Kindergartners in low-income schools exercise less and wait more, study shows

Kindergartners attending schools where many students come from low-income families get less physical activity and spend more time waiting in line than their peers in higher-income schools, as Chalkbeat reported.

The findings come from a new study that examines the kindergarten experience in 82 classrooms in an unnamed urban district. Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison collaborated on the study, which was published in the August issue of Educational Researcher.

In the lower-income schools, 93% of students were eligible for subsidized meals — a measure of poverty — compared with 15% of students in the higher-income schools. Also, the lower-income schools had mostly Black and Latino students while the higher-income students had more white students.

Kindergartners in lower-income schools had more seat time, received more whole-class instruction and, on average, got 18 minutes of physical education, recess or classroom-based physical activity per day. They also had fewer opportunities to choose their own activities than their peers in higher-income schools.

By contrast, kindergartners in higher-income schools had more time in small groups and on average got 44 minutes a day of physical activity.

The study lands just as many schools are under pressure to ensure students regain ground lost during the pandemic despite widening economic disparity. Mimi Engel, lead author of the study and an associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, as Chalkbeat noted, said lower staffing levels in the kindergarten classrooms of lower-income schools may well have contributed to the differences.