Another worry as this extreme heat continues in the US: students’ test scores.

Student learning and test scores are shown to fall during extreme heat, disproportionately affecting children in rural or low-income areas where school districts may not have adequate air conditioning.

Experts say this comes at a bad time as many students were already negatively impacted by the pandemic.

Jisung Park, assistant professor in the Department of Public Policy at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, explained “When we look at how more days above 85 and more days above 90 in the school year, it affects test scores. We find that it actually reduces the rate of learning.”

Only 20% of school districts in the North said they had air conditioning as schools in Michigan and Pennsylvania have closed or gone to remote learning due to the heat.