Dive Brief:
- Ryan Cooper, a national correspondent for The Week, suggests lead abatement could be an uncontroversial school reform strategy that is likely to improve student performance.
- While the role of charter schools, teachers unions, school funding and evaluation metrics are hotly debated, lead contamination could be a universally agreed-upon issue — it’s a problem in many high-poverty and/or predominantly minority neighborhoods nationwide, and a new study suggests it directly impacts student learning.
- A working paper from researchers at Brown and Princeton finds even reductions of lead levels that are historically low have positive effects on third grade reading scores that are statistically significant, and Cooper thinks the findings represent an obvious opportunity for donors like Bill and Melinda Gates.
Dive Insight:
Long-term exposure to lead is especially damaging for children, who are more likely to absorb and retain the toxic metal. Kids Health estimates 310,000 children from one to five years old are found to have unsafe levels of lead in their blood. Many areas, however, do not have any system in place to measure children for lead exposure on a routine basis. A key problem with long-term lead exposure is its impact on developing brains.
Several recent academic articles have connected children’s IQ to their exposure to lead. The New England Journal of Medicine published one following a study in Rochester, NY, that found even if children were exposed to lead below government safety limits, they still lost IQ points. Cities and school districts that can’t afford to improve water quality might consider appealing to private foundations for funding.