The Effects of the Visual Environment on K-12 Student Achievement

Abstract

The varying indoor environments among educational buildings can have an impact on students’ ability to learn. This study looks at field data from 220 classrooms in the Midwest, United States, over a two-year period, to analyze the effects of the visual environment on student achievement. The visual environmental metrics considered within this scope include the three new view metrics introduced within the EN 17037 “Daylight of Buildings” standard (Horizontal Sight Angle, Outside Distance of View, and Number of View Layers), as well as standard daylight and electric lighting metrics, focusing on light availability and glare. To capture student achievement, math and reading achievement scores were used, accompanied by auxiliary demographic variables. This allowed for a correlational analysis using multivariate regression. Among the notable results of this study, there was a positive effect of the availability of view on reading achievement. However, another view metric, Horizontal Sight Angle, showed a significant negative interaction with free and reduced lunch recipients on reading achievement, indicating that demographics can also have a significant role in the way the visual environment can affect learning.

Subjective Assessment of Light Environment Quality based on Human-centric Lighting

“…A good light environment has a positive relationship with human performance [1][2][3][4][5], human well-being [6][7][8][9][10] and human behavior [11]. Various positive effects of the light environment on space can be achieved by creating a good quality light environment.…”

Associations between Illness-Related Absences and Ventilation and Indoor Pm2.5 in Elementary Schools of the Midwestern United States

“…Providing new evidence on the problems presented above is essential. Therefore, a large-scale research project was launched to target the relationship between school indoor environmental quality and pupils' absenteeism and performance in K-12 schools in the Midwestern United States (Lau et al, 2016;Deng and Lau, 2019;Kuhlenengel et al, 2021;Kabirikopaei et al, 2021;Wang and Brill, 2021). Results of this project suggest that comprehensive indoor environmental quality monitoring is necessary to adequately represent the exposure to and measure the seasonal variations in indoor air, thermal conditions, and visual and acoustic environment (Lau et al, 2016).…”