The Benefits of Improving Indoor Environmental Quality

As school funding levels nationwide continue to plummet amid public demands for increased student performance, an expanding body of research in the field of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is providing greater statistical validity about the relationship between environmental conditions in school facilities and student achievement. Since the 1990s, international indoor environmental quality researchers have been investigating and defining the relationships between the environmental conditions in schools and the health and academic performance outcomes of students. These researchers have quantified, through their publications, the benefits that can be obtained with improvements in the physical conditions and operation practices and reductions in invisible airborne particular matter, irritant gases and infectious microbe levels. These new research studies, substantiated by school experiences, have demonstrated significant increases in student health outcomes and academic performance. Research data compiled by the "IAQ Tools for Schools" program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency show that test scores uniformly increase as a school building environmental conditions improves. (Contains 2 figures.)