at the end of the year in 42 percent of the measures.

Cognitive abilities of Legacy students increased by 59 percent compared to 25 percent at the control schools.

And the Legacy students also said they enjoyed physical activity more.

Tyne said while many people hear a speaker, get inspired and it ends there, Brown actually acted and is changing the lives of children.

“One person can make an enormous difference if they’ve got the passion and they step out and take the chance,” she said. “How many people are being touched by what this school is doing? Once again, you can see the power of one person who sees a problem and finds a solution.”
Brown said the independent study by Reed was important to validate that what the school is doing is working.

He hopes more schools in the area and the state will do the same thing.

“If the research is far away, nobody believes it,” he said. “I hope we create enough evidence where schools see the value of physical education and go back to it.”

But requiring physical education is not the only thing Legacy is doing to improve health in its community.

It is building a fitness center at its high school campus for staff and parents to use. He said the school will provide tutoring for children while the center is open in the evening and on Saturdays so parents, many of them single-parents, don’t have to find somebody to keep their kids while they work out.

The fitness center should be completed by the end of the year.