Association between substandard classroom ventilation rates and students’ academic achievement
Open accessAbstract
UNLABELLED: This study focuses on the relationship between classroom ventilation rates and academic achievement. One hundred elementary schools of two school districts in the southwest United States were included in the study. Ventilation rates were estimated from fifth-grade classrooms (one per school) using CO(2) concentrations measured during occupied school days. In addition, standardized test scores and background data related to students in the classrooms studied were obtained from the districts. Of 100 classrooms, 87 had ventilation rates below recommended guidelines based on ASHRAE Standard 62 as of 2004. There is a linear association between classroom ventilation rates and students' academic achievement within the range of 0.9-7.1 l/s per person. For every unit (1 l/s per person) increase in the ventilation rate within that range, the proportion of students passing standardized test (i.e., scoring satisfactory or above) is expected to increase by 2.9% (95%CI 0.9-4.8%) for math and 2.7% (0.5-4.9%) for reading. The linear relationship observed may level off or change direction with higher ventilation rates, but given the limited number of observations, we were unable to test this hypothesis. A larger sample size is needed for estimating the effect of classroom ventilation rates higher than 7.1 l/s per person on academic achievement. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The results of this study suggest that increasing the ventilation rates toward recommended guideline ventilation rates in classrooms should translate into improved academic achievement of students. More studies are needed to fully understand the relationships between ventilation rate, other indoor environmental quality parameters, and their effects on students' health and achievement. Achieving the recommended guidelines and pursuing better understanding of the underlying relationships would ultimately support both sustainable and productive school environments for students and personnel.
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87% of classrooms in one hundred elementary schools in the southwest of the U.S. had air quality problems.
“Haverinen-Shaughnessy et al. [20] investigated one hundred elementary schools in the southwest of the U.S. and found that 87% of the classrooms had air quality problems.”
From Investigation of Indoor Air Quality and the Identification of Influential Factors at Primary Schools in the North of China (2017) · cites this paper as [20]
The Introduction reports 100 elementary schools in the southwestern United States and says 87 of the 100 classrooms had ventilation rates below recommended guidelines. That supports a specific ventilation problem, but the broader description “air quality problems” is not established by the reported finding. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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“[20] investigated one hundred elementary schools in the southwest of the U.”
Background
- Authors
- Haverinen-Shaughnessy, U., Moschandreas, D. J., & Shaughnessy, R. J.
- Affiliations
- Illinois Institute of Technology (US)
- University of Tulsa (US)
- Corresponding author
- Shaughnessy, R. J.
- Venue
- Indoor Air
- Publisher
- Hindawi Limited
- Published
- 2010-10-28
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 121-131
- ISSN
- 0905-6947 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2162103866
- Cited by
- 311
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 7.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Indoor Air (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- STM:n Hallinnonalan avoin julkaisuarkisto (Julkari) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Academy of Finland
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Indoor Air Quality and Microbial Exposure
- Social Sciences › Education › Educational Environments and Student Outcomes
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Building Energy and Comfort Optimization
- Keywords
- academic performance, CO2 concentration, elementary school classrooms, ASHRAE Standard 62.2, indoor air quality, standardized test scores, school indoor environment
- MeSH terms
- Carbon Dioxide, Educational Measurement, Educational Status, Humans, Mathematics, Reading, Schools, Students, Ventilation, Southwestern United States, Linear Models, Air Pollution, Indoor
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