Playworks Education Energized
We believe in the power of play to bring out the best in every kid
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
While innovation has blossomed in education, from the classroom to the ivory tower, public education has not benefited from the power of innovation to the degree that is evident in other sectors. Given the critical need for improving public schools, we simply cannot accept the situation as is.
We know that effective teaching and learning are complex activities that rely on a web of factors. Many education improvement efforts focus on teacher skills, such as relaying new information, building student skills in sequence and creating opportunities to demonstrate mastery. These efforts are primarily classroom-based and cognitive in nature, and they are critical to the goal. However, there is growing recognition of our ability to affect other levers for change, and that how children interact with each other has a direct and measurable impact on the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Direct Services
Every day, in hundreds of schools around the country, Playworks staff organize fun, play-based physical activities before, during, and after school. For 25 years, Playworks has demonstrated the transformative impact of play for developing social and emotional skills, improving school climate, and increasing children’s well-being and engagement in learning.
Training and Professional Development
Playworks Pro provides professional training and ongoing support to school staff, paraprofessionals, and after-school care providers to create and maintain a great recess throughout the school year.
Online Learning
PlayworksU online courses help teams use effective, research-backed practices to help play support learning. Each course includes a number of 4 to 5-minute interactive modules with videos, reflection questions, and self-assessments.
Where we work
Accreditations
RAND Social and Emotional Learning Interventions Evidence Review 2017
Awards
James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award 2013
James Irvine Foundation
Playworks Founder and CEO Jill Vialet was chosen as one of its top 30 social entrepreneurs, those who are tackling the world's most intractable problems. 2011
Forbes
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of students enrolled
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Direct Services
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This data reports on number of elementary school children served through Playworks Coach and Team Up during school year.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Playworks is changing school culture by leveraging the power of safe, fun, and healthy play at school. We create a place for every kid on the playground to feel included, be active, and build valuable social and emotional skills. Our work is grounded in Playworks’ Six Simple Principles of Play that ensure the most joyful, free, and inclusive experience for all children and adults.
1. Every kid has the opportunity to play every day – on the playground and in the neighborhood.
2. Kids get to choose to play and to choose games that make them happy.
3. Kids have the right tools to resolve playground conflicts on their own.
4. Adults play alongside kids, modeling and supporting a culture of trust, positivity and inclusion.
5. Play is not treated as a reward to be revoked.
6. Everyone is welcome to join in the game, because playing together is a great way to build community.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Playworks partners with schools, districts, and after-school programs to provide a mix of services, including full-time on-site coaches (Coach), support for school staff who oversee recess (TeamUp), and professional training and consultations (Pro). Our model includes guided, inclusive games at recess, playful conflict resolution tools children can use on their own, modeling positive relationships, and opportunities to play cooperative and socializing games. We serve schools with diverse student populations, many of whom are traditionally underserved and disadvantaged; 76% of students at Playworks schools are eligible for free or reduced lunch.
Key to that change is providing expert training to school personnel so they can model and teach the social and emotional skills students need. School climate improves as a result, because the interactions between adults and children have changed. At a Playworks school, students feel physically and emotionally safe, are focused on learning, and apply simple conflict resolution techniques to disagreements. The skills students learn on our playgrounds -- to establish positive relationships, demonstrate empathy and respect, and make responsible decisions -- are highly valued in the community and in the workplace. And kids are having so much fun they don't know they're building sought-after competencies that will serve them in the classroom and throughout their lives.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Playworks has been developing social/emotional skills in elementary-age children for 25 years. We are the only national organization focused on play during the school day and its potential for bringing out the best in every child. At Playworks our innovation has been propelled by principals and teachers who intuitively understand what children need to be able to learn. The innovation has spread from one school to another via principal networks and with strong, documented evidence of impact.
Heightened demand for our in-person coaching and training services within individual schools currently exceeds our capacity. While our in-school coaching model will persist, we are applying new methods to extend our reach. The demand is growing, especially since schools have re-opened during the pandemic, and we are working to engage a larger network of teachers, principals, families and health professionals to work collaboratively with us as we look at innovative ways to do more.
We are intensifying efforts, for example, to establish national collaborative partnerships such as our partnership with Kaiser Permanente on the National Healthy Schools Collaborative’s Ten-Year Roadmap aimed at coordinating and accelerating funding, policy and practice to integrate health and wellness in K-12 schools, including investing in play and physical activity.
Playworks board and leadership are currently focused on prioritizing how we will most effectively respond to requests for help, anticipating the intense need that is likely to continue to emerge this summer and fall. We are developing additional partnership opportunities and applying creative approaches to collaborations that we all see as essential in the nonprofit sector as a particular result of the pandemic.
For example, we are expanding our work through community-based and district-wide partnerships that involve training others to incorporate play into their classrooms, recess and student-support programs. We are designing and testing digital content and new marketing strategies aimed at individual teachers, principals, and parents.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Over the past 25 years, Playworks’ innovative approach has spread across the country with enormous momentum from word-of-mouth among teachers, principals and parents. The organization has grown to serve 2,174,400 kids through 3,259 school partnerships, out-of-school providers, and community organizations through on-site services, professional development, and digital support. Through a mix of service offerings that range from day-long trainings to a full-time on-site Coach for the school year, we help our partner schools learn how they can leverage play to create a positive learning environment. We help teachers see how simple changes during recess can have a huge impact on the entire school day. When schools staff organize and participate in inclusive games, model positive language and behavior, and use simple strategies such as rock-aper-scissors to resolve conflicts, they help create a positive environment where all kids are active and engaged.
Playworks currently provides on-site services in schools in 17 metro regions across the country. In addition, we offer professional development, training, and virtual services nationwide. These combined efforts enable us to serve any school, regardless of the geographic location and to meet the specific needs of particular districts and individual schools. As such, we partner with traditional public, charter, and independent schools in urban, suburban and rural areas. We support school service students with learning differences, and those where the kids speak multiple languages.
Independent studies of Playworks' programs conducted since 2011 have repeatedly shown the effectiveness of our services to teach social/emotional skills and improve learning environments. A 2013 Stanford University/Mathematica Policy Research randomized control trial found that Playworks' programs result in less bullying, higher feelings of student safety, and less time transitioning from recess back to the classroom. A study conducted by researchers at Stanford and published in the Journal of School Health in 2015 showed that Playworks programs improved overall school climate. Another Journal of School Health study found that after one year of Playworks, students showed statistically significant increases in problem-solving skills, feelings of meaningful participation in school, and positive feelings toward their own personal goals and aspirations.
In a 2017 published RAND Corporation report , Playworks’ was one of only seven play-based social-emotional learning (SEL) programs to meet the highest criteria for evidence of impact under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), with statistically significant impacts on bullying, inclusiveness, student safety, student use of positive language, and student ownership of recess activities. Further, Playworks was one of the only interventions that met the highest criteria to involve non-teaching staff adults in implementing the program outside of the classroom.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Playworks Education Energized
Board of directorsas of 06/08/2023
Ms. Pooja Shah
Mark Seiler
Metrovation
Pat Morrin
Danvera Foundation
Pooja Shah
Nonprofit Strategy & Finance Leader
Joy Weiss
Tempo
Kuang Chen
Antara Health
Jill Vialet
Rob Hull
Brandon Belford
Lyft
Richard Daniels
Etienne Fang
Amazon
Ohemaa Nyanin
NY Liberty (WNBA)
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as: