Creating and Testing a Framework to Assess Recess Quality

Introduction: Recess is a time for free play and social bonding at school. It can also be a challenging time for students if appropriate supports, rules, equipment, and norms for interaction are not established and reinforced.  Given the potential of recess as a setting for promoting positive youth development, and the variability of recess programming, recess may be an important site for prevention research and preventative interventions. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2013 policy statement provides specific guidelines for implementing high quality recess, including attending to recess safety and supervision, social and emotional skill building, and school policies.

Methods: First, we examine 6 low-income elementary schools’ to determine how a recess-based program, designed to provide safe, healthy, and inclusive play, improves recess functioning in 2010. Data from teacher, principal, and recess coach interviews; student focus groups; recess observations; and a teacher survey were triangulated to understand the ways that recess changed during implementation. Next, we use this data to develop a ‘Great Recess Framework’ to assess the quality of recess in schools.  Then, in a second 2015 study, we conducted a feasibility test of the ‘Great Recess Framework’ in 24 schools within 6 cities.

Results: In the 2010 study, recess improved in all schools, but 4 of the 6 achieved a higher-functioning recess. In higher-functioning schools, recess offered opportunities for student engagement, conflict resolution, pro-social skill development, and emotional and physical safety. The ‘Great Recess Framework’ was developed to include an administrator questionnaire to assess school policies and an observation protocol for assessing student play, physical activity, interaction with peers, and interaction with adults. We will report on findings from the 2015 feasibility study to illustrate how observers used the framework to assess the quality of recess, variance in the quality of recess across schools in terms of geographic location, student demographics, and over time, and the inter-rater reliability of the tool.

Implications: Findings have generated (and subsequently, feasibility tested) a practice-derived framework for assessing high-functioning recess that can be used to empirically monitor intervention effects on recess environments and relate setting changes to the promotion of positive youth development.