School Facilities & Student Learning

Gives a brief, accessible overview of evidence linking school facilities to student achievement and makes a case for governing boards to consider investments in modernization. Five characteristics of school facilities are considered: acoustics and noise; indoor air quality; lighting; temperature controls; classroom size and space.

Establishes six characteristics that impact student learning: indoor air quality, ventilation, and thermal comfort; lighting; acoustics; building age and quality; school size; and class size. A landmark review of research on this topic.

The source of the diagram above, this report provides a systematic overview of research evidence on the many ways that school facilities either support or impede student engagement and learning. Resources include a set of briefs that summarize these dynamics across three broad categories: the design and structure of physical spaces; sensory characteristics and environmental quality; and attributes and relations among people in the school and its community.

Baker, a Professor and chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Miami, is widely recognized as the nation’s leading scholar on the financing of public elementary and secondary education systems. Here, he provides a high-level brief on the importance of equitable and adequate school facilities for student learning and achievement.

Reflecting on the “lockdown” phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, this blog examines the chain of effects that links the degraded condition of school facilities in many lower-wealth communities to elevated health risks, irregular attendance, and finally diminished achievement among the economically disadvantaged students and students of color who are most likely to attend those schools.

Complex statistical modeling isolates the influences of classroom design from other factors that affect students’ experiences and academic performance. Among the attributes studied are temperature, air quality, light, and sound, as well as the shape, complexity, and flexibility of classroom spaces.

Discusses how an evidence-based approach to environmental design can be applied to school planning. In an accessible style, presents findings from research in the fields of environmental psychology and architecture as well as education, and reflects modern theories of learning. Includes chapters on multiple aspects of school design, including “Creating Dynamic School Buildings that Activate the Learner and the Learning Process.”

Explains how the condition of school buildings across more than 200 New York City middle schools shaped the social climate of the schools, impacting student attendance and achievement.

Examines the relationship between building conditions and indicators of student behavior, with attention to variations affecting student subgroups including Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, and Students with Disabilities (SWD).

Draws on findings from 129 international studies on how school facilities affect learning to identify key considerations for the design, development, and management of educational infrastructure projects. Factors considered include accessibility, health and safety, and what are described as “baseline conditions for learning,” as well as how physical characteristics of a school may support or inhibit specific kinds of teaching practice and community engagement. Includes a section on planning and implementation.

Explores how school facility quality affected students’ performance in English and mathematics in 80 Virginia middle schools.

Briefly summarizes findings on the benefits to students in Los Angeles who moved into newly-constructed neighborhood schools. After four years in their new schools students showed gains in both attendance and achievement, especially in math.

Tracks the roll-out of a 15-year construction program in a high-needs urban school district, in which attending a newly-built school led to significant gains in reading scores for students, as well as increased school enrollment and improved neighborhood home values.

Reports on a study in the nation’s second-largest city that tracked the effects of capital investment in schools on student outcomes and neighborhood home prices over 15 years. With upgraded facilities, students were less likely to miss school and more likely to sustain academic effort, resulting in modest but measurable gains in learning. At the same time, each dollar invested in local school buildings yielded a $1.62 gain in home values in surrounding neighborhoods.

Presented as a letter from the then-Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights, this document addresses differences in the quality of school facilities within a comprehensive summary of resource inequities across the education system. Written in reflection on the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the letter describes how resource disparities continue to undermine progress toward the goal of equal educational opportunity for all students. It includes a framework for corrective actions and a perspective on the federal government’s role in safeguarding the rights guaranteed by Brown.

Marshals research evidence to show how student learning is undermined in poorly designed and maintained buildings, and demonstrate that students from low-income families are more likely to attend school in such buildings.

Almost 70 years after the Supreme Court ordered equal education opportunities for all children in Brown vs. Board of Education, a television reporter finds many states and districts fail that test by under-investing in school facilities that serve disadvantaged students.

Assists state and local education agencies to design, build, and improve facility information systems. Recommends a five-step process to develop a system with goals, objectives, and indicators. Includes selected measures of school facilities quality, and a logic model for organizing data elements associated with facility identification, design, utilization, condition, management, budget and finance.