Effects of daily physical education on academic performance

This study investigated whether daily physical education had an effect on student academic performance and attendance in seventh and eighth-graders. One hundred and fifty-five students in seventh and eighth-grade were selected to participate in this study. Their overall GPA, core GPA, and attendance were evaluated while each student had daily physical education and when each student did not have daily physical education. Gender was also investigated to see if it made a difference in results.Although most of the means suggested that students had better overall GPA's, core GPA's, and attendance while participating in physical education class, the differences were not large enough; thus the statistical test proved the results to be insignificant. The only results that did not suggest that students improved while they were participating in daily physical education were the core GPA and attendance of girls, which were a little higher when they did not have daily physical education.School of Physical EducationThesis (M.A.