The heat dome that covered the eastern U.S. has lifted, and while that means many of us are breathing a (mercifully cooler and less humid) sigh of relief, the memory of how impossible it felt to function under such conditions is still fresh. I think my son put it best when he came out of his air conditioned room the other day and groaned “I can’t move! The air is the wrong texture!” And so it’s perhaps not surprising to learn that all things air — cooling, heating, and ventilation in general — can make a noticeable and measurable difference when it comes to student outcomes.
A study out of the University of Albany wanted to see what role school building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems play in student attendance, behavior, and learning. Researchers looked at school building inspection reports for public K-12 schools in New York State over the course of 14 years (2005 to 2019).
They found that schools with “satisfactory” heating system conditions reduce student absence by 3%, suspensions by 6%, and improve student math scores by 5% compared to schools with poorer heating systems.
Schools with satisfactory ventilation systems saw similar improvements: this metric was correlated with a 2% reduction in absenteeism and student suspension by 7%
Improved cooling systems did not see a correlation with suspension or absenteeism — perhaps because in New York, where the data comes from, air conditioning isn’t used through much of the year — but it did correlate to a 3% increase in reading scores.
HVAC system reconstructions and replacements in school saw “significant improvements” in math performance: scores went up 3% with cooling system improvements and 4% for heating improvements.
In some ways, we probably could have intuited a lot of this information: kids do better when they’re comfortable and breathing fresh air. No one learned at 100% of their potential while having to wear a winter coat inside or from a puddle of their own sweat. But studies like this are important to show scientists, teachers, and (perhaps most importantly) policy makers clear evidence for properly funding school facilities in order to promote the best possible outcomes.
