Relationships between high school graduation and vegetation vary with social and environmental contextSome research supports the idea that urban greening may promote academic achievement, yet there are concerns that the benefits of greening do not apply equally across different populations. This study addressed this concern by investigating relationships between school attendance area (SAA) vegetation and graduation rate, variation in these relationships among social contexts, and variation in graduation rate among environmental contexts. SAAs are spaces where students are most likely to spend most of their time.
Data for this study were based on 1,333 secondary urban schools across 36 states in the US. The data included such sociodemographic and school-related variables as socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, population density, and graduation rates. The data also included environmental variables relating to the vegetated and built characteristics of student environments.
An analysis of the data showed “significant variation in the relationship between school graduation rate and vegetation among vegetation types and socioeconomic contexts.” Overall, the graduation rates were lower in school attendance areas covered predominantly by built impervious (nonabsorbent) surfaces (roads, parking lots, rooftops, etc.) and with low tree cover. Graduation rates were higher in areas with little built impervious cover and high tree cover or agricultural vegetation. Generally, areas with more agricultural vegetation also had high graduation rates. Areas with non-forest vegetation (such as vacant or abandoned land) tended to be in neighborhoods with low socio-economic status (SES) and majority-Black schools. The relationship between tree cover and graduation rates was stronger for high-SES schools and low-SES, majority Latino/a schools.
While this research supports the idea “that trees can benefit population-level academic attainment in urban settings”, it also indicates that the relationship between graduation and vegetation varies with SES and environment. Race or ethnicity also seems to make a difference, in that “the benefits of urban vegetation to academic performance tend to accrue to students not only at more advantaged schools, but also to Latino/a, low-SES student populations, while the academic success of African American, low-SES students may be hindered by vegetation.” Based on these findings, it cannot be assumed that urban greening can be uniformly applied to support academic success.
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