School
Building Boom: BUILD Before the Schools Go BOOM!
A 1996 study
clearly draws a correlation between the condition of school buildings
and the student learning that goes on in those buildings. Recognizing
the sorry state of many of America's schools -- along with a growing student
population and the need to make room for new technology -- many cities
and towns are taking long-overdue action. This week, experts Joe Agron
and Paul Abramson share with Education World readers their observations
and predictions about the current building boom in America's schools.
Included: On-line resources to help educators make
a case for school construction or renovation.
The condition of school buildings across the country has been a hot issue
among educators for several years -- but now the fire is spreading! In
a survey
conducted last fall by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE),
"the condition and capacity of school buildings" was selected as the number
one infrastructure concern of all Americans. In that survey, the
sorry condition of our schools outpolled concerns over the condition of
our roads and bridges, over water quality, and over traffic congestion.
The growing concern over the deplorable condition of our schools can
be seen in town after town and city after city. The United States is in
the midst of a school building boom!
AN AGING INFRASTRUCTURE
"The dreadful state of too many of our aging public schools" is one
of the primary reasons for the school building boom we're experiencing,
said Paul Abramson, who produces an annual School
Construction Report for School
Planning & Management magazine. "Schools that were built during the
baby boom period were built when the idea was to get them up cheap and
fast," Abramson told Education World. That may explain why about a quarter
of the $15 billion spent last year on school construction was spent on
renovating, upgrading, and modernizing existing buildings; another $4
billion was spent on additions to standing buildings.
"Districts overall have an easier time securing funding for modernization,
retrofit, and additions than for totally new construction, which typically
is much more expensive," says Joe Agron, editor of American
School and University, which recently published its 25th annual Education
Construction Study.
"You probably are familiar with the U.S. General Accounting Office's
estimate that $112 billion is immediately needed just to get America's
schools into a condition where students can enter them safely," Agron
told Education World. "That estimate -- which the GAO admits was very
conservative -- was made in 1995, and the problem has grown exponentially.
This is requiring schools to spend tremendous sums to repair and upgrade
existing facilities."
HOW OLD ARE OUR SCHOOLS?
Schools are aging all across the United States. According to statistics
from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Education
Statistics,
the average age of public school buildings in the United States is
42 years.
almost half (45 percent) of U.S. public schools were built between
1950 and 1969.
73 percent of school buildings reported having had at least one major
renovation.
of schools built in 1985 or later, 59 percent were connected to the
Internet in 1995, whereas 42 percent were connected among schools built
before 1969 and renovated before 1980 (or never renovated).
Studies support the need for school buildings that are in good repair.
In 1996, an often-referenced study by Dr. Glenn Eartham of Virginia Polytechnic
and State University compared student test scores in buildings that were
"above standard" and "substandard." His study documented a relationship
between student learning and building condition. Other studies point to
the benefits of technology on student learning; but many schools are pressed
for space to provide students with access to that technology.
TECHNOLOGY IS PUTTING DEMANDS ON SPACE
After the aging infrastructure and the growing student population, experts
say technology and new programs are probably the third major cause of
the current building boom.
"Schools today are being asked to accommodate much more than they ever
did before," Joe Agron told Education World. "If you put a computer and
a workstation in a classroom, you displace a child. Multiply that by the
number of computers in classrooms and you have a need for more space.
"Unlike schools built as late as the 1970s, districts must now plan
on including additional spaces in their facilities -- such as computer
labs, media centers, gifted classrooms, special-education rooms, pre-K
classrooms, and the list goes on," adds Agron. "All of this requires space."
"The typical elementary school in 1970 provided 70 square feet per student,"
says Paul Abramson. "Today it's 110 square feet per student. Rooms of
less than 900 square feet simply cannot properly support elementary school
programs."
"There's no obvious end in sight to the growth in school construction,"
adds Abramson. "As a mater of fact, with the student population bulge
moving into the upper grades -- the more expensive upper grades
-- of middle and high school, spending is likely to increase. I would
expect it to go up about a billion dollars a year for at least the next
five years assuming the economy stays strong and the political climate
remains pro-education."
MAKING A CASE FOR SCHOOL REPAIRS
While the ASCE study indicates that the condition of our schools is
a major concern of Americans, that doesn't mean repairing those school
is an easy sell in every community. For example, voters in Decatur, Illinois,
recently defeated a referendum that would have helped bring schools there
up to standards. Soon after the referendum was defeated, Decatur's Roosevelt
High School made news headlines when a 20-foot chunk of ceiling tiles,
two light fixtures, and a support beam fell down a stairwell.
"[That] basically underscores that we need to renovate our buildings
or build new," Decatur school superintendent Kenneth Arndt told Leadership
News. (See In
School Construction, A Tale of Two Cities, published in June by the
American Association of School Administrators.)
INTERNET RESOURCES
For educators -- like those in Decatur -- for whom "selling" even the
most necessary of repairs is an uphill battle, the Internet has many resources
to offer. Among the tools that might be of help include:
Education
Week's School Construction Page This Education Week resource includes
links to their latest stories related to school construction and to
additional resources from the U.S. Department of Education.
School
Construction and Design From the U.S. Department of Education, updates
on legislation related to school construction and information on existing
federal support for modernization and innovative school designs.
Creativity
and Aesthetics at Silver Oak Elementary This piece from PBS columnist
David Thornburg explores one school's successful experiment with a creative,
constructivist physical classroom environment.
Next week, Education World tells the story of a special Adopt-a-School
program that got the entire city of Detroit involved in an $80 million
summer building repair program. See Detroit School Repair Program:
A Model for Others next week in Education World.
School
Building Boom: BUILD Before the Schools Go BOOM!