Promoting Equity Funding for Schools Facing Adverse Health Circumstances
Existing research reveals that many school sites face environmental and health problems that affect education outcomes. A compelling research base has emerged on the negative education outcomes associated with local school environmental and health conditions. These conditions disproportionately affect children of color due to their neighborhood locations.
This project will implement a series of coordinated activities to highlight health conditions that negatively impact achievement in schools attended primarily by children of color. A nationally recognized expert in this field, Dr. Claudia Persico, will collaborate with the AIR team in analyzing new data developed through the project.
AIR will analyze NAEP data in the context of local health and environmental data and synthesize existing evidence and solutions in the health and education literature in a series of “practice guides” and other public-facing documents that can benefit local communities. Our team will conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial using classroom air purifiers to analyze achievement growth among fourth graders in several North Carolina school districts to develop a validation strategy for existing research on air pollution impacts on student achievement.
In addition, we will implement an outreach strategy by coordinating blogs, a webinar, and media activities designed to promote new evidence to support local initiatives and contribute to discussions for new systematic funding initiatives that will address persistent and pervasive health problems facing school communities.
