Low-Income Schools Less Likely To Have Daily Recess

This piece comes to us courtesy of Education Nation's The Learning Curve blog. Sandy Slater, Research Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, writes.

Slater is also lead author of the study "The Impact of State Laws and District Policies on Physical Education and Recess Practices in a Nationally Representative Sample of U.S. Public Elementary Schools."

Obesity is a problem in this country that is getting worse. One-third of our children have an elevated risk of serious health problems because of their weight. Our nation's leading experts agree that we must change our schools and communities to help children eat healthy foods and get more exercise.

Why is it important to focus on schools? Because kids spend about seven hours a day there.

Although there's much work to be done, schools have made progress in recent years. Since 2006, they've started to offer healthier foods and beverages -- like fresh fruit, whole grains and low-fat milk -- with school lunch meals. They've also cut back on some of the less healthy foods, like cookies, pastries and salty snacks.

But they haven't made any progress in the amount of physical education or recess offered to elementary students during this same time period.

Here's what we know:

• Children aged six to 17 should get at least one hour of daily physical activity, yet less than half of kids aged six to 11 get that much exercise. And as kids get older, they're even less active.
• The National Association of Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) recommends that elementary school students get an average of 50 minutes of activity each school day — at least 150 minutes of PE per week and 20 minutes of daily recess.
• Kids who are more active perform better academically.

As a researcher and a parent, I'm very interested in improving our understanding of how school policies and practices impact kids' opportunities to be active at school. My colleagues and I recently conducted a study to examine the impact of state laws and school district policies on PE and recess in public elementary schools across the country.

During the 2006 to 2007 and 2008 to 2009 school years, we received surveys from 1,761 school principals in 47 states. We found:

This piece has been truncated. Read the full piece at Education Nation's The Learning Curve.

Comments

[sedagive42]

10:18 AM on 12/13/2011

My Grandson goes to a school in an affluent county. He has a lunch/recess where they get in a line walk to the playground for recess. They are not allowed to play any running games, except kickball, and maybe soccer. They can play 4square on one of the 4 courts or jump rope, or shoot hoops. However there is limited equiptment and 100+kids. The playground monitor is a fixture. They are not taught the "rules" of any games or given instructions on how to play, so any shy kid or kid who wants to learn is stuck. There is some climbing equiptment. They play for about 20 minutes get back in line, go to the cafeteria, use sanitizer and get lunch, eat, get back in line for class. All in an hour. So if this happens in an area regarded as among the "best" then God help the rest of the schools.

[Thomas Stieglitz]

09:52 AM on 12/13/2011

No recess because the teachers want to get home from school before it gets too dark to keep from getting mugged.

[moyramartin]

07:35 AM on 12/13/2011

Recess is an important part of a child's school day. To sit all day long and not be able to stretch your legs and lead to circulation problems and even blood clots, must the same way it can happen in adults to sit behind a desk or drive trucks all day long. Being active is a vital part of being a child. We are experiencing obesity in our children more than ever, because all they do all day long is sit sit sit. They need to get out and move around. How is taking that away saving money for the schools? They are still in school for the same amount of time each day, with maybe 30 minutes to release tensions from sitting all day long. It makes no sense at all. And they wonder why our kids are getting so screwed up today. They keep taking from them what is most important.

[urbanteacher]

06:25 AM on 12/13/2011

I teach first grade in a poor urban setting. We do not have recess or physical education. According to my former principal, we have too much learning to do to be able to play! Also, some people are hesitant to let their children play outdoors if they feel the neighborhood is not safe. I have taken my students out for recess ocassionally and bullying should not be a problem if there is proper supervision.

[zip0000]

10:17 PM on 12/12/2011

The reason they aren't having recess is because of No Child Left Behind. These low income schools are more likely to be the schools who cannot make AYP. The solution for raising test scores is more time in the classroom. They are taking away recess in an attempt to raise achievement. Unfortunately this actually does quite the opposite. Studies have shown that children focus better and learn more when given time to move, exercise, take a mental break. But.... as always... politicians are making policies that they have no clue what the impact of those policies are. Sad reality of schools today.

[paulhunterjones]

09:56 PM on 12/12/2011

I think we all need a break, a moment when we can just blow off some steam. It is a shame that recess time could be eliminated.

[hawaiianstile]

08:25 PM on 12/12/2011

hurt the ones who need a break the most, thats the american way.

[Michael D Ballantine]

07:34 PM on 12/12/2011

We have forgotten the role of schools in children's lives. The slavish demands of daily standards to force children into a regimen of one-size fits all coupled with the needs to indoctrinate them instead of teaching them have led to a culture of disregard for the entire student's well being. Childhood should be more than just an endless series of classes to meet the expectations of high-stakes tests and limited budgets. Educators have forgotten their real job which is to prepare students to be successful in society, not only in college.

We need to do a hard restart on the way we educate children in America. The neo-liberals have had their fun and for the past 50 years, they have conducted their experiment. It is a failure and we need to move on to something better, a system where all a child's intelligences can blossom and that includes physical skills as well. Education is not a cost, it is an investment and we need to begin treating it as such. Our children are our legacy, they are our future.

[unclepackage808]

11:41 PM on 12/12/2011

Thank you Mr. Ballantine. I whole-heartedly agree with your quick and severe deduction of the truth. I am an educator in a Hawaiian language immersion school and see first-hand the effects of the so-called "high-stake" tests. Children are not drones in a regimented uniform standard. Children share many common traits but are individuals that have their own needs. Much like the myriad varieties of plants that require unique conditions to optimally grow and blossom, children need to be tended to and shown opportunities for growth. The child needs to make their own decision to grow and develop on their own path. It isn't surprising that the government would seek to punish children for not conforming to a certain style and "standard" of living. Doesnʻt this behavior reek of a certain regime that held power during the early 1900ʻs?

[Michael D Ballantine]

12:36 AM on 12/13/2011

On the one-hand we need tests to measure a student's abilities. I think it is safe to say that most teachers agree the current tests on capture a portion of those abilities. However, if one wants to go on to university, he or she needs a certain standard level of English and Math competency. Supplementing these tests which measure other intelligences seems a reasonable alternative. That being said, there is no logical reason to educate children for something they neither want nor desire simply because someone like me thinks it is in their best interest. This policy has been a failure, it is a failure, and it will be a failure tomorrow. Education may be the route to success but everybody has to choose their own route. Some of us take longer than others, we cannot rely on a cookie-cutter education system that turns out a bunch of zombie robots like one regime in the 1900s.

If we want to support inner-city youth by giving them a helping hand, let's give them a hand, not lower the bar for everyone leading to national mediocrity.

[WilmaJune]

06:48 PM on 12/12/2011

Are you saying children will learn better if they have more play time? Playing brings out the bullies. After that, the kids have to calm down again so they can study.

[hawaiianstile]

08:31 PM on 12/12/2011

no play time is extremely detrimental to any childʻs learning and development. playing teaches kids how to interact with others, build confidence, solve problems, be imaginative, form bonds, and the list just goes on. if you take away their playtime you are taking away their right to a happy and healthy learning environment.

[WilmaJune]

03:25 AM on 12/13/2011

Recess was a nightmare. Destroyed what confidence I had. Couldn't play with kids because they did not want me near them. Created so many problems that I would miss math problems on purpose so I could stay in class until they were corrected. Being uncoordinated is horrendous for a little kid. The dumb kids seemed to play better than us smart ones. I did not play much when I was home because I would get nosebleeds or faint. A good teacher makes a class interesting and students are excited to learn.

[pfreddie88]

04:52 PM on 12/12/2011

Somewhere we gpot the idea that kids don't need recess after the age of 10. The concept of a break for physical activity, especially fun activity, should be carried through adulthood. Can you imagine playing Red Rover with your coworkers?

[unclepackage808]

11:42 PM on 12/12/2011

I welcome that opportunity any day friend! Haha.

[pfreddie88]

11:52 AM on 12/13/2011

or dodgeball

[jourdankr]

03:26 PM on 12/12/2011

our kids get 15-20 minutes of recess per day. PE for 60 minutes a week. I wish it were more, but the district's academic time demands are too great. Maybe if we had a longer school day, we could do more. As a teacher, I wish we did have a longer day.(BTW - I'm on my 30 minute lunch break)

[ljconner]

03:53 PM on 12/12/2011

@jourdankr......I also teach and u r lucky........our 30 minute lunch included drop off and pickup at cafeteria...so our lunch has dwindled to 17 minutes.
And our kids get no recess each day but get 50 minutes of PE per week, and if the PE teacher is
absent then you had better be caught teaching a regular core subject during that time.
Hope u r having a great teaching year.....take care of yourself and your health. Remember you
are important too.

[Endersdragon]

04:00 PM on 12/12/2011

When I student taught in Chicago we had to eat with the students, while there was a lunchroom monitor, if a student of ours got in trouble it was ours to deal with. Beyond that we had 1 40 minute prep 4 times a week (which like you said included drop off and pick up so more realistically was 30 minutes).

[Ellisha Gray]

05:44 PM on 12/12/2011

We had 18 minutes of lunch a day when we were in middle school. No recess. And it was five or ten minutes left by the time you got through the line. It's atrocious. Kids need breaks.

[zip0000]

10:21 PM on 12/12/2011

Wow! You get 30 minutes! We have 20 minutes!

[jourdankr]

12:52 PM on 12/13/2011

union demands 30 minute lunch

[dirtydog1776]

03:05 PM on 12/12/2011

Hooray for government mandates, standards and regulations. They know what is best. The kids are slim and trim and doing so well academically. I'm happy that my tax dollars are buying the best education possible. The children are our future, after all.

[Just a passerby]

06:54 PM on 12/12/2011

oh, do shut it, you tedious git.

[Daniella Steinberg Lans]

02:48 PM on 12/12/2011

Why is it surprising that students who, on average, underperform compaired to peers on standardized assessments are missing out on recess to spend more time on academics? Damned if you do, damned if you dont.

(Recent research on the achievement gap between low and average income students is twice that of the gap between races)

[Endersdragon]

03:57 PM on 12/12/2011

I have worked in inner-city Chicago, allowing more recess would help them perform so much better. The kids got maybe 5 minutes of recess a day (if all the teachers felt like it, which we got no breaks 1 day a week and 1 prep period 4 days a week... so you can do the math, if 1 teacher took them out on their own it was generally a disaster). The problem then is, then even the good students can't concentrate in classes because they have so much built up energy that they can't get rid of any other way. We should have at least 45 minutes of recess a day up until grade 5 or 6, and after that P.E. should be at least an every other day class (alternating with music/art classes most likely. I know it will probably never happen, but if it did it would help students so much in class.

[SF TKF]

02:39 PM on 12/12/2011

Where I live recess is a state mandate, or it was last time I checked.

[dirtydog1776]

03:07 PM on 12/12/2011

Realistically, 15 to 20 minutes at the most, usually less.