Zooming in even farther, in a recent study from Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, social scientists wanted to see if a home’s physical condition could be linked to a child’s academic performance.They also wanted to see if dilapidated housing correlated with a higher risk of child abuse, residential instability and lead poisoning, which are also known to hurt academic outcomes in the first years of school.
The city’s residents, who are mostly African American, were disproportionately affected by the housing crisis. And about 40 percent of Cleveland’s kindergarteners have tested positive for lead poisoning at some point in their short lives.
All these factors seem to be hurting Cleveland’s youngest residents. In their study, the researchers at Case Western looked at the literacy scores of the 13,762 children who entered kindergarten in Cleveland public schools between 2007 and 2010. Then, drawing on public records, they compared those children’s literacy scores to various assessments of the houses they grew up in-including home-quality ratings, property values, and foreclosure and vacant-property rates. They also factored in unpaid property taxes and other liens, which are often signs that a home is falling into disrepair.
One of the most important findings they came across was that the amount of time a child spent living in housing units that were tax delinquent, in foreclosure, or owned by a speculator had significant effects on kindergarten readiness. Children who fared the worst were those who had spent the most time in neglected houses and neighborhoods and, perhaps relatedly, also who had tested positive for lead poisoning. Researchers estimated that these children’s scores were 15 percent lower on literacy tests than those living in the best conditions. Poor housing conditions were also linked to higher rates of child abuse and familial instability, which are known to hurt kindergarten performance. One factor that seemed to have no correlation with a child’s kindergarten outcomes was living in a home with a low market value.
Rob Fischer, one of the authors of the study and co-director of Case Western’s Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, says he interprets his research as evidence that public policy should focus on more than just ending family homelessness in urban areas like Cleveland. “The discussion also needs to include getting people into better housing, instead of just being satisfied that they have an address.”
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