Research Review

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 78 million students (children and adults) were enrolled in school in October of 2012. This is over a quarter of the entire population ages 3 and older. A quick look at the numbers tell us there are nearly 50 million K–12 students attending 98,000+ public schools in the U.S., plus another 6.2 million on staff. In higher education, we are looking at 4,700+ degree-granting institutions that enroll 20.6 million students and employ another 2.9 million faculty and staff.

If you think your classrooms are overcrowded now, there are more challenges on the horizon. In simplest terms, the population of the U.S. is growing — one birth every 8 seconds; one international migrant every 32 seconds — for a net gain of one person every 15 seconds. A growing population means a strain on the facilities we have, as well as a need for more and better facilities.

Unfortunately, it seems that the focus is rarely on facilities — unless you work in facilities. The decisions made are often questioned by others, but the decisions made are usually based on solid research. Here are just a few examples.

Acoustics — According to the Acoustical Society of America, in many classrooms, the speech intelligibility rating is 75 percent or less. That means that listeners with normal hearing can understand only 75 percent of the words read from a list. Considering that a primary mode of teaching involves speaking and listening, speech intelligibility is a prime concern in classroom design.

Daylighting — There are a number of studies available on daylighting, from those done by Warren Hathaway with Alberta Education to more recent ones done by the Heschong Mahone Group and Hatfield. Their findings show that daylit classrooms and views to the outdoors affect concentration, test scores and learning. The 2011 Hatfield review found that students exposed to the most daylight have a 21 percent increase in performance.

Quality, Performance, Retention — The 2010 School Energy and Environment Survey of 800 district administrators or school board members reveals that almost 90 percent of school leaders see a direct link between the quality and performance of school facilities and student achievement. A report by APPA shows that facilities affect student recruitment and retention in higher education.

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • School Construction Projects Boom as Education Systems Address Aging Facilities and Growth

    Construction opportunities are almost always abundant, but currently there are more than usual construction projects being launched for public school campuses. Common objectives include major renovation or expansion of aging facilities, total replacement of inefficient classrooms, upgrades to lighting, technology, and security equipment, and adding new sports and cultural facilities.

  • ClassVR Wins Tech & Learning Best of Show at ISTELive 25

    Avantis Education recently announced that its flagship product, ClassVR, won the Tech & Learning Best of Show Award at ISTELive 25 in San Antonio, Texas, according to a news release. The program is designed to celebrate products that are “transforming education in schools around the world and that show the greatest promise for the industry,” and this is the fourth consecutive year that Avantis has claimed the award.

  • Image courtesy of MiEN Company

    6 Ways to Pull Off a Major District Construction Project

    Designing and building a large-scale project on a K–12 campus is a monumental undertaking that requires the right blend of ideas, funding, design and execution to get it right. The process also relies on multiple partners, each of which has to handle its respective aspect of the project while also keeping the district’s broader mission and goals in mind.

  • MiraCosta College Completes $42.5M Chemistry, Biotechnology Building

    MiraCosta College in Oceanside, Calif., recently finished construction on a new, $42.5-million Chemistry and Biotechnology Building, according to a news release. The university partnered with builder C.W. Driver Companies and HED Architects on the 20,630-square-foot facility, which will serve the school’s expanding STEM programs.

Digital Edition