Exhibit 9.11 contains students’ reports about arriving at school feeling tired or hungry. On average, across countries, only 18 percent of the students reported “never” arriving at school feeling tired. Half (50%) reported “sometimes” arriving feeling tired and about one-third (32%) reported that they felt tired “every day or almost every day,” with the “sometimes” tired students having higher achievement (520 vs. 501). Interestingly, the “never” tired students had average achievement in between (509) the moderate and daily frequencies of being tired. Perhaps there are many reasons why students might be sometimes tired ranging from too many video games to demanding busing schedules or having to walk to school.
Unfortunately, only one-third of the students (33%) reported that they “never” arrived at school hungry. Forty-one percent reported arriving at school hungry “sometimes” and one-fourth (26%) arriving hungry “every day or almost every day.” There was a direct relationship between the frequency of arriving at school hungry and average reading achievement. The “never” hungry students had an average of 526, the “sometimes” hungry students an average of 515, and the students hungry “every day” had an average of 494—32 points lower than “never” being hungry.
