Neighborhood Contexts and Educational Opportunity: Exploring Local Determinants of Student Success

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Extensive research shows that the neighborhoods in which students live and attend school significantly shape their academic and long-term outcomes. Some well studied factors that affect students are neighborhood poverty, access to good schools, and crime exposure, though research on other neighborhood traits is expanding.

This panel features research that examines diverse aspects of neighborhood effects- from crime deterrence and policing reforms to air quality and greenspace- and how these local environments influence student outcomes in the short and long term. By employing rigorous methodologies such as randomized controlled trials and natural experiments, the papers offer insights into the mechanisms through which neighborhoods affect educational outcomes and equity.

The first paper, by Samantha Cervantes and Amy Ellen Schwartz, evaluates if a randomized controlled trial that installed high‐intensity streetlights in high-crime public housing developments in New York City’s had unintended consequences on students exposed to the lights. The study leverages random variation in both treatment assignment and light dosage. Linking three years of student‑level data (2012–2019) to student outcomes - including achievement, engagement, residential mobility, and BMI- the authors assess whether academic gains arise from crime and arrest declines. While assignment to new lights yields modest math improvements and lower retention, higher “dosages” of streetlights cause declines in achievement, alongside rises in BMI and exits from public housing, specially among students that live in low‑rise buildings. 

The second paper, by Jonathan Tebes and Benny Goldman, examines how frequent pedestrian stops and strict enforcement of minor offenses affect the early-life trajectories of young minority men in NYC. Leveraging a federal lawsuit that limited patrol officers’ ability to conduct stops, the study exploits neighborhood differences in exposure to this reform. Building on an event-study framework (Tebes and Fagan, 2024), the paper first documents how fewer stops affect outcomes like arrests and high school completion. It then uses neighborhood, race, sex, and birth cohort variation in stop exposure to non-parametrically estimate long-term effects on educational attainment, criminal justice involvement, earnings, and other household outcomes.

The third paper, by Sarah Chung and Claudia Persico, examines how daily ambient air pollution affects student and teacher outcomes in a large urban California school district between 2003 and 2020. Using wind direction to instrument for pollution, the study finds that higher pollution levels increase student absences, disciplinary referrals, and teacher absences due to illness, with stronger effects among low-income, Black, Hispanic, and younger students.

The fourth paper, by Juan Camilo Cristancho, Andrew Penner, and Mengyi Li, investigates how visible greenspace affects elementary school students’ academic and disciplinary outcomes in Portland, OR from 2006-2022. The authors construct a novel dataset combining classroom window orientation and elevation, and exploit biweekly variation in NDVI data across the study period to capture dynamic greenspace exposure. The study leverages within-student variation in classroom assignments over time to estimate causal impact of greenspace visibility, and explores heterogeneity by student demographics and consider various definitions of greenspace, including tree canopy and public greenspace.

Policy Area

• Education

Secondary Policy Area

• Housing, Community Development, and Urban Policy

Chair

• Amy Ellen Schwartz, University of Delaware

Discussants

• Jeehee Han, Texas A&M University

• Vincent J. Reina, University of Pennsylvania

Organizer

• Mayra Samantha Cervantes, Syracuse University

Individual Presentations

• The Long Shadow of Stop-and-Frisk: Policing and Economic Mobility in Urban America - Presenting Author: Jonathan Tebes, University of Notre Dame

• The Unintended Consequences of High-Intensity Streetlights on Student Outcomes: Evidence from a Crime Deterrence Experiment - Presenting Author: Mayra Samantha Cervantes, Syracuse University

• Greenspace at a Glance: Assessing the Causal Effect of Classroom Views on Elementary Student Outcomes - Presenting Author: Juan Camilo Cristancho, University of California Irvine

• The effects of air pollution on students and teachers - Presenting Author: Sarah Chung, University of Miami