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The Role of Nonschool Factors in Student Learning

The major national studies of student academic performance include only partial data on nonschool factors that can affect student learning. Nonschool factors often available from the major national studies used in this chapter include student's demographic characteristics (e.g., sex and race and ethnicity) and family backgrounds (e.g., family income, parental education, and the primary home language). Other nonschool factors such as personality traits, health and nutrition, and neighborhood characteristics matter for learning as well, but they are relatively difficult to measure and therefore rarely covered in the national studies on education and student achievement.

Research on nonschool factors dates back to the 1966 release of the report Equality of Educational Opportunity (Coleman et al. 1966), which examined the interrelationships among race and ethnicity, family characteristics, and student achievement. The authors of this report concluded that students' socioeconomic background (measured by parents' income, occupation, and education) was a far more influential factor than were school-related factors. Since then, this line of research has evolved, adding such familial factors as household structure, immigrant status, the primary home language, parenting style, and parental involvement and support as having an impact on student achievement. The findings of this research are generally consistent: students from low-income families, those whose parents have lower levels of educational attainment or are uninvolved in their children's education, and those who live in a single-parent household or a home where the primary language spoken is not English generally do not perform as well as students from more advantaged backgrounds (Aud, Fox, and KewalRamani 2010; Berliner 2009; Campbell et al. 2008; HampdenThompson and Johnston 2006; Jeynes 2005; Kreider and Ellis 2011; Lareau 2011; Lee and Burkham 2002; Mulligan, Halle, and Kinukawa 2012; Pong, Dronkers, and Hampden-Thompson 2003; Rothstein 2004; Schmid 2001; Spera 2005; Stockton 2011). Research further indicates that differential access to high-quality preschool care and programs, which is highly related to parental income, is a contributing factor to initial academic achievement gaps (Camilli et al. 2010; Chambers et al. 2010; Flanagan and McPhee 2009).

To attempt to explain more of the variation in student achievement, researchers also turned to personality traits, exploring whether and how attributes like perseverance, motivation, self-control, self-efficacy, and social skills contribute to students' academic achievement (Almlund et al. 2011; Bozick and Dempsey 2010; Dalton 2010; Duckworth et al. 2007; Heckman and Kautz 2012; Lennon 2010a, 2010b; McClelland, Acock, and Morrison 2006; Pintrich and de Groot 1990; Schunk 1981; Snyder 2001; Tough 2012; Walls and Little 2005; WebsterStratton and Reid 2004). Though not conclusive, cumulative evidence points to persistence, motivation to learn and achieve, the ability to delay gratification and aim for long-term goals, belief in one's ability to accomplish academic tasks, and the ability to self-regulate and use self-control as being positively associated with achievement measures such as standardized test scores, grades, and high school completion.

Researchers have also examined the effects of healthrelated factors on student learning (Berliner 2009; Castelli et al. 2007; Chernoff et al. 2007; Conti, Heckman, and Urzua 2010; Daniels et al. 2005; Hack et al. 2002; Nihiser et al. 2007; Rothstein 2010; Stockton 2011). Low birth weight, unhealthy eating, malnutrition, environmental pollution, inadequate medical/dental/vision care, and exposure to stress and discord at home can induce a variety of physical, sociological, and psychological problems, ranging from neurological damage and attention disorders to excessive absenteeism, linguistic underdevelopment, and oppositional behavior. These problems, in turn, can adversely affect student learning outcomes.

Finally, the effects of children's home life on academic achievement can be influenced by neighborhood characteristics such as the unemployment rate, concentration of poverty, incidence of violence and gang activities, and rates of mobility and homelessness (Ainsworth 2002; Berliner 2009; Rothstein 2010). Research indicates that students living in impoverished or unsafe communities have a higher frequency of developmental and health problems than do those from more affluent or safe communities, even after controlling for family conditions, and those developmental and health problems, in turn, are associated with such academic outcomes as low test scores and dropping out of school (Arneshensal and Sucoff 1996; Brooks-Gunn et al. 1993; Catsambis and Beveridge 2001; Garner and Raudenbush 1991; Wickrama, Noh, and Bryant 2005).