Effects of measured acoustic and other indoor environment factors on student achievement in K-12 classrooms

Abstract

Students can be affected by what they hear, see, and feel within the indoor classroom environment, whether or not it is cognizantly perceived by them. To understand how the indoor environment affects students' performance, measurements were logged in 220 K-12 classrooms in two Midwestern states during three seasons with two occupied days per season. Measurements of acoustics, indoor air quality, thermal comfort, and lighting were taken and a variety of metrics were calculated. For example, acoustic measurements provided reverberation time, clarity index, and equivalent sound levels during both active and inactive portions of the occupied school day. Achievement data in the form of percentile ranks on math and reading tests were also collected for the students who received instruction in each classroom. Structural equation models and multivariate linear regression models were utilized to analyze the effect of the indoor environment factors on student math and reading achievement. Significant findings, particularly in the area of acoustics, are presented and related to previous work in this area. [Work supported by the United States Environmental Protection Agency Grant Number R835633.]