Neff Zone Column -- November 3, 2007

Print Edition: November 3, 2007

WANT TO IMPROVE MATH SCORES? TAG, YOU’RE IT.

The "Waist Management" article in a recent Cadillac News really caught my attention because that same day I was thinking about the No Child Left Behind program. You wouldn’t guess the two topics, one about childhood obesity and the other about academic achievement, would be related but they are.

First of all, it was great news to learn that the Wexford County Michigan State Extension Service had received a grant and had studied the childhood weight issue in Wexford County. Results of that study were valuable and will lead to local efforts in combating this problem.

It was also nice to hear that many local schools are already doing things to improve the health of their students, like making healthier food options available or having students accompany teachers on regular walks. Good data equals good results.

As I said, the same day I read the News article I was also thinking about the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program. The idea behind the program was/is to raise achievement levels of students across the country by 2014. The main engine driving this is federal money, literally billions when all is said and done, and the main tool is a standardized test. Simply put, if your school passes the test you get the money and if your school fails you don’t get the money.

Now, I’m not going to debate the merits of the NCLB. However, I will make this one observation about which I’m sure we all can agree. "If the NCLB is a federal program funded by federal dollars there should be a way to measure the results of the program. If accurate and reliable data cannot be collected, then there is no way to determine if the program is a success or a failure."

Ah, but herein lies the problem. A federal report out this week basically concludes that there are no national achievement standards for the NCLB program and that some states are cheating the system. They can do this because each state is allowed to set its own standards, so some just set them ridiculously low.

A Gannet News Service analysis stated: "Many states have taken the safe route, keeping standards low and fooling parents into believing their kids are prepared for college and work."

The bottom line is that the bar of achievement in some states is actually a limbo stick. Still, their scores earn their schools federal dollars while schools in states with more stringent standards get branded as failing.

According to Gannett, this is really evident in Southern states. Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina have lowered their standards so much that their students will surely not be able to count or read the words on the federal greenbacks their schools receive. Michigan’s standards rate in about the middle of the pack, higher than the surrounding states of Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Iowa. You could probably take a school labeled as failing in Michigan, plunk it down in Mississippi, and that school would be among Mississippi’s best.

So here we have a massive federal program with 50 different sets of standards and no way to measure achievement on a nationwide level. Bad data equals bad results.

How does this get back to the childhood obesity discussion? Hang with me, I’m headed in that direction.

One of the saddest results of the NCLB is that many schools have become so focused on the subjects tested by NCLB they’ve had to let other subjects and activities take a back seat. Physical Education, recess, and health education are part of this. They have become less important because they are not on the test and test scores get you federal money.

So, kids are forced to spend more time in class getting ready for a standardized test. If your state and school does the right thing and enacts high standards then you risk getting a failing grade. If your state and school enacts phony standards, you get a passing grade (and the money that comes with it), but your kids lose out in the long run. None of this is fair, but it’s the way NCLB operates. The program should be called No CATS Left Behind because it’s run like a cat herding operation.

What to do? First, scrap NCLB. Spending billion of dollars on a program with no measurements is insanity. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my tax dollars going to Mississippi, a state that is blatantly manipulating the NCLB for fun and profit.

Second, pay attention to childhood health programs, like the ones being promoted in Wexford County. Why? Because a new study proves that kids who play hard every day may be making their brains, as well as their bodies, stronger. "Children who play vigorously for 20 to 40 minutes a day may be better able to organize schoolwork, do class projects and learn mathematics," concludes Catherine Davis, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta in a report to the annual meeting of the Obesity Society, a group of weight-loss professionals.

According to an article in USA Today, students who participated in daily high-energy games like running games, flag tag, relays, jump rope and modified basketball improved their cognitive skills and math scores.

Professor Davis noted, "School systems need to know that to reach their achievement targets, they need to add physical activity to the school day rather than reduce it."

Adds Darla Castelli, assistant professor in the department of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: "This research corroborates several of our studies…we found strong associations between math performance and aerobic fitness among elementary-school-age children."

It’s the ultimate irony, isn’t it? On the one hand we have a massive federal program that can’t really claim any success because there’s no way to measure the data. On the other hand we have a simple, tried and true concept that has rock-solid proof it works – strong bodies make strong minds. After all the billions spent on NCLB the answer was right in front of us all. If you want kids to do better in school tell them to go outside and play.

Jim Neff is a local columnist. Comments to neffzone@gmail.com. Read Neff Zone columns online at www.neffzone.com/cadillacnews.