Can a student’s ability to learn be affected by heat? According to a National Bureau of Economic Research study referenced by Climate Central, for every increased degree in heat, a student's learning ability decreases by nearly 1%, and that air conditioning can limit these impacts.
Alexis Salt is a middle school teacher in Las Vegas. Salt said heat has a direct impact on learning.
“Heat makes children aggressive,” Salt said. “It also severely cuts into their socialization. So I have fifth through eighth grade this year and when my fifth- and sixth- graders cannot go out for recess or P.E., everyone has a bad day.”
Vicki Kridell teaches reading to elementary school students in Las Vegas.
“Sometimes I send kids to go wash their face off, to cool off a bit because you can just tell by looking at them they're overheated,” Kridell said. “And then when you're trying to teach in the afternoons they're tired, they're sleepy, they're miserable, their heads are down on their desk and we're just not learning.”
The National Bureau of Economic Research, in a 2019 study, estimated that between 3% to 7% of the gap in PSAT scores between White students and students of color can be attributed to temperature differences in their environment.
These disparities appear to be driven both by school-level investments, such as differential air-conditioning penetration, as well as the geographic distribution of racial minorities whereby Black and Hispanic students overwhelmingly reside in hotter locations than White students. That NBER study compared temperature, air conditioning and PSAT test scores.
Adding to the problem is the aging infrastructure of schools, most of which were built more than 50 years ago when the climate was very different than it is today. According to Climate Central, cooling demand in classrooms has increased more than 30%.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio (KNPR) in Las Vegas, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
