Associate Professor Rouse and alumna Brook Hunziker examine how bodyweight relates to both children's test scores and teacher assessment of ability.
Katy Rouse, associate professor of economics in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, and Elon alumna Brooke Hunziker ’18 co-authored an article titled “Child bodyweight and human capital: Test scores, teacher assessments and noncognitive skills,” which is published in the Economics of Education Review.
Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011, the authors examine how bodyweight is related to both children’s test scores and teacher assessment of ability. They also explore the relationship between obesity and noncognitive skills and the role that these skills play in explaining obesity-related disparities across the two measures of achievement.
The article’s abstract shares the authors examine “how bodyweight is related to both children’s test scores and teacher assessment of ability. We find bodyweight has little effect on math or reading for girls, but is negatively related to test scores and teacher assessments in science. Obese boys are found to have lower test scores in math and are assessed more negatively by teachers in all three academic areas. We also examine bodyweight and noncognitive skills, finding negative relationships for both girls and boys. Obesity-related differences in these skills mitigate observed disparities for boys between teacher assessment and test scores in the areas of reading and math but not science. Finally, we explore whether bodyweight differentially affects teacher and parent-assessment of children’s noncognitive traits, finding a more negative effect on teacher-assessed skills.”
The Economics of Education Review publishes research on education policy and finance, human capital production and acquisition, and the returns to human capital.
Rouse earned her doctorate in economics from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her research in the area of education economics also includes several studies on the effects of year-round school calendars.
Hunziker graduated from Elon in 2018 with a degree in economics. She now works at Cloudmed as a senior consultant.