It’s the journey, not the destination: the effect of school travel mode on student achievement

According to data from the National Household Travel Survey, 49.3 percent of American children in Kindergarten through sixth grade either walked or biked to school in 1969. By 2017, only 11 percent of elementary children still walked or biked to school. In this study, we examine the effect of school transport mode on a child’s academic achievement using data from a nationally representative dataset of American children. We rely on instrumental variables regression to isolate the effect of mode on achievement. Our results suggest children who are dropped off from private vehicles, and to a lesser extent, walk to school, have higher test scores than children who ride the bus.