Here’s one test question that Vivek Ramaswamy may fail to answer correctly: what is the relationship between physical fitness and academic performance? Ramaswamy, who is campaigning to become the Republican Party nominee for the 2024 United States Presidential Election, made a statement on Twitter (now called X) that deserves a big “X” through it. He claimed that “It’s a fact that those who perform well on math & reading tests tend to perform more poorly on the 1-mile run, and vice versa.”
Umm, before you say that something is a fact, perhaps it would be good idea to actually look up the evidence and the facts. In fact, multiple studies have shown the exact opposite of what Ramaswamy was insisting as fact—namely, better physical fitness is in actuality associated with better academic performance.
Ramaswamy made that X-misses-the-spot statement as part of a tweet (or maybe an X) that said, “Now that the Supreme Court finally ended affirmative action, colleges will only further deprioritize SAT scores in favor of subjective factors because of large racial disparities in test results.” This, of course, is an assumption of his. Regardless, Ramaswamy continued with, “There’s a simple way forward that will drive excellence and diversity of talent among incoming college classes: the College Board should add a physical fitness section to the SAT, instead of just math and reading sections,” as you can see here:
Yeah, whenever someone says, “There’s a simple way” about a significant problem that hasn’t been solved yet, be skeptical. Be very skeptical. There are numerous issues with Ramaswamy’s proposed “simple” solution. First of all, the Presidential Fitness Test wasn’t meant to be a standardized aptitude test for college admissions. Instead, it was designed to help everyone reach and maintain a certain fitness level. What are college admissions committees supposed to do with such results? Should they say, “Oh, Amanda did 20 sit-ups more than Jenny and Scott. Let’s admit her instead?”
Secondly, how the heck is the College Board going to administer a fitness test in a way that is fair, unbiased, and resistant to cheating? There are currently around 3.8 million teens eligible to take the standardized tests like the SAT and ACT each year. If the number of sit-ups is going to make the difference between getting into different colleges, can you imagine the arguments that may occur over whether junior did an actual full sit up or not?
Thirdly, sports participation does already factor into college admissions. Exceptional athletes already can move to the front of the line in college admissions and get full-ride scholarships. And a full-scholarship Division I basketball player probably can do a lot of sit-ups.
Fourthly, if the goal is to even the playing field when it comes to college admissions, is Ramaswamy making a major assumption about those who are disadvantaged for economic and discrimination reasons? Is he assuming that these folks will naturally be able to perform better on physical fitness tests? If so, where the heck is he getting that assumption? This would run counter to what a 2011 publication in the journal Diabetes indicated about the U.S.: “Overall, the poorest counties have the greatest sedentariness and obesity. Several reasons may explain why people living in poor counties are less active.” These reasons include parks and sports facilities being less available and gym membership, sports clothing, and exercise equipment being less affordable.
Finally, let’s pull-up a systematic review published on August 25, 2023, in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. For this review, the authors searched the PubMed, Web of Science, SPORTDiscus, and PsycINFO databases to find studies that assessed the effects of acute physical activity on academic performance-related outcomes in school-aged youth. This resulted in 11 published studies that encompassed a total of 803 children and adolescents, ranging in age from six to 16 years. These studies showed significant correlations between acute physical activity and not only better academic outcomes overall but also better academic performance in mathematics, and better academic performance in language. Other studies have shown links between longer-term physical fitness and academic performance including standardized test scores such as one published in Acta Paediatrics.
All of this is not surprising since the mind and body are closely linked. (If yours are somehow separated, you should see a doctor immediately.) Physical activity can improve brain function by increasing the flow of oxygen-carrying blood to your noggin and increasing the release of brain neurotransmitters and other naturally occurring chemicals in your brain that can help you better concentrate, process, learn, and remember things. By contrast, feeling unfit or unwell can distract from your learning. Moreover, participating in sports can help with your problem-solving skills and even help teach you reading and math-related skills. For example, hitting the right tennis serve, kicking an on-the-mark penalty shot, and pitching the perfect ball all involve some combination of geometry and physics, right? Additionally, being physically fit and participating in sports can make you feel better about yourself and improve your overall mood, which in turn can further help your academic performance.
So, before any politician or anyone else for that matter runs at the mouth about one-mile runs, it’s better for that person to check what the actual scientific evidence says first. Claiming that students who perform well on math and reading tests won’t do so on athletic tests and vice-versa, simply furthers the “nerds” versus “jocks” trope that just ain’t accurate. In reality, there are plenty of jocks who are nerds and vice-versa. If you really want to level the playing field when it comes to social, racial, and economic disparities in educational opportunities, you have to sit up and tackle the root causes. And not run off in some tangent.
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