Statement I made at the board meeting last night, addressing one of the concerns that had been brought up:
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I want to speak to the concern that we’re spending a significant amount of money on physical education, rather than on academics, as if the two are in opposition.
As some of you know, I’m an academic in my day job, a professor at UIC. I didn’t expect, when I ran for office, that one of the major projects I’d be working on in my time on the board would be renovations to a physical education facility. I’m not a sporty person, and my children (one of whom is a sophomore at OPRF, and the other who’ll be here in a few years) aren’t sporty either. But the truth of the matter is that physical education is significant in improving academic performance.
I’m a researcher, and one of the articles I read as we worked on Project 2 was a systemic review of the literature on the association between school-based physical activity, including physical education, and academic performance, in the Journal of Preventive Medicine. I’m going to quote a bit from that research:
“Across all the studies, there were a total of 251 associations between physical activity and academic performance, representing measures of academic achievement, academic behavior, and cognitive skills and attitudes. Slightly more than half (50.5%) of all associations examined were positive, 48% were not significant, and 1.5% were negative. Results suggest physical activity is either positively related to academic performance or that there is not a demonstrated relationship between physical activity and academic performance. Results have important implications for both policy and schools.
When youth participate in at least 60 min of physical activity every day, health benefits accrue, such as healthy bones and muscles, improved muscular strength and endurance, reduced risk for developing chronic disease risk factors, improved self-esteem, and reduced stress and anxiety. Most youth, however, are not engaging in the recommended level of physical activity. For example, in 2009, only 18.4% of U.S. high school students reported being physically active at least 60 min per day for the previous 7 days (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
Schools provide a unique venue for youth to participate in physical activity.”
Teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions. Often when we’re discussing that truth, we’re talking about making sure our teachers are paid fairly and competitively, which is obviously important. But teachers also need decent facilities to teach in, and the unfortunate truth is that our physical education facilities are in desperate need of improvement, and are seriously compromising our teachers’ ability to teach, and our students’ ability to learn.
We have had to close areas for safety, we have areas that are not in compliance with ADA requirements, we have been spending significant funds on ongoing repair costs that have been only patching the problems.
I expect that as a result of renovating this facility, we will see our students’ physical health, mental health, AND academic achievement improve.
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(The photo shows some of the leaking and damage we’re currently contending with.)