Tree cover and species composition effects on academic performance of primary school students

Abstract

Human exposure to green space and vegetation is widely recognized to result in physical and mental health benefits; however, to date, the specific effects of tree cover, diversity, and species composition on student academic performance have not been investigated. We compiled standardized performance scores in Grades 3 and 6 for the collective student body in 387 schools across the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), and examined variation in relation to tree cover, tree diversity, and tree species composition based on comprehensive inventories of trees on school properties combined with aerial-photo-based assessments of tree cover. Analyses accounted for variation due to socioeconomic factors using the learning opportunity index (LOI), a regional composite index of external challenges to learning that incorporates income and other factors, such as students with English as a second language. As expected, LOI had the greatest influence on student academic performance; however, the proportion of tree cover, as distinct from other types of “green space” such as grass, was found to be a significant positive predictor of student performance, accounting for 13% of the variance explained in a statistical model predicting mean student performance assessments. The effects of tree cover and species composition were most pronounced in schools that showed the highest level of external challenges, suggesting the importance of urban forestry investments in these schools.

School Green Space and Its Impact on Academic Performance: A Systematic Literature Review

“…The most promising findings for the influence of green space on achievement were for college preparatory exams results; of eight total findings, seven (88%) showed beneficial associations between green space and achievement [48,60]. Moreover, we found exclusively positive associations between college exams and green land cover or tree cover at all distances [28,54,55,60,61]. End-of-semester grades also showed exclusively positive associations for green window views and trees in up to 250 m distances away from schools [48,60].…”

“…Our analysis of methodological biases showed that the majority of the included studies ( n = 9) were of fair quality [28,48,49,52,53,55,59,60,61]. Only two were of good [58] or excellent quality [51], and two more were of poor quality [47,54].…”

“…Most findings were non-significant. Of 122 entries, 78 (64%) were null, another 34 (28%) were positive [28,48,52,54,55,59,60,61], and ten (8%) were negative [47,58]. Support for a beneficial impact of green space on academic outcomes would have been observed in categories with large numbers of positive findings; however, we observed no more than two positive findings for any given category (see Figure 2 and Table A2 in Appendix A).…”

“…End-of-semester grades, math, and reading tests scores showed lower ratios of positive findings when examining any green space measurement: three of eight (38%), 13 of 49 (27%), and 10 of 45 (22%), respectively, were positive. Writing test scores showed the lowest share of positive findings: nine associations were null, two were negative, and only one was positive (8%) [47,53,61].…”

Can an Outdoor Learning Environment Improve Children’s Academic Attainment? A Quasi-Experimental Mixed Methods Study in Bangladesh

“…Indeed, several studies in the US have revealed a positive association between school and neighborhood greenness and children's academic attainment, although previous studies exploring this relationship did not differentiate between different types of greenery (i.e., tree, shrub and grass) . More recent studies by Sivarajah, Smith, & Thomas (2018) and Kuo, Browning, Sachdeva, Lee and Westphal (2018) positively link school tree cover density with academic achievement.…”