Is it true that installing air purifiers in classrooms improves test scores?
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A surprising study was published in January 2020, showing that students in schools that installed air purifiers had improved academic performance. Professor Andrew Gelman, a statistician at Columbia University 's Center for Applied Statistics, explains the findings of this study.
No, I don't think that installing this study offers good evidence that air filters in classrooms has surprisingly large educational benefits. « Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2020/01/09/no-i-dont-think-that-this-study-offers-good-evidence-that-installing-air-filters-in-classrooms-has-surprisingly-large-educational-benefits/
On October 23, 2015, a gas leak occurred at a natural gas storage facility in California's San Fernando Valley . Following this incident, air purifiers were installed in all classrooms in schools within a five-mile (approximately 8 km) radius of the leaking facility.
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Michael Gillane, a professor of economics at New York University , investigated the academic performance of students attending schools that had installed air purifiers and published a paper titled ' Air Filters, Pollution and Student Achievement ' in January 2020. In his paper, Gillane reported, 'Using a discontinuous regression design , we analyzed the academic performance data of students in schools that had installed air purifiers and found that achievement levels improved significantly, with scores in math and English improving,' and argued that 'the installation of air purifiers is a highly cost-effective measure for improving student performance.'
The contents of this paper were picked up by the foreign media outlet Vox , and Gilrane's presentation became a hot topic.
However, Professor Gelman wrote in his blog that he disagreed with the paper, saying, 'I clicked on the link to the paper and I don't believe it. I have no idea what the relationship is between air pollution and the brain, but the air filters did not significantly improve test scores, so I don't think the study in question provides any evidence for its claims.'
Below is a graph showing the progress of mathematics (top) and English (bottom) grades, with the vertical axis representing the change in standard deviation of grades and the horizontal axis representing the distance from the facility where the gas leak occurred to the school.
However, Professor Gelman said, 'If you remove the lines and curves from the graph and look at the variance between test scores and schools, there's nothing particularly surprising.' He pointed out that the small sample size makes it difficult to draw strong conclusions from this data analysis.
Regarding the use of a discontinuous regression design to analyze the data, Professor Gelman said, 'It makes no sense given the context of the problem being addressed.' He added, 'The key point in my argument is not that the conclusion that air purifiers improved performance is wrong, but that the presented analysis does not support that claim.'
Professor Gelman said the Vox article about the paper was misleading. 'Just because a small study shows no results doesn't mean you should stop doing that research. But if you're going to use that small study in your article, you should make sure to state that it didn't actually produce any results.'
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