Date of Award

Spring 4-8-2015

Document Type

Distinction Paper

Degree Name

Economics-BA

Department

Business, Accounting, & Economics

Advisor

Allen Prindle, PhD

First Committee Member

Allen Prindle, PhD

Second Committee Member

Kyriacos Aristotelous, PhD

Third Committee Member

Jim Bowling, MFA

Keywords

LEED schools, LEED credits, Education, Educational outcomes, Ohio schools

Subject Categories

Education | Education Economics | Environmental Education | Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment

Abstract

This investigation examines the impact that LEED certification had on educational outcomes of K-12 school buildings in the state of Ohio during the 2012-13 academic year. The study focused on three goals. First, the overall credit categories of LEED were tested to determine whether or not they have an impact on educational outcomes, which were measured by the student performance index (SPI). The literature has generally shown that indoor environmental quality has a significant impact on academic performance. Second, the credits that are within the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) category were tested to determine which individual credits had an impact on the SPI. The third goal was to examine if typology had an impact on education outcomes. Urban and rural schools were compared to suburban schools. Only LEED schools were used in this study to investigate the differences among them.

A major finding of this study was that there does not appear to be strong associations between SPI and total points earned in each LEED credit category or with the type of credits a school decides to earn. However, EQC4 (Low-Emitting Materials), EQC7.2 (Thermal Comfort Verification) and EQC9 (Acoustic Performance) were found to have a positive, statistically significant influence on educational outcomes. EQC2 (Increased Ventilation) and EQC8.2 (Daylight & Views, Views for 90% of spaces) were statistically significant with negative coefficients. Based on the analyses, the most important influences on educational performance are socioeconomic status, attendance rates and whether or not the school is in an urban setting.

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