Book Description

This study examined the relationship between recess and the percentage of students passing the 2009-2010 third-grade Reading and Mathematics portions of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). Increasing accountability for academic standards has placed increased demands for public schools to improve student achievement scores on state-standardized tests; therefore, many school administrators have opted to reduce or eliminate scheduled free play, also known as recess, to increase instructional time. A survey for principals was sent to all 1030 Texas public school superintendents. There were 366 surveys returned out of a possible 7028. The participants included 19,420 students from 270 campuses from all 20 Education Service Center regions of Texas. Utilizing the principal survey, data were collected from the Texas Education Agency website and then analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's Correlation Coefficient, one-way ANOVAs, and independent t-tests. Reading revealed a significant (p.005) difference between the percentage of students passing in schools that allowed recess versus schools not allowing recess. Although Mathematics was not supported in the findings, the t-test revealed equal variances for schools allowing recess versus the schools disallowing recess. The question of who was responsible for allowing or disallowing recess revealed 169 responded "Principal Policy" and 60 replied "School Board Policy, Superintendent Policy, and Principal Policy." The data suggested no relationship between the time of day recess was offered and the percentage of students passing for neither Reading nor Mathematics. A key factor of this study was determining whether requiring students to abstain from recess for academic or disciplinary purposes affected student passing percentages. The data confirmed a relationship between abstaining from recess and student achievement for both Reading and Mathematics (P.05). The lack of recess negatively affects a child’s brain development, health and physical development, attention, and memory (Waite-Stupianski & Findlay, 2001). The results of this study suggest that third-grade Reading passing percentages were positively affected by allowing recess time, which contradicts a survey of elementary school administrators noting that recess disrupts student work patterns (Jarrett, 2002). Child development specialists suggest that children are more attentive after participating in recess (Pellegrini & Bjorklund, 1997). Studies affirm that cognitive interference occurs when people, especially children, are given continuous cognitive tasks (Pellegrini & Blatchford, 2002). Further study is recommended utilizing a larger sample size, more grade levels, more times of day for recess, diverse amounts of recess time, and student restriction from recess for academic or disciplinary reasons.