Table 2.
Lead Levels, Lead Certificates, and Test Score Results by Birth Cohort and Child Characteristic
| Geometric mean lead levels
|
Certificate at birth
|
Mean third grade reading
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 2005 | 1997 | 2005 | 1997 | 2005 | |
| Panel A | ||||||
| Child characteristic | ||||||
| Race | ||||||
| White | 3.49 | 2.02 | 0.00 | 0.02 | 46.20 | 49.30 |
| White/Asian/other | 3.54 | 2.07 | 0.00 | 0.02 | 46.10 | 48.80 |
| Black | 5.77 | 2.95 | 0.02 | 0.12 | 37.80 | 41.54 |
| Hispanic | 4.91 | 2.52 | 0.01 | 0.13 | 36.20 | 40.47 |
| Asian | 4.42 | 2.64 | 0.02 | 0.09 | 44.40 | 47.40 |
| Free lunch | ||||||
| Always free lunch | 5.25 | 2.85 | 0.02 | 0.11 | 36.75 | 40.87 |
| Sometimes free lunch | 4.32 | 2.38 | 0.01 | 0.07 | 41.25 | 43.49 |
| Never free lunch | 3.04 | 1.79 | 0.00 | 0.01 | 48.94 | 51.84 |
| Maternal education | ||||||
| ≥ HS | 3.73 | 2.18 | 0.01 | 0.04 | 45.03 | 48.73 |
| < HS | 5.12 | 2.82 | 0.01 | 0.12 | 36.67 | 38.27 |
| Marital status at birth | ||||||
| Single | 4.87 | 2.68 | 0.01 | 0.11 | 38.79 | 41.93 |
| Married | 3.55 | 2.05 | 0.00 | 0.03 | 45.87 | 48.87 |
| Substantially below reading proficient
|
Mean third grade math
|
Substantially below math proficient
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 2005 | 1997 | 2005 | 1997 | 2005 | |
| Panel B | ||||||
| Child characteristic | ||||||
| Race | ||||||
| White | 0.10 | 0.07 | 43.00 | 44.40 | 0.12 | 0.11 |
| White/Asian/other | 0.10 | 0.08 | 42.90 | 44.00 | 0.13 | 0.12 |
| Black | 0.23 | 0.17 | 34.60 | 36.20 | 0.31 | 0.29 |
| Hispanic | 0.30 | 0.21 | 33.90 | 36.40 | 0.35 | 0.29 |
| Asian | 0.09 | 0.07 | 40.50 | 42.20 | 0.21 | 0.14 |
| Free lunch | ||||||
| Always free lunch | 0.27 | 0.18 | 34.58 | 36.24 | 0.33 | 0.28 |
| Sometimes free lunch | 0.17 | 0.17 | 38.53 | 39.26 | 0.21 | 0.22 |
| Never free lunch | 0.06 | 0.04 | 45.32 | 46.66 | 0.08 | 0.07 |
| Maternal education | ||||||
| ≥ HS | 0.12 | 0.09 | 41.88 | 42.84 | 0.15 | 0.14 |
| < HS | 0.28 | 0.27 | 34.51 | 34.00 | 0.35 | 0.37 |
| Marital status at birth | ||||||
| Single | 0.22 | 0.18 | 36.22 | 37.23 | 0.28 | 0.26 |
| Married | 0.11 | 0.08 | 42.68 | 44.01 | 0.14 | 0.12 |
Notes: The row subheadings refer to birth cohort. Because only data through August is available for birth cohort 2005, the sample used in this table includes all children born between January and August of the respective years.