Study Review Assignment

Study Review Assignment Student's Name Institution Course Code and Course Name Professor’s Name Submission Date Summary The study by Schwartz and Rothbart (2019) explains the consequence of Universal Free Meals (UFM) on middle school students in New York City. Using a difference-in-differences design with student-level data, this study estimates UFM's impact on academic outcomes, including English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics scores. Further, the study examines the effects of UFM school lunch participation and student health outcomes, including Body Mass Index (BMI). Key findings include that UFM raises the academic performance of nonpoor students by 0.083 standard deviations in math and 0.059 standard deviations in ELA, and for poorer students, more minor but significant gains of 0.032 and 0.027 standard deviations, respectively. It also finds that UFM increases lunch participation for nonpoor students by 11 percentage points and for poor students by 5.4 percentage points (Schwartz & Rothbart, 2019). No evidence has been shown that UFM increases obesity. This methodological approach focuses on estimating the causal impact based on the analyses of individual students' participation data by taking UFM as the instrumental variable of the relationship between school lunch participation and academic performance. The research is one of the earliest studies in which longitudinal data are reliant instead on daily student-level involvement, an improvement over studies relying greatly on aggregate data. This study focuses on middle schools in New York City that have implemented UFM policies. It is a unique window of observation into a large-scale policy implementation. Schwartz and Rothbart (2019) also find that increased participation in school lunches improves test scores for poor and nonpoor students without negative health consequences, such as higher obesity rates or BMI. More broadly, these findings add to a small but growing literature on the potential benefits of nutrition programs for student outcomes and academic success. Relevance of Topic The topic is highly relevant to current education policy discussions on nutrition assistance and its relationship with student achievement. As UFM programs continue to grow in districts nationwide, understanding their associated effects on academic outcomes and health will be increasingly important for policymakers seeking to close achievement gaps and ensure food security. Its focus on New York City—a large, diverse urban district—makes its findings particularly generalizable to similar districts nationwide. Results challenge common concerns that free meal programs might worsen childhood obesity; no such adverse effects are shown. The study is also relevant because its implication for education practitioners and policymakers is that providing free meals to all students raises participation and improves outcomes for poor and nonpoor students. Overall, the current research provides valuable evidence that nutrition policies can be one of the efficient ways to improve students' performances. Methodology The methodology of this study is sound and provi...