About Playworks Metro Boston

History

When Mairead Nolan, principal of the Trotter School in Dorchester, contacted Playworks in February of 2009, recess was ruining her school days. Her office was constantly filled with students sent to her because of fighting, injuries and bullying on the playground. The chaos of recess was undermining both the learning environment she was trying to create and her effectiveness as a school leader.

Playworks launched its program at the Trotter in September 2009 and the impact was immediate. In October, Ms. Nolan told Playworks that she was saving three to four hours of her time each day because she no longer had to deal with negative recess issues. Playworks has stopped the chaos of recess and is now accelerating learning and health at her school, as well as 32 other public elementary schools across Boston and Revere. What began as small expansion to seven Boston Public Schools in 2006, Playworks Metro Boston is now serving 14,000 elementary school students every school day. In addition, the expansion of our training department will enable us to provide services to 86% of Boston Public Schools this school year. In 2010 Playworks Metro Boston was recognized as a Social Innovator by Root Causes’ Social Innovation Forum.

Impact

"Being a turnaround school, we made a great deal of changes; however, my staff said that having [Playworks Coach] Katie made the single largest impact on improving school culture within our school community. The transitions back to the classroom were so much better than they were last year and we don't spend valuable instructional time dealing with problems spilling over from the recess yard."
    - Michael Sabin, Principal, Dever McCormack K-8 School in Dorchester

Over 300 principals, teachers and other staff at schools receiving Playworks Metro Boston programming were surveyed during the 2010-11 school year. According to those responding here is a brief snapshot of our successes:

Create a safe and effective learning environment – stop the chaos
•    90% reported an increase in the use of conflict resolution strategies.
•    89% reported a decrease in the incidents of bullying.
•    87% reported a decrease in the number of conflicts (physical or verbal).
•    88% reported a decrease in the number of disciplinary referrals.

Develop the academic, social and leadership skills necessary to succeed in the classroom, community and workforce – shift behaviors
•    91% reported a decrease in the number of disruptive events in the classroom.
•    92% reported an increase in the level of cooperation with others during class.
•    90% reported an increase in the ease with which students engage with other students in class.

Improving kids’ readiness to learn – accelerating learning and health
•    97% reported that students showed an increase in physical activity.
•    91% reported an increase in the students’ abilities to focus on class activities.
•    92% reported an increase in the level of participation in academic activities.
•    83% reported the transition time from recess to classroom instruction decreased, enabling them to reclaim up to 21 hours of teaching time over the course of the school year.

Our growth indicates that our program is positively impacting kids while helping to build healthy learning communities at each of our partner schools.