| The pressure educators, schools, and school districts face with meeting Adequate Yearly Progress on state assessments as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act has made some schools and school district reduce class offerings and time for subjects not considered core subjects. In addition, the rising obesity rates in students have prompted research examining the connection between physical activity and learning. Positive correlations between exercise and brain research are indicative that the use of physical activity in the classroom may be beneficial to students academically. However, there are few studies that exist that analyze the use of content-based physical activity programs in the classroom and their influence on academic performance. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental nonequivalent groups design study was to determine if there is a link between reading performance measured using easyCBMRTM reading comprehension assessments and using the Energizers physical activity program in junior high school English classrooms in a suburban school district in the Pacific Northwest. The Energizers program, developed by East Carolina University's Action Promotion Laboratory, consists of 10-15 minute content-based physical activities used during a class period. In this study, six junior high school English classes with students ( n = 130) nested within each class participated in a four-week study examining the use of Energizers during reading instruction. A nested one-way ANOVA on gain scores indicated no significant effect of the Energizers intervention on reading comprehension, F(4, 124) = .93, p = .45, and no significant differences in gain scores according to gender, F(4, 118) = .91, p = .46. The analysis was based on four groups comprised of 1) boys in the experimental group, 2) girls in the experimental group, 3) boys in the control group, and 4) girls in the control group. The findings of this study indicated that there were no statistically significant effects on reading comprehension as a result of participating in Energizers. Recommendations for future studies include increasing the overall sample size, increasing the number of minutes students participated in physical activity, considering alternative reading assessments as means of collecting data, and adding qualitative data. |
