Recess more prevalent than previously thought, but improvements still needed
August 29, 2008 - The Center for Public Education has released a new report that indicates that recess is offered more frequently than previously cited, but there is still cause for concern.
The report, Time Out: Is Recess in Danger?, examines the state of recess around the nation and discusses considerations for school leaders when making decisions about recess policies.
The Good News
According to the report, approximately nine in ten elementary schools offer regularly-scheduled recess, and elementary students get approximately 30.2 minutes of recess per day. Further, the report includes newly-revised data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention* indicating 79.1% of elementary schools provide daily recess for all grade levels in the school—a substantial increase over the 67.8% previously cited by recess advocates.
The Bad News
Despite these encouraging statistics, recess is still in danger of suffering cuts in length, usually due to increasing time devoted to preparation for standardized testing. In fact, 20% of schools have cut minutes from recess since No Child Left Behind went into effect in 2001.
Further, a “recess gap” exists—students in urban, high-minority and high-poverty districts are less likely to have recess than students in other districts. In fact, 14-18% of districts in urban areas, with minority populations of 50% or higher or with poverty rates over 75%, do not schedule any recess for first-graders, compared to just 2-6% of districts without these characteristics. These trends continue through the sixth grade.
Current guidelines recommend children engage in 60 minutes of physical activity each day. Recess is an important avenue through which students can be physically active at school.
To view the Center for Public Education article, click here.
* The CDC has revised data on the prevalence of recess that was first published in the October 2007 issue of the Journal of School Health as part of the 2006 School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS). The original data stated that 67.8% of elementary schools provide daily recess for all grade levels in the school., but this figure was revised to 79.1%—a substantial increase. The CDC has updated the SHPPS 2006 fact sheet on Physical Activity to reflect the revised data. However, the original article in the Journal of School Health and the SHPPS 2000 fact sheets (which use the same calculation as the original 2006 data) will remain unchanged.
To read more on the details of the revision, please click here. To view the revised SHPPS 2006 fact sheet on Physical Activity, click here.