Is a school's neighborhood physical disorder related to its academic outcomes?

Background: Neighborhood environment for student residences has been linked to differences in academic outcomes. However, school neighborhood has not been studied as a potential additional environmental factor in academic outcomes.

Objective: The goal of this study was to explore the association between school neighborhood disorder and academic outcomes.

Methods: School neighborhood physical disorder data were paired with school academic achievement and attendance data. Using regression analyses, we examined whether academic achievement and attendance were predicted using NIfETy neighborhood physical disorder scores for the 21 schools within the boundaries of Flint.

Results: Neighborhood physical disorder was significantly negatively associated with mathematics scores (β=-7.71707, p=0.0430425), but not with English Language Arts (ELA) scores (β=-4.35, p=0.13). We found a significant curvilinear relationship between neighborhood physical disorder and attendance.

Conclusions: This study supplements existing literature by focusing on neighborhood physical disorder at the school. We found evidence that school neighborhood may impact academic achievement. These findings complement previous research showing that neighborhood of residence factors, such as structural disadvantage, impact school performance. Students exposed to economically disadvantaged neighborhoods at school, regardless of where they live, may have poorer academic skills.