Date of Award

5-2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Honors Thesis

Department

Management Information Systems

First Advisor

Francis Bowen

Second Advisor

Carolyn Gentle-Genitty

Abstract

As education evolves with the growth of technology, it is crucial to study the impacts of external challenges on student outcomes within the classroom. The goal of the present cross-sectional study is to investigate the relationship between a student’s environmental factors and student-peer relationships, academic performance, and engagement, specifically within urban, low-income schools that exist in underserved areas of the community. The following research question is posed: How do external adversities in one’s neighborhood impact a student’s relationship to their peers and success in school? To learn more about this question, we conducted research in partnership with Butler University, the nonprofit organization, The Fight for Life Foundation, and two participating Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) with students grade 3 through 6. The mission of this research is to identify the external factors most detrimental to students, allowing schools in areas with high rates of violent crime, unemployment, and poverty, and low levels of education, connectivity at home, and health to provide improved support for students.

The Fight for Life Building Dreams platform aggregates data related to observed student behavior and links the observations to Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) core values. This can be used to measure student engagement and peer relationships in the classroom. To measure academic performance, standardized test scores and term grades for each student are utilized. External community data is derived from SAVI to represent neighborhood factors. Statistical analysis is leveraged to draw connections between patterns in the neighborhood-level data to what is observed in the classroom through the Building Dreams Platform and evaluated though standardized test scores, attendance, and in-class grades to explain academic performance and student engagement.

Few studies have investigated multivariate factors and how they impact academic performance, academic engagement, and peer relationships together. This study investigates the impact of many neighborhood factors on these three outcomes.

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