Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Research Review

  • By Deborah P. Moore
  • 06/01/15

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

  • California Middle School Breaks Ground on Major Renovation Project

    The Hillsborough City School District (HCSD) in Hillsborough, Calif., recently began construction on new multipurpose and administration facilities for Crocker Middle School, according to a news release.

  • Rethinking K-12 Schools as a Continuous Learning Experience

    Most students move through three or more separate facilities during their K-12 journey, yet the built environments they encounter at each stage have traditionally been designed in isolation, with little continuity in spatial language, learning philosophy, or physical resources. Each new school is a reset with different layouts, learning models, expectations, and ways of moving through a building. The next generation of school design is making the case that the first day of kindergarten and the last day of high school can and should feel connected through common support systems and infrastructure in the physical environment.

  • Virginia Tech Tops Out New College of Engineering Building

    Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., recently celebrated the topping out of Mitchell Hall, which will soon stand as the largest College of Engineering building on campus, according to a news release. The university partnered with Skanska on the 285,500-square-foot facility, which has an expected completion date of winter 2028.

  • Tennessee Middle School Completes Health, Life Safety Renovations

    The Giles County Board of Education in Pulaski, Tenn., recently announced that a series of renovation projects has been completed at Bridgeforth Middle School, according to a news release. The district partnered with Wold Architects & Engineers and Brindley Construction to modernize building systems at one of the district’s oldest schools.