Education Law

Is recess disappearing?

When BoardBuzz was just a mere grub, the best part of the school day was always recess. Those fond memories of unstructured play wtih other little buzzers come rushing back whenever BB encounters yet another news story about school boards and superintendents taking recess away from their youngest students. So we reacted with a mixture of relief and nervousness to the Center for Public Education's new mini-research review on whether recess is becoming a relic. Relief because the Center shows that the vast majority of elementary schools -- about 9 out of 10 -- regularly give their young charges a daily recess break. Nervousness because there's also evidence that 1 in 5 schools are shaving minutes out of the recess time they do provide. And children who attend high-minority, high-poverty, and urban schools are much more likely to get NO recess than children in other locations.

You can find this report along with guidelines for good recess policies at the Center for Public Education.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on August 11, 2008 (boomark / email).