Randomized Experiment of Playworks

Playworks is a school-based program that places full-time coaches in low-income schools to organize games and activities during recess. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) contracted with Mathematica Policy Research and its subcontractor, the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities (JGC) at Stanford University, to conduct a rigorous evaluation of Playworks. Twenty-nine schools interested in implementing Playworks, across six cities in the United States, were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups during the 2010-2011 (cohort 1) or 2011-2012 (cohort 2) school year. Random assignment was conducted within matched groups of schools within each city. In total, there were 12 blocks of matched schools. For each block, one school was randomly assigned to the control group and the rest to the treatment group.

During the one-year study period for each cohort, treatment schools received Playworks and control schools were not eligible to implement Playworks. Data from student surveys, accelerometers, and teacher surveys were collected from 4th- and 5th-grade students, teachers, and school staff roughly seven months after Playworks was first implemented in treatment schools.

For the student survey, students were asked to complete a 30-minute student survey in the spring of their study year about their experiences at school. A team of experienced survey administration staff administered the survey in the students' classrooms. In addition to the student survey, teachers were asked to complete a teacher survey that asked teachers about their students' experiences at school.

A subsample of students that were asked to complete the student survey also wore accelerometers during one or two school days. During the accelerometer data collection period, the research team arrived at participating classrooms at the beginning of the school day. Team members described the function of the accelerometer and then attached one to each consented student's hip, using an elastic belt. The accelerometer data was then processed with the ActiLife 5 software package.

The impact of Playworks on study outcomes was estimated by comparing the average outcomes in treatment and control schools using regression models customized to the unit of analysis (teacher or student). The regression models used for analysis included indicators for random assignment blocks to account for the blocked design and school-specific random error terms to account for school-specific effects not attributable to the treatment. Covariates were also included in some models to account for significant differences between treatment and control groups in demographic characteristics. Models for continuous and binary outcome variables were fit using least-squares estimation and logistic regression estimation, respectively. Standard errors for the estimated impacts on teacher- and student-level outcomes accounted for clustering at the school level using generalized estimating equations. Model-based p-values and effect sizes were calculated based on the estimated impacts and corresponding standard errors and multiple comparison adjustments accounted for correlations among the multiple tests. Sampling weights were used when estimating impacts. The weights were constructed to account for both the selection probabilities of students and teachers into the sample and nonresponse.

Inclusion criteria

• Students in low-income schools in urban areas
• Students in schools where at least 50 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.