The relation between children's health and academic achievement

We investigate the relation between a variety of health conditions and test scores for children and adolescents using data from the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. In addition to estimating how health conditions are associated with test scores ‘on average,’ our statistical methodology estimates this association at different points of the conditional test score distribution. Such information could be crucial for policy purposes because the relation between health and academic achievement may be different for students at the bottom and top of the test score distribution. We find that several health conditions are highly negatively correlated with math and reading test scores, both on average and at different points of the achievement distribution. Given the current education policy environment where schools are shifting resources to conform to state and federal requirements on test scores and other outcomes, the results suggest caution in cutting resources from the traditional role of schools in monitoring a wide set of health outcomes.