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4 publications listed under School

Recess and After-Hours Behavior Patterns Associated With Community Schoolyard Transformations

2026 / Children, Participatory Design, School

Background Spending time in nature and physical activity are both linked to better health outcomes for children. School environments provide the potential for multiple interventions to promote healthy behaviors. Transforming these existing public spaces to serve broader activity functions provides opportunities to support healthy child development and to increase nature access for local communities. Methods Our quasi-experimental design capitalized on a community-engaged schoolyard redesign and redevelopment project completed at two elementary schools in Tacoma, Washington, USA, led by the Trust for Public Land. Renovations included painting paved surfaces, installation of new play structures, adding walking paths and log seating areas, and planting trees. We used a validated momentary time sampling observational tool, the System for Observing Outdoor Play Environments in Neighborhood schools (SOOPEN), before and after for two schools undergoing the transformation and a control school. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and within-group behaviors in the schoolyard were observed. We used a difference-in-difference approach to estimate the effect of the schoolyard renovation on behavior during recess, and on community use of the schoolyard outside of school hours. Results The schoolyard transformation was associated with a 1.51-times greater increase (95% CI: 0.95, 2.40) in MVPA during recess at intervention schools compared to the control school, although this association was only statistically significant among groups of boys. After renovation, MVPA was highest in grassy areas at one school (69%), but highest in paved zones with newly painted markings at the other (75%). Renovations were not associated with changes in the prevalence of prosocial behavior during recess, which was high at baseline. The schoolyard transformation was also associated with increased community use outside of school hours, especially for groups of children (5.8-times [95% CI: 1.4, 23.8] greater increase in use over time at renovation schools compared to the control school). Conclusions Schoolyard transformations have the potential to increase schoolyard use and physical activity both during and outside of school hours, if campuses are open to community use. Additional rigorous research can inform future projects to support the health of school-age children and address inequities in distribution of community greenspaces.

Participatory Design for Community Schoolyards: Mixed Methods Reveal Positive Engagement Despite Measures Limitations

2024 / Children, Participatory Design, School

Extensive research demonstrates that parks are important for human health and well-being across the human life span. Research also reveals disparities in park distribution both across and within cities of the United States, with under-resourced communities often having fewer green spaces, and ones that are smaller and of lower quality. Outdoor spaces at public schools can be reimagined as community parks to welcome public use after-hours and on weekends. The Community Schoolyards initiative of The Trust for Public Land promotes engagement with school districts and park systems to expand park access in urban underserved communities. Our engaged team science approach used a natural experiment situation to evaluate multiple aspects of a schoolyard-to-park transformation program in Tacoma, Washington (USA), with a focus on civic intelligence. We combined community engagement with evaluation to understand how elementary school students responded to participatory design when generating ideas for their local schools’ schoolyard renovations. A pre–post, mixed-methods study (two intervention schools and one control school) was conducted despite COVID closures and remote teaching, requiring multiple study adaptations. Combined quantitative (student surveys) and qualitative (teacher interviews) methods were implemented to understand the impacts of a participatory design process for children. Quantitative results indicated little change from baseline, while qualitative results suggest substantial positive developmental outcomes. While additional research is needed, particularly in less extraordinary times than those presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, we found that an early design experience can introduce children to new ways of thinking about their school, their community, themselves, and the importance of parks.

Physical Activity and Social Interaction Assessments in Schoolyard Settings Using the System for Observing Outdoor Play Environments in Neighborhood Schools (SOOPEN)

2023 / Children, Development, Health and well-being, School

Figure 1. (a) Schoolyard 1, (b) schoolyard 2, and (c) schoolyard 3 target areas for SOOPEN observations. Black outlines indicate the boundaries of each target area and white dots indicate the location where observers stood to conduct scans. For example, at School 3 (panel C), zone 1 is a paved surface, zone 2 is a covered basketball court (paved surface), zone 3 is a paved surface, zone 4 is a set of swings, zone 5 is a play structure, and zone 6 is a grass field bordered by a paved walking path Background The schoolyard environment provides key opportunities to promote physical activity and socioemotional development for children. Schoolyards can also serve as a community park resource outside of school hours. We aimed to: (i) implement and evaluate reliability of the System for Observing Outdoor Play Environments in Neighborhood Schools (SOOPEN), (ii) assess schoolyard use by children during recess and community members of all ages outside of school hours, and (iii) investigate relationships of schoolyard and children´s group characteristics with physical activity levels and prosocial interactions. Methods In this cross-sectional study, we observed student and community visitor behavior using SOOPEN at three urban elementary schoolyards in Tacoma, Washington, USA, prior to renovations intended to expand each facility’s use as a community park in neighborhoods with poor park access. We assessed interrater reliability using intraclass correlation coefficients and described current levels of schoolyard use (at the group level), physical activity, and prosocial behavior. Physical activity was assessed on a five-point scale and dichotomized to indicate moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Social interactions were coded as prosocial, antisocial, or neutral. We examined associations of selected schoolyard features and group characteristics with group MVPA and prosocial behavior during recess using modified Poisson regression to estimate prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results We observed a total of 981 activity-defined, informal groups in the schoolyards, and achieved good to excellent interrater reliability using SOOPEN. Community use of the schoolyards during evenings and weekends was limited (n = 56 groups). During 26, 25–50 min recess periods (n = 833 groups), 19% of groups were engaged in MVPA. Schoolyard areas with paved surfaces were associated with more MVPA (PR = 1.52, 95% CI: 1.04, 2.23) compared to field/grass areas; supervised groups were associated with less MVPA than groups not directly supervised by an adult (PR = 0.59, 95% CI: 0.36, 0.96). Schoolyard characteristics were not associated with prosocial behavior. Mixed-gender groups were associated with more MVPA and more prosocial behavior. Conclusions Our study using SOOPEN, a reliable new activity observation tool, highlights the multi-dimensional dynamics of physical activity and social interactions in schoolyards, which could be leveraged to promote healthy behaviors during and outside of school hours.

Are California Elementary School Test Scores More Strongly Associated With Urban Trees Than Poverty?

2018 / Children, School, Urban, Urban forestry and street trees

Figure 1. Model selection results for several common variables for student test performance on a sample of California fifth grade classes. Effect sizes (A) were significant for urban/rural location, % minority representation and % student body on free and reduced lunches. Minority representation (B) showed the strongest signal, with a two SD difference in minorities associated with a 100 point difference in overall test scores. Unprecedented rates of urbanization are changing our understanding of the ways in which children build connections to the natural world, including the importance of educational settings in affecting this relationship. In addition to influencing human-nature connection, greenspace around school grounds has been associated with benefits to students’ cognitive function. Questions remain regarding the size of this benefit relative to other factors, and which features of greenspace are responsible for these effects. We conducted a large-scale correlative study subsampling elementary schools (n = 495) in ecologically, socially and economically diverse California. After controlling for common educational determinants (e.g., socio-economic status, race/ethnicity, student teacher ratio, and gender ratio) we found a significant, positive association between test scores and tree and shrub cover within 750 and 1000 m of urban schools. Tree and shrub cover was not associated with test scores in rural schools or five buffers closer to urban schools (10, 50, 100, 300, and 500 m). Two other greenspace variables (NDVI and agricultural area) were not associated with test performance at any of the analyzed buffer distances for rural or urban schools. Minority representation had the largest effect size on standardized test scores (8.1% difference in scores with 2SD difference in variable), followed by tree and shrub cover around urban schools, which had a large effect size (2.9–3.0% at 750 and 1000 m) with variance from minority representation and socioeconomic status (effect size 2.4%) included. Within our urban sample, average tree-cover schools performed 4.2% (3.9–4.4, and 95% CI) better in terms of standardized test scores than low tree-cover urban schools. Our findings support the conclusion that neighborhood-scale (750–1000 m) urban tree and shrub cover is associated with school performance, and indicate that this element of greenspace may be an important factor to consider when studying the cognitive impacts of the learning environment. These results support the design of experimental tests of tree planting interventions for educational benefits.