This study explored the effects of pedagogical approaches on Title I kindergarten students' executive function (EF) and academic achievement to test the hypothesis that children, especially those from low socioeconomic backgrounds, will benefit when purposeful play is incorporated into learning. Students in the play-based group generally had stronger EF health than children in the contemporary group per teacher reports and also had greater reading and math gains overall than students in the contemporary group even after controlling for higher mean scores at pretest. The greater the concern about students' EF skills, the lower a child's academic gains tended to be. The strength of the findings are powerful and support continued exploration of play-based pedagogy to increase children's positive outcomes.