Designs for Measuring How the School Breakfast Program Affects Learning

Jonathan Jacobson, Ronette Briefel, Philip Gleason, and Rachel Sullivan of Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. ERS Contact: Jayachandran N. Variyam

E-FAN No. (01-013) 153 pp, December 2001

This report describes a study design permitting a scientifically defensible evaluation of the impact of the School Breakfast Program (SBP) on learning and cognitive development among children. Following presentation of a literature review and conceptual framework of the SBP-learning relationship, four alternative designs for measuring this relationship were proposed and assessed. Of the four, the design based on Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) data (with supplemental analysis of 1988-1994 NHANES III data) was chosen as the report's subject.

Keywords: School Breakfast Program, effect of breakfast on cognition, breakfast and learning, academic achievement, design study, ECLS, NHANES, experimental designs, statistical power, nutrition and cognition, program evaluation

In this report ...

Chapters are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

• Abstract, Acknowledgments, Contents, Executive Summary, 435 kb
• Introduction, 109 kb
• Literature Review, 228 kb
• Alternative Designs, 380 kb
• ECLS-K-NHANES III Design, 297 kb
• References, 123 kb
• Appendix A, 150 kb
• Appendix B, 126 kb
• Appendix C, 99 kb
• Appendix D, 86 kb

• Entire report, 903 kb

Updated date: December 1, 2001