Siblings Gabriel, 4, left, Deshawn, 13, second from left, Moriah, 10, second from right, and Aniyah Lomax, 8, right, play together on the playground next to Briscoe Elementary School in Fort Worth on Saturday, July 12, 2025.
Chris Torres
ctorres@star-telegram.com
Research from a Texas Christian University professor shows elementary students who get an hour of outdoor play daily perform better in the classroom. But Tarrant County school districts say packed schedules make expanding recess difficult.
FULL STORY: Playtime pays off for kids. But Texas schools are reluctant to give them more
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Deborah J. Rhea, a TCU professor, leads the LiiNK Project, which gives students four 15-minute outdoor breaks each school day. Her research draws on data from about 60,000 students across Texas, Oklahoma and Michigan.Rhea says test scores improve by 10% by fourth grade under the model, and classroom discipline issues drop to nearly zero. She also credits a daily 15-minute social-emotional learning lesson for curbing bullying at recess.Texas law requires elementary schools to provide at least 30 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity, which can be cut to 27 minutes per day if scheduling makes the full amount impractical.Fort Worth officials said expanding recess to an hour is not feasible under current campus master schedules, but noted the TCU research could inform future conversations about the school day. The Fort Worth and Lake Worth districts were taken over by the state earlier this year over poor academic performance.Arlington officials cited similar scheduling obstacles for a one-hour recess, though students there receive 10-15 minutes of social-emotional learning daily. Mansfield, Keller and Lake Worth did not respond to requests for comment.
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The full story in the link at top was reported, written and edited entirely by journalists.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Lina Ruiz covers early childhood education in Tarrant County and North Texas for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A University of Florida graduate, she previously wrote about local government in South Florida for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers.