How is environmental greenness related to students' academic performance in English and Mathematics?

By Wing-Pui Leung, Tuen Yee Tiffany Tam, Wen-Chi Pan, Chih-Da Wu, S. Lung, J. Spengler. Landscape and Urban Planning, 2019

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Abstract Background Previous studies point out a positive association between academic performance and school surrounding greenness, but the population included in these studies only recruited single-grade students. Objectives To design a more all-rounded investigation of the association between school surrounding greenness and students’ academic performance in general in Massachusetts, USA. Methods We included a total of 27,493 3rd–10th grade students from public schools over 9 years (2006–2014) in the study. Academic performance (i.e. English and Mathematics achievement level) were primarily based on Composite Performance Index (CPI) as well as the percentage of students who scored “Proficient and Higher” (AP%) in the examination. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and green land use area (within 250–2000 m circular buffer) were used to server the index of school surrounding greenness). We applied generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) to investigate the relationship between surrounding greenness and academic performance with adjustment on socio-economic and demographic factors. Results We found a significant positive association (p  Conclusions A higher surrounding greenness contributes a better academic performance in students of all grades. This finding could serve as a reference for designing green landscape especially near school areas.

Subfields: Education, Environmental Engineering, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

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