Our Mission

RunningBrooke is sparking a movement revolution in Alexandria City Public School classrooms by integrating creative and sustainable movement practices and programs into the school day to enhance academic performance and empower students to achieve long-term success.

What? Sparking a movement revolution

• Evidence increasingly shows that the traditional learning environment (seated/sedentary, translating information from teacher to student) is not optimal for students’ learning.
• All students from all backgrounds would benefit from incorporating intentional and sustainable movement into and throughout the school day.
• As documented by the Centers for Disease Control and others, movement provides brain stimulation to improve memory, retrieval and focus, enhance motivation and morale among learners, and benefit overall classroom management and academic performance.

How? Integrating movement and programs

• As RunningBrooke has evolved over the last decade, we have become increasingly focused on the strong relationship between movement and enhanced learning and the need to support students during the school day.
• We will accomplish this objective in three primary ways:
  • Develop programs and providing grants to Alexandria City Public Schools and teachers to implement and test creative ideas that integrate movement into the school day.
  • Working in partnership with ACPS administrators, teachers and parents to implement RunningBrooke programs so that movement becomes an integral part of the school day for the entire ACPS student body.
  • Leveraging the success of these efforts to advocate for policy changes and adoption of curriculum that incorporates movement directly into the learning process.

Why?  Boosting academic performance, empowering students

• RunningBrooke initiatives align with and support all five goals of the ACPS 2025 Strategic Plan, most directly impacting:
  • Goal 2 – Instructional Excellence
  • Goal 3 – Accessibility and Support
  • Goal 5 – Family and Community Engagement
• Data and feedback from RunningBrooke grant recipients and program participants reflect improved focus, efficiency and structure in the classroom
• What we are hearing:
  • 97% of teachers say that daily physical activity was a positive addition to their classroom efficiency and structure and 91% reported improved focus in their classrooms.
  • “Brain boosts have notably increased students’ reading stamina, improving their ability to read independently. This is significant; research shows that independent reading time is the key to closing the gap between below and on-level readers.”
  • “We’ve noticed a big difference after kids use the stationary bikes for five or 10 minutes– the students go into to class engaged and levels of concentration have improved.”
• An objective for RunningBrooke over the next one to three years entails engaging in a quantitative impact study to measure the positive benefits of movement on academic performance.