Evaluating the effectiveness of physical exercise in improving standardized testing performances through attention indices

INTRODUCTION

In the United States, standardized tests have risen in prevalence, extending their importance from education placement to employment. Attention is crucial to improving testing performance. Past studies have established that acute, coordinative, aerobic exercise improves attention, which is measured by the D2 Attention Test, emotional analysis, reading time, and eye movement tracking. No studies have drawn connections between physical exercise's quantifiable improvement in attention to improvements in standardized tests; therefore, this study would attempt to do so.

METHODS

This study defines attention to be positively related to reading speed and negatively related to the number of eye drifts. High school students were selected to read and answer two reading passages from an SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) exam, before and after a short 80% intensity run. Their reading times, facial video, and test scores were recorded. Dlib plots the facial landmark and OpenCV tracks movement of the pupil.

RESULTS

Through paired-samples t-tests, this study found out that after exercise, subjects displayed increased reading speed and fewer eye drifts, coupled with increased mean scores.

CONCLUSION

Thus, this study demonstrated that running, as an acute, coordinative, aerobic exercise, helps increase the testing performance of the SAT reading section by measuring attention. Future research could focus on including head movement as an attention index, replicate the experiment on different standardized tests or exercises, and conduct natural experiments to better simulate real-life conditions to increase applicability.

The Contributions of Cognitive Abilities to the Relationship between ADHD Symptoms and Academic Achievement

The main objective of this study was to examine whether increased levels of inattentive (INA) and hyperactive/impulsive (H/I) behaviours were associated with lower scores on standardized tests of achievement in basic reading, spelling, and math skills, after accounting for certain known background risk factors and cognitive processes. Clinical assessment data from a rigorously diagnosed, stimulant-medication-naïve sample of 354 elementary school-aged children experiencing academic difficulties and behavioural symptoms of inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity were analyzed. Although higher scores of INA were significantly associated with lower scores in reading, spelling, and math, these associations did not persist when cognitive variables were added to the models. H/I was associated with math achievement, along with cognitive and background variables. Overall, cognitive variables accounted for the majority of the variance across basic reading, spelling, and math skills. Additionally, the only background demographic variables associated with academic achievement were age and sex for spelling and math. This finding highlights the importance of looking beyond observable INA and H/I behaviours to determine the underlying factors influencing academic achievement. Accurate identification of deficits in specific academic skills and the underlying factors influencing achievement in these skills are essential components in determining appropriate recommendations and targeted interventions.

Instructional Set Moderates the Effect of GRE on Faculty Appraisals of Applicant Competence: A Vignette Study With Implications for Holistic Review

While there is movement to create more equitable and holistic admission review processes, faculty continue to place strong emphasis on a single piece of information when making admissions decisions: standardized test scores. This study used an experimental design to test whether instructions provided to faculty prior to assessing doctoral applicants could support holistic review by reducing the weight of the general record examination (GRE) in faculty appraisals of competence and merit for graduate study. Tenured and/or tenure-track faculty (N=271) were randomly assigned to one of three instructional conditions: Control (no instruction), "Diamond in the Rough," and "Weed Out." In addition, faculty participants were randomly assigned to read one of two vignettes of a prospective first-generation student who either received high or average GRE scores. Faculty then rated the applicant's competence using a three-item survey. As expected, faculty who read the vignette describing the candidate with the high GRE rated him as more competent than faculty who read the average GRE vignette. In addition, being instructed to seek out diamonds in the rough buffered the effect of the GRE score on competence. Faculty were also asked to indicate whether they would need additional information to make an admissions decision. They were more likely to ask about grades and research skills than about psychosocial factors that might contextualize the candidate's performance and perceived competence. The results of this study have implications for creating more equitable doctoral admissions processes that center equity, diversity, and inclusion in decision making.

Self-Control Outdoes Fluid Reasoning in Explaining Vocational and Academic Performance-But Does It?

Trait self-control, the ability to interrupt undesired behavioral tendencies and to refrain from acting on them, is one of the most important socio-emotional skills. There had been some evidence that it outperforms intelligence in predicting students' achievement measured as both school grades and standardized achievement tests. However, recent research has shown that the relationships between trait self-control and measures of achievement are more equivocal, emphasizing the importance of the respective outcome of the test to the individual. On the one hand, high-stakes school achievement measures such as GPA repeatedly showed strong relationships with trait self-control. On the other hand, findings on the relationships between trait self-control and performance in mostly low-stakes standardized achievement tests were more heterogeneous. The substantial positive relationship between intelligence and both achievement measures is uncontested. However, the incremental value of trait self-control beyond intelligence when investigating their relationships with achievement remains uncertain. To investigate the relationships of self-control with school achievement and two standardized achievement tests (school mathematics and physics) beyond fluid reasoning, we drew on a large heterogeneous sample of adults in vocational training (N = 3,146). Results show differential patterns of results for fluid reasoning and trait self-control and the achievement measures. Trait self-control and fluid reasoning showed similar relationships with school achievement, whereas only fluid reasoning was significantly associated with standardized achievement test scores. For both achievement measures, no significant interaction effects between trait self-control and fluid reasoning were found. The results highlight the utility of trait self-control for performance in high-stakes school assessment beyond fluid reasoning, but set limits to the overall value of trait self-control for achievement in standardized assessments-at least in low-stakes testing situations.

The Causal Effect of Student Mobility on Standardized Test Performance: A Case Study with Possible Implications for Accountability Mandates within the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

This paper presents a limited case study examining the causal inference of student mobility on standardized test performance, within one middle-class high school in suburban Connecticut. Administrative data were used from a district public high school enrolling 319 10th graders in 2010. Propensity score methods were used to estimate the causal effect of student mobility on Math, Science, Reading, and Writing portions of the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT), after matching mobile vs. stable students on gender, race/ethnicity, eligibility for free/reduced lunches, and special education status. Analyses showed that mobility was associated with lower performance in the CAPT Writing exam. Follow-up analyses revealed that this trend was only significant among those who were ineligible for free/reduced lunches, but not among eligible students. Additionally, mobile students who were ineligible for free/reduced lunches had lower performance in the CAPT Science exam according to some analyses. Large numbers of students transferring into a school district may adversely affect standardized test performance. This is especially relevant for policies that affect student mobility in schools, given the accountability measures in the No Child Left Behind that are currently being re-considered in the recent Every Student Succeeds Act.

The relationship between clinical and standardized tests for hand-arm vibration syndrome

BACKGROUND

Standardized laboratory tests are undertaken to assist the diagnosis and staging of hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS), but the strength of the relationship between the tests and clinical stages of HAVS is unknown.

AIMS

To assess the relationship between the results of thermal aesthesiometry (TA), vibrotactile (VT) thresholds and cold provocation (CP) tests with the modified Stockholm scales for HAVS and to determine whether the relationship is affected by finger skin temperature.

METHODS

Consecutive records of workers referred to a Tier 5 HAVS assessment centre from 2006 to 2015 were identified. The diagnosis and staging of cases was undertaken from the clinical information contained in the records. Cases with alternative or mixed diagnoses were excluded and staging performed according to the modified Stockholm scale without knowledge of the results of the standardized laboratory tests.

RESULTS

A total of 279 cases of HAVS were analysed. Although there was a significant trend for sensorineural (SN) and vascular scores to increase with clinical stage (P < 0.01), there was no significant difference in scores between 2SN early and 2SN late or between 2SN late and 3SN. There was moderate correlation between the TA and VT scores and the clinical SN stages (r = 0.6). This correlation did not change when subjects were divided into those with a finger skin temperature <30 and >30°C. CP scores distributed bimodally and correlated poorly with clinical staging (r = 0.2).

CONCLUSIONS

Standardized SN tests distinguish between the lower Stockholm stages, but not above 2SN early. This has implications for health surveillance and UK policy.

Cognitive fatigue influences students' performance on standardized tests

Using test data for all children attending Danish public schools between school years 2009/10 and 2012/13, we examine how the time of the test affects performance. Test time is determined by the weekly class schedule and computer availability at the school. We find that, for every hour later in the day, test performance decreases by 0.9% of an SD (95% CI, 0.7-1.0%). However, a 20- to 30-minute break improves average test performance by 1.7% of an SD (95% CI, 1.2-2.2%). These findings have two important policy implications: First, cognitive fatigue should be taken into consideration when deciding on the length of the school day and the frequency and duration of breaks throughout the day. Second, school accountability systems should control for the influence of external factors on test scores.

The impact of low-level lead toxicity on school performance among children in the Chicago Public Schools: a population-based retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

Environmental lead exposure poses a risk to educational performance, especially among poor, urban children. Previous studies found low-level lead exposure was a risk factor for diminished academic abilities, however, this study is distinct because of the very large sample size and because it controlled for very low birth weight and early preterm birth-two factors closely associated with lower academic performance. In this study we examined the association between lead concentration in whole blood (B-Pb) of Chicago Public School (CPS) children and their performance on the 3(rd) grade Illinois Standard Achievement Tests (ISAT) reading and math scores.

METHODS

We examined 58,650 children born in Chicago between 1994 and 1998 who were tested for blood lead concentration between birth and 2006 and enrolled in the 3(rd) grade at a CPS school between 2003 and 2006. We linked the Chicago birth registry, the Chicago Blood Lead Registry, and 3(rd) grade ISAT scores to examine associations between B-Pb and school performance.

RESULTS

After adjusting for other predictors of school performance including poverty, race/ethnicity, gender, maternal education and very low birth weight or preterm-birth, we found that B-Pbs below 10 μg/dL were inversely associated with reading and math scores in 3(rd) grade children. For a 5 μg/dL increase in B-Pb, the risk of failing increased by 32% for reading (RR = 1.32, 95%CI = 1.26, 1.39) and math (RR = 1.32, 95%CI = 1.26, 1.39). The effect of lead on reading was non-linear with steeper failure rates at lower B-Pbs. We estimated that 13% of reading failure and 14.8% of math failure can be attributed to exposure to blood lead concentrations of 5 to 9 vs. 0 to 4 μg/dL in Chicago school children.

CONCLUSIONS

Early childhood lead exposure is associated with poorer achievement on standardized reading and math tests in the third grade, even at very low B-Pbs. Preventing lead exposure in early childhood is critical to improving school performance.