Research Symposium

BIO

Bella is a senior graduating in May from Lakeland, FL. She is majoring in Economics with minors in Urban and Regional Planning and Communications. Throughout her major, especially in research methods and econometrics courses, she has gained experience in economics-related research. The majority of this has been concentrated in education and housing. Also, the DeVoe L. Moore Institute and her mentor, Dr. Crystal Taylor, have helped make this research possible. She plans to become a high school teacher, which has inspired her to focus her research on education.

Impact of Housing on Academic Success

Abstract

Children’s ability to succeed academically is not solely a reflection of what happens in the classroom, but also what happens at home. Housing quality emerged as the strongest predictor of children’s development while also taking into account home type, stability, and price (Coley et al., 2013). How do household characteristics influence, if at all, school district grades? To analyze the effects of various household characteristics on school district grades, this research uses 2023 school grade data from the Florida Department of Education. To capture household characteristics, this research incorporates the 2023 American Community Survey Census data on the proportion of owner-occupied units, rent-burdened households, mortgage-burdened households, mobility rates, and occupants per room. The researcher performed regression analysis using RStudio. A preliminary bivariate logarithmic regression results show, at the 90% confidence level, that a 1% increase in occupants per room is associated with a 0.8% change in district rating. Since occupant per room is one metric of home quality, future research should fold in more household and housing characteristics, such as home age or upgrades, and examine if the relationship holds for individual schools.

Keywords: housing characteristics, education, academic success