Title: School Greenness and Student‐Level Academic Performance: Evidence From the Global South
Abstract
Greenspace in schools might enhance students' academic performance. However, the literature—dominated by ecological studies at the school level in countries from the Northern Hemisphere—presents mixed evidence of a beneficial association. We evaluated the association between school greenness and student‐level academic performance in Santiago, Chile, a capital city of the Global South. This cross‐sectional study included 281,695 fourth‐grade students attending 1,498 public, charter, and private schools in Santiago city between 2014 and 2018. Student‐level academic performance was assessed using standardized test scores and indicators of attainment of learning standards in mathematics and reading. School greenness was estimated using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Linear and generalized linear mixed‐effects models were fit to evaluate associations, adjusting for individual‐ and school‐level sociodemographic factors. Analyses were stratified by school type. In fully adjusted models, a 0.1 increase in school greenness was associated with higher test scores in mathematics (36.9 points, 95% CI: 2.49; 4.88) and in reading (1.84 points, 95% CI: 0.73; 2.95); as well as with higher odds of attaining learning standards in mathematics (OR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.12; 1.28) and reading (OR: 1.07, 95% CI: 1.02; 1.13). Stratified analysis showed differences by school type, with associations of greater magnitude and strength for students attending public schools. No significant associations were detected for students in private schools. Higher school greenness was associated with improved individual‐level academic outcomes among elementary‐aged students in a capital city in South America. Our results highlight the potential of greenness in the school environment to moderate educational and environmental inequalities in urban areas.
We investigated sleep disparities and academic achievement in college.
Methods
Participants were 6,002 first-year college students attending a midsize private university in the southern United States [62.0% female, 18.8% first-generation, 37.4% Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) students]. During the first 3–5 weeks of college, students reported their typical weekday sleep duration, which we classified as short sleep (<7 hours), normal sleep (7–9 hours), or long sleep (>9 hours).
Results
The odds for short sleep were significantly greater in BIPOC students (95% CI: 1.34–1.66) and female students (95% CI: 1.09–1.35), and the odds for long sleep were greater in BIPOC students (95% CI: 1.38–3.08) and first-generation students (95% CI: 1.04–2.53). In adjusted models, financial burden, employment, stress, STEM academic major, student athlete status, and younger age explained unique variance in sleep duration, fully mediating disparities for females and first-generation students (but only partially mediating disparities for BIPOC students). Short and long sleep predicted worse GPA across students’ first year in college, even after controlling for high school academic index, demographics, and psychosocial variables.
Conclusions
Higher education should address sleep health early in college to help remove barriers to success and reduce disparities.
Math achievement in U.S. high schools is a consistent predictor of educational attainment. While emphasis on raising math achievement continues, school-level interventions often come at the expense of other subjects. Arts courses are particularly at risk of being cut, especially in schools serving lower socioeconomic status youth. Evidence suggests, however, that arts coursework is beneficial to many educational outcomes. We use data on 20,590 adolescents from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to answer two research questions: (1) Does student accumulation of fine arts courses across different topic areas relate positively to math test scores in high school? (2) Does school SES differentiate this potential association? Results indicate that youth attending higher-SES schools take more art courses and taking music courses is related to higher math test scores. However, this benefit only seems to only apply to more socially advantaged student bodies. Results reveal a site of additional educational advantage for already privileged youth.
Mickelson, Roslyn Arlin; Bottia, Martha Cecilia; Larimore, Savannah(
, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity)
Racial and ethnic differences in educational outcomes significantly narrowed during the 1970s and 1980s when K–12 public schools were desegregated. However, when schools resegregated starting roughly in the late 1980s, racial gaps in outcomes widened again. Because of literacy’s pivotal role in learning, the authors investigate if segregation contributes to racial gaps in K–12 reading performance. Drawing upon structural vulnerability and cumulative advantage/disadvantage theories to frame this study, the authors conduct multilevel metaregression analyses of 131 effect sizes from 30 primary studies to investigate if school composition effects contribute to racial gaps in K–12 reading outcomes and if any effects vary in magnitude or direction for students from different racial/ethnic backgrounds or grade levels. The metaregression analyses control for the primary studies’ regression model characteristics and research designs. The results indicate a small, negative, statistically significant relationship between the percentage of a school’s disadvantaged minority enrollment and the mean reading achievement of the students who attend it. The negative association is stronger when segregation is measured by percentage Black and is stronger for high school students. These two findings suggest that the disadvantages of segregated education cumulate as more structurally vulnerable students transition from elementary to secondary school. Additional results suggest that a school’s racial composition effect is not the same as its socioeconomic status composition effect. The two organizational characteristics have distinct, albeit interrelated, influences on reading scores. Together the findings suggest that racially and ethnically segregated schooling both reflects and helps reproduce racial/ethnic inequality in literacy outcomes.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent that there is a typology of high schools based on their orientation toward science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), as well as the extent to which school‐level demographic variables and student high school outcomes are associated with subgroup membership in the typology, by analyzing data from a large nationally representative sample of high schools (n = 940) from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) using latent class analysis (LCA). We used a three‐step LCA approach to identify significantly different subgroups of STEM‐oriented high schools, what covariates predict subgroup membership, and how subgroup membership predicts observed distal outcomes. We find that there are four significantly different subgroups of STEM‐oriented high schools based on their principal's perceptions:Abundant(12.3%),Support(23.3%),Bounded(10.1%), andComprehensive(54.3%). In addition, we find that these subgroups are associated with school demographics, such as the percent of students eligible for free and reduced‐price lunch, school locale, and control (public or private). Subgroup membership is also associated with student outcomes, such as postsecondary program enrollment and intent to pursue a STEM degree.
Wright College, an urban open-access community college, independently accredited within the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) system, is a federally recognized Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) with one of the largest community college enrollments of Hispanic students in Illinois. Wright College’s student success rates measured by completion have been strong and improving relative to other national urban community colleges, but are below state and national averages.
In 2015 the college piloted a selective guaranteed admission program, Engineering Pathways (EP), to one of the nation’s top engineering schools (The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, UIUC). Initial results for the small first-year cohort were very positive: 89% transfer rate and all students who transferred to UIUC graduated. The program’s initial success rested on a) cohort model with a small number of students and strong controls; b) co-branding that attracted local students interested in pursuing engineering at UIUC who might not otherwise have enrolled at Wright; c) academic rigor (small class size with Wright College’s curricula matching UIUC); d) robust student support services and structures; and e) a holistic college commitment to equity and inclusive excellence.
Wright College obtained a National Foundation Science (NSF)-HSI research grant in 2018 to support the Engineering Pathways. The grant examines EP students’ self-efficacy and sense of belonging. Wright College foregrounds student “belonging” in its equity efforts. Equity work calls for the systemic analysis and tracking of student performance, engagement and participation throughout the student life-cycle, with data-informed analysis of behavior and outcomes through a lens of race, gender and wealth. EP students shared similar racial and ethnic backgrounds as Wright College’s non-engineering students. They attended the same elementary and public schools, have similar family structures, socioeconomic status (SES) and supports.
NSF resources assisted Wright College’s creation of a contextualized engineering summer bridge and a more structured pre-engineering program. As enrollment in the EP program increased, the college dedicated additional resources, including faculty, enhanced student support, and guaranteed junior-level transfer to other nearby baccalaureate engineering schools. Central to the effort was significantly greater structure and monitoring of student performance, including academic and support frameworks for non-EP students. Wright College and baccalaureate transfer institutions reviewed and updated articulation agreements. In the Engineering Summer Bridge Program’s first two years, forty-five (45) students who would otherwise have been denied admission to EP are thriving and are positioned to transfer to four-year engineering programs.
In this paper, Wright College will review the college’s equity efforts, the structure and implementation of the Engineering Pathways, and the creation of new engineering transfer programs. It will explore visible and invisible barriers to students’ success, contrasting students in Wright College’s EP program with other Wright College students. The authors argue that the systemic pursuit of equity, particularly with a focus on self-efficacy, belonging, and the creation of an environment committed to inclusive excellence, will result in very strong student outcomes.
Jimenez, Raquel B., Bozigar, Matthew, Janulewicz, Patricia, Lane, Kevin J., Hutyra, Lucy R., and Fabian, M. Patricia. School Greenness and Student‐Level Academic Performance: Evidence From the Global South. GeoHealth 7.8 Web. doi:10.1029/2023GH000830.
Jimenez, Raquel B., Bozigar, Matthew, Janulewicz, Patricia, Lane, Kevin J., Hutyra, Lucy R., & Fabian, M. Patricia. School Greenness and Student‐Level Academic Performance: Evidence From the Global South. GeoHealth, 7 (8). https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GH000830
Jimenez, Raquel B., Bozigar, Matthew, Janulewicz, Patricia, Lane, Kevin J., Hutyra, Lucy R., and Fabian, M. Patricia.
"School Greenness and Student‐Level Academic Performance: Evidence From the Global South". GeoHealth 7 (8). Country unknown/Code not available: DOI PREFIX: 10.1029. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GH000830.https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10441347.
@article{osti_10441347,
place = {Country unknown/Code not available},
title = {School Greenness and Student‐Level Academic Performance: Evidence From the Global South},
url = {https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10441347},
DOI = {10.1029/2023GH000830},
abstractNote = {Abstract Greenspace in schools might enhance students' academic performance. However, the literature—dominated by ecological studies at the school level in countries from the Northern Hemisphere—presents mixed evidence of a beneficial association. We evaluated the association between school greenness and student‐level academic performance in Santiago, Chile, a capital city of the Global South. This cross‐sectional study included 281,695 fourth‐grade students attending 1,498 public, charter, and private schools in Santiago city between 2014 and 2018. Student‐level academic performance was assessed using standardized test scores and indicators of attainment of learning standards in mathematics and reading. School greenness was estimated using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Linear and generalized linear mixed‐effects models were fit to evaluate associations, adjusting for individual‐ and school‐level sociodemographic factors. Analyses were stratified by school type. In fully adjusted models, a 0.1 increase in school greenness was associated with higher test scores in mathematics (36.9 points, 95% CI: 2.49; 4.88) and in reading (1.84 points, 95% CI: 0.73; 2.95); as well as with higher odds of attaining learning standards in mathematics (OR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.12; 1.28) and reading (OR: 1.07, 95% CI: 1.02; 1.13). Stratified analysis showed differences by school type, with associations of greater magnitude and strength for students attending public schools. No significant associations were detected for students in private schools. Higher school greenness was associated with improved individual‐level academic outcomes among elementary‐aged students in a capital city in South America. Our results highlight the potential of greenness in the school environment to moderate educational and environmental inequalities in urban areas.},
journal = {GeoHealth},
volume = {7},
number = {8},
publisher = {DOI PREFIX: 10.1029},
author = {Jimenez, Raquel B. and Bozigar, Matthew and Janulewicz, Patricia and Lane, Kevin J. and Hutyra, Lucy R. and Fabian, M. Patricia},
}
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