Now that the majority of Americans are vaccinated against the virus responsible for COVID-19, many students will return to indoor classrooms in the next few weeks. While the threat of unpredictable and widespread illness from an airborne virus has diminished, parents still want reassurance that their child’s health will be a priority in the day-to-day management of their school facilities.
The focus that COVID-19 has brought to the management of school buildings, and, specifically, to indoor air quality (IAQ) is long overdue. Prior to the pandemic, the five areas for improvement in grades K through 12 to increase student success were:
While improvements in these areas are clearly important, an extensive study undertaken as part of the Building Educational Success Together initiative reveals, perhaps, a more compelling use of school funds. This study evaluated more than 750 public schools with an enrollment of 437,618 students and 26,700 teachers in the Chicago and Washington, D.C., areas. A statistical analysis weighed teacher assessment of educational facility conditions, student demographics, and standardized test outcomes. The two most frequent complaints from faculty members were overly large classes and poor classroom IAQ. Of these two complaints, teachers ranked poor IAQ as the most serious because of related illnesses and missed teaching days due to asthma, respiratory problems, and sinus infections.
The study also examined the relationship between the quality of school facilities (as reported by teachers) and the demographics of the student body. The study found no linear relationship between school demographics and facility problems within these cities. In other words, building problems and poor IAQ were widespread.
Standardized test scores, another marker for academic success, showed that both demographic variables and IAQ were linked to student scores. After controlling for demographics, an independent relationship between poor IAQ and lower math and reading scores remained. The conservative estimate was that poor IAQ reduced individual student grades by 3%-7% and lowered the number of students performing in the highest SAT categories in both math and reading by 3%-4%. The conclusion was that improving IAQ was at least as influential as reducing class sizes.