Sociology 276: Study of Pollution and Academic Performance

Objective

In our society, it is argued that every American has an equal opportunity to succeed in life. Research has contradicted these assertions by documenting the presence and impact of ascriptive forces. These ascriptive forces assign persons a status that is based not on their achievements, but on characteristics that they inherit at birth and therefore, have no control over. Three ascriptive forces that have been widely acknowledged are race, gender and class. We argue that proximity to environmental pollution may well be a fourth form of ascription. Children have no control over “place”—the places where they live and attend school. And, if these places are polluted, children’s health, school performance, and, consequently, their life chances may be adversely impacted. This research project investigates the proximity of Worcester public schools to pollution sources, and the race and class patterns linked to this proximity. We specify the pollutants released in proximity to many schools and note their potential impact on childhood development.

Methods/Data

Using latitude and longitude coordinates for schools and facilities as well as demographic information derived from census data, we have researched whether or not there is environmental inequality in Worcester, Massachusetts. First, we produce a spreadsheet that shows distances between each school and each pollution source. From this we identify schools close to many polluters, and polluters close to many schools. Next, we use census data to identify the race and class compositions of populations close to these high risk locations. Finally, we correlate race, class, and risk of proximity to pollution with schools’ academic performance scores.

Results

We found that there are eleven schools located in close proximity to many polluters (see Spreadsheet 1; see also Map 1 for an example of this “clustering”). All of these “high risk” schools are located in disproportionately high minority and poor neighborhoods (see Table 1). We identified fifteen chemical facilities in close proximity to a large number of public schools. 80% of these polluters are located in areas of disproportionately high minority neighborhoods; 67% of these are located in areas of disproportionately high poverty neighborhoods (see Table 2). Finally, using census data, we created a correlation matrix (see Table 3) that identified an inverse relationship between environmental risk (i.e., schools’ proximity to many polluters) and schools’ performance scores (i.e., CPI or Composite Performance Index) in math and English. In other words, schools located close to many polluters have lower academic performance ratings.

Conclusion

The correlation found between environmentally ascriptive factors and CPI scores were even stronger than the coefficients for race and class. Therefore, environment has a large impact on children’s academic performance and is worth policymakers’ consideration in future legislation.