Grantee Research Project Results
2015 Progress Report: Evidence-Based Interactions between Indoor Environmental Factors andTheir Effects on K-12 Student Achievement
EPA Grant Number: R835633Title: Evidence-Based Interactions between Indoor Environmental Factors andTheir Effects on K-12 Student Achievement
Investigators: Wang, Lily , Waters, Clarence , Bovaird, James , Lau, Josephine
Current Investigators: Wang, Lily , Bovaird, James , Lau, Josephine , Waters, Clarence
Institution: University of Nebraska at Lincoln
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: November 1, 2014 through October 31, 2018 (Extended to October 31, 2019)
Project Period Covered by this Report: November 1, 2014 through October 31,2015
Project Amount: $998,433
RFA: Healthy Schools: Environmental Factors, Children’s Health and Performance, and Sustainable Building Practices (2013) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Children's Health , Human Health
Objective:
The proposed research aims to establish how indoor environmental conditions in K-12 school buildings impact student scholastic achievement. The objectives are to: (1) study comprehensively the impacts of a wide set of indoor environmental factors (including indoor air quality, thermal, lighting, and acoustic conditions) on student achievement; (2) investigate how these conditions interact with each other to impact student achievement; (3) rank order the environmental variables in terms of their relative impact on student achievement; and (4) determine how these effects vary with different demographic (e.g., socio-economic) groups.
Progress Summary:
The main tasks this year were to: (1) investigate how the built environment impacts student achievement by data-mining from publicly available databases on Academic Performance Index (API) scores from California schools that have received High Performance Incentive Grants, compared against other schools with similar demographics; and (2) design and test experimental kits and protocols for use in conducting the detailed indoor environmental measurements in classrooms over Years 2 and 3. Both of these were successfully completed. Statistical analyses of the API scores from the California database for Task 1 did not result in any clear findings. Unfortunately, the environmental data available for the high performance schools turned out to be rather blunt instruments, without enough fine gradation to support statistically significant results. Also the dates of when schools that received High Performance Initiative grants in California completed renovation were difficult to confirm, so that comparisons of student achievement scores before and after receiving HPI grants were also more difficult to run. The analyses were run with these limitations, resulting in the lack of strong results. This does not create problems with the overall aim of this project though, as the tasks in upcoming years are to gather indoor environmental data from local schools with great precision, on which similar analyses may be run more successfully. In preparation for the measurement campaign, experimental kits were designed and tested over the spring and summer of 2015. Test protocols were also established, for both unoccupied and occupied conditions in each classroom. Measurements using these kits officially began in September 2015.
Future Activities:
In Year 2, measurements of indoor environmental conditions in 110 K-12 classrooms will continue over the 2015-16 academic year. Then in the summer of 2016, initial statistical analyses of those measured results will be conducted. Measurements in another 110 classrooms will take place over the 2016-17 academic year. We expect that the first batch of student achievement data will become available in the fall of 2016. Statistical analyses of the comprehensive data set are not expected to be completed until the end of Year 3.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 24 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
Student achievement, indoor environmental quality, indoor air quality, thermal conditions, lighting conditions, acoustic conditions, green buildings, high performance buildings, cost-benefit, architectural engineering, mixed linear models, midwest, Nebraska (NE), Iowa (IA)Relevant Websites:
Healthy Schools | College of Engineering | University of Nebraska - Lincoln Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.