Schools offering Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC) had higher
participation in the national school breakfast program and attendance, but math
and reading achievement did not differ between schools with or without BIC,
according to a study published online by JAMA Pediatrics.
BIC is usually served in the classroom at the start of the school day
and is typically a universal free meal. Evidence suggests breakfast may improve
cognitive function and other outcomes for children and has been used to argue
for the expansion of such programs to try to narrow the achievement gap between
underserved children and their more affluent peers. However, more evidence is
needed to draw causal inferences about the long-term impact of school breakfast
on academic outcomes, according to the study background.
Stephanie Anzman-Frasca, Ph.D., of ChildObesity180, Tufts University,
Boston, and co-authors used data from 446 public elementary schools in a large,
urban school district in the United States to look at the impact of BIC on
participation in the School Breakfast Program (SBP), school attendance and
academic achievement. A total of 257 schools (57.6 percent) implemented a BIC
program during the 2012-2013 academic year but 189 schools (42.4 percent) did
not.
The study found that BIC was linked to increased participation in the
SBP during the academic year with average participation rates of 73.7 percent
in the BIC schools vs. 42.9 percent in schools without BIC. Grade-level
attendance rates also were higher for the BIC schools compared with non-BIC schools
across the school year (95.5 percent vs. 95.3 percent). Although the group
differences in attendance were not large in the study, they reflected 76
additional attended days per grade per month. However, there were no
differences in grade-level standardized test performance in math or reading.
"Additional research is needed to examine impacts on academic
achievement across different demographics and for longer periods and on
outcomes in other domains, such as energy balance. Continuing the expansion of
this evidence base can inform policy decisions and promote the health and
well-being of the whole child," the study concludes.
(JAMA Pediatr. Published online November 24, 2014.
doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2014.2042. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)
Editor's Note: This study was supported by the JPB Foundation and the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Please see article for additional information,
including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, etc.
Editorial: Breakfast is Still the Most Important Meal of the Day
In a related editorial, Lindsey Turner, Ph.D., of Boise State
University, Idaho, and Frank J. Chaloupka, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois
at Chicago, write: "In this issue, Anzman-Frasca and colleagues at Tufts
University provide even more evidence about the importance of school
breakfasts."
"Although Anzman-Frasca and colleagues did not replicate previous
findings that breakfast improved academic achievement, this should not be
interpreted as a lack of benefit for breakfast programs. ... In the current
study, academic achievement was measured with standardized tests administered
in spring 2013, which was concurrent with the time of year when participation
in the SBP peaked. Given the likelihood that program implementation may need to
be sustained for several months to affect achievement tests, another
interesting approach would be to examine test scores during a subsequent school
year when the SBP intervention is relatively mature, thus allowing the
intervention dosage to be high and sustained during most of the school
year," the authors note.
"Finally, innovative breakfast programs, with their wide reach
and high implementation rates, have the potential to address the achievement
gap in the United States," the authors conclude.
No comments:
Post a Comment