Giving Compass' Take:

• Sarah Gamard explains how research proved that free eyeglasses for low-income children in Baltimore could boost test scores for low-income children.  

• What other simple health interventions could boost test scores for low-income children? 

• Learn how some schools are providing students access to medical care to improve performance. 

Johns Hopkins University researchers in Baltimore asked a seemingly simple straightforward question: Could the persistent gap in reading performance between poor students and wealthier ones be closed if they gave the poor students eyeglasses?

They knew that poorer students were less likely to have glasses than wealthier white children, but data were limited on whether simply helping children better focus on the page in front of them might improve their ability to master a skill essential for early learning.

They screened several hundred second- and third-graders, gave two pairs of eyeglasses to the ones who needed them (about 60 percent of the group, based on a uniquely liberal prescribing standard) and then they tracked their school performance over the course of the year. The outcomes were notable even with the small sample size—reading proficiency improved significantly compared with the children who did not need eyeglasses. In late 2015, a conversation between Dr. Leana Wen, the new Baltimore City health commissioner, and Johns Hopkins President Ronald Daniels about areas of potential collaboration quickly focused on students’ eyesight. Vision screening by the health department had already identified an unmet need for thousands of children; the research seemed to confirm the value of addressing it in the school setting.

In May 2016, the Baltimore Health Department assembled a public-private coalition made up of the city’s public school system, Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Education, eyeglass retailer Warby Parker, and a national nonprofit called Vision To Learn.

The three-year program, called Vision for Baltimore, plans to visit 150 schools over the course of the study and screen 60,000 students, making it the biggest study of its kind. The data officials expect to glean could radically alter how school systems across the country approach one of the most difficult and consequential problems in modern education. It may well be that the solution to the persistent gap in reading proficiency is not instructional, but a simple health issue that could be addressed with a pair eyeglasses that could cost a couple of hundred dollars at the mall.

Read the full article about eyeglasses by Sarah Gamard at Politico.