Neighborhood Violent Crime and Achievement in Chicago: Quantity versus Relative Change

Julia Burdick-Will, Brown University

A growing body of research suggests that living in a neighborhood with high violent crime should have a negative impact on academic achievement. Using eight years of detailed crime data and public school administrative records, I follow over 120,000 students through their high school careers and show that lower achieving students do live in more violent neighborhoods. After controlling for basic demographics and prior achievement, the number of violent crimes in their neighborhood is no longer meaningfully associated with semester grade point averages or annual test scores. However, difference-in-difference models show that declines in annual violent crime rates relative to the previous year do result in substantial improvements in test score growth, but no change in grades. The results highlight the importance of the perceived neighborhood environment, especially when it comes to safety, and suggest that improving safety in Chicago could lead to dramatic improvements academic achievement.