Exhibits 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8 contain students’ reports about the frequency with which they arrive at school feeling tired or hungry, along with average achievement by frequency. Lack of adequate sleep or nutrition can have serious implications for a student’s ability to focus on learning and also may be indicative of other challenges that students face.

On average across countries, just over one-third (35%) of fourth grade students and 45 percent of eighth grade students reported that they arrive at school feeling tired “every day or almost every day.” Only 19 percent of fourth grade students and 8 percent of eighth grade students reported “never” arriving at school feeling tired, and nearly half (47%) of students in both grades reported “sometimes” arriving feeling tired. On average, achievement was lowest for fourth grade students who reported feeling tired “every day or almost every day,” though it was highest for students “sometimes” arriving at school feeling tired compared with “never” doing so. In eighth grade, average mathematics achievement was 488 for “never” arriving at school feeling tired and 487 for doing so “every day or almost every day,” while it was 493 for “sometimes” arriving at school feeling tired (Exhibit 10.7). Average science achievement was lowest for the 8 percent of eighth grade students reporting they “never” arrived at school feeling tired (Exhibit 10.8).

More than one-quarter (28%) of fourth grade students reported that they arrived at school hungry “every day or almost every day,” and 41 percent said they “sometimes” did. Just under one-third (31%) reported that they “never” arrived at school hungry. Frequent hunger was a somewhat bigger problem in eighth grade, with 33 percent of students reporting that they arrived at school hungry “every day or almost every day” and another 42 percent of reporting that they did so “sometimes.” Only 25 percent said they “never” arrived at school hungry. There was a direct relationship between the frequency of arriving at school hungry and average achievement in both grades and subjects. For example, in fourth grade science (Exhibit 10.6), students arriving at school hungry “every day or almost day” had an average score of 478, compared with 497 for students who did so “sometimes” and 504 for students who “never” did.