Is there a link between air pollution and student performance in K-12 schools? That's what University of Michigan researchers said they hope to discover as they embark on a three-year research project to determine correlations between air quality and performance benchmarks like absenteeism, test scores, and dropout rates.

The researchers, operating out of U Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE), said that adequate information about the links between pollution and student performance does not exist at present, despite children's vulnerability to pollution.

Researchers will be using census data, air quality data, and information supplied by Detroit Public Schools to look for links between student performance and the environment. The study will cover 194 schools and more than 100,000 students enrolled in the 2007-08 school year. They will also model data from the 837 other public schools districts in Michigan to create a more complete picture of the links between pollution and student performance.

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Source: THE Journal, July 2008