The Effect of Nutrition and Physical Education on Student Achievement: Evidence from Traverse City Area Public Schools

Gerard Taylor, Dave Weatherspoon (), Marci Scott and Sarah Jones

No 236011, 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: The Physical Education and Nutrition Education Working Together (PE-Nut) program was evaluated to determine the impact nutrition and physical education has on students’ academic performance. Administrative data was collected from 8 Traverse City Michigan Area Public Schools (TCAPS), four schools that administered PE-Nut (treatment) and four schools that did not administer PE-Nut (control). Regression analysis was utilized to identify the treatment effect of PE-Nut on students’ academic performance. Overweight and obese students that participated in PE-Nut were 12% and 9% more likely to be proficient in reading. For math and writing, overweight and obese students that participated in PE-Nut were 22% and 13% more likely to be proficient at math, and 14% and 13% more likely to be proficient in writing. Implications from these results are nutrition and physical education programs can have a positive spillover effect on students’ academic performance. The estimated economic impact of students participating in PE-Nut suggests that participants can improve their future wages by nearly $10,000.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Health Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27
Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea16:236011

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.236011

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