Daylighting Impacts on Human Performance in School

This peer-reviewed research article examines the relationship between daylight exposure in classrooms and student performance on standardized tests. Using multivariate regression across three large school districts and more than 21,000 student test scores, the study finds strong, statistically significant associations between increased natural light and improved performance in both reading and math. The paper controls for factors such as teacher quality and student demographics to isolate the effect of daylight. The findings underscore the importance of daylighting in school design and support efforts by architects, facilities planners, and educators to integrate natural light as a core component of healthy, high-performing learning environments.