Healthy Play Research Results
“After five years of Goals 2000 study at 29 schools evaluating Creative Spirit's program, 85.5% of the teachers who used it in their curriculum 3, 4 or 5 times each week reported a behavioral problem reduction of 50% to 100% in acts of aggression, bullying, threats, non-cooperation and teasing.”
2013 Fund For Civility, Respect and Understanding Grant: Healthy Play - a Peaceful Solution to End Bullying. Working in partnership with The Fund, The Pima County School Superintendent’s Office and Creative Spirit (HP), four low income schools were part of an innovative multi-school HP “on-site Healthy Play coordinator” training program. Selected teams or individuals from the four schools were trained collectively by HP staff with the goal of going back to their own schools to become “HP coordinators and technical advisors.”
Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding Report
Results after six month period:
Principals Survey results demonstrated:
All four schools reported an increase in school cohesion (Y/N)
Increase in % of teachers effectively using Healthy Play
Blenman: 60-69%
CSA: 80-89%
Roadrunner: 50-59%
Thornydale: 50-59%
% of reduction in behavior problems
Blenman: 50-74%
CSA: 50-74%
Roadrunner: 25-49%
Thornydale: 90-100%
All schools demonstrated a significant reduction in behavior problems. We believe Thornydale’s very successful results reflect an additional variable/component of having the HP founder come to their school and facilitate a classroom/playground consult for every class, teacher and student.
“After three years of utilizing the Healthy Play program our school went from 654 to 275 behavioral referrals a year. Of significance is that we went up from 992 to 1089 students. We also saw a 35% increase in SAT9 Reading scores.” Deborah Bailey, Principal, William C. Jack School
A study conducted at Lincoln Elementary in the Eureka City School District for the 2002-2003 school year (Nicholls, 2003) demonstrated a 79.5% drop in suspensions after implementation of the HP program. This reflected a reduction of 117 down to 24 suspensions. Regarding sustainability, the results demonstrated a three year reduction of 62.4% in the number of students suspended, a 70.5% decrease in the total number of suspensions and a 72.0% reduction in the number of days students were suspended. What is so impressive about this research is that the gains indicated nearly equal progress in all of the three categories and more importantly were sustained over a three year period. Additionally, at the conclusion of this research project Lincoln reported in 2004-2005 that it had now achieved an API total of 761, a score that approaches the statewide goal of 800. The three year gain of 120 points on the California API is very substantial.
LINCOLN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HEALTHY PLAY RESEARCH PROJECT SUMMARY REPORT
In a study of two schools in Moreno Valley Unified School District, each reported a reduction of suspensions by 80% after implementing Creative Spirit’s Healthy play IS A Solution program.