Evidence Study

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Introduction

The question can be asked in many ways:

 Do educational facilities support education?

 Is it there a relationship between the quality of an education facility and its student
outcomes?

 Is it possible that a bad physical environment could hinder learning, deter teachers
and upset communities?

 Could the investments in “quality” and the investment in “bricks” be complementary
of each other?

These questions have been answered affirmatively quite some time ago by scholars and
research institutes in North America and Western Europe. Moreover, client countries of
large lending institutions continue to call for the need to increase the reach and quality of
their education systems by building, expanding and renovating their school buildings. They
have no question in their minds that curriculum reform, teacher training and accountability
systems, need to be accompanied by important capital investments to support them. The
questions that these client countries ask are:

 How can we expect students to concentrate in learning when the roofs are leaking,
the windows are broken, bathrooms and kitchens are unsanitary?

 What incentives can we give to good teachers to relocate to faraway rural areas?

 Why public schools in wealthy areas have science laboratories, libraries,
connections to the internet, sport facilities, and they don’t in poor areas?

In fact, the authors of this study are interested in generating in the readers one question by
the end of the last chapter, which is: How can we create more, better and more
sustainable learning environments?

Having worked in the subject matter for many years, we know that it is not easy, it is not
cheap and there is no magic formula that provides perfect solutions all the time, under
every set of circumstances. Even though four walls and a roof are better than nothing, the
demands of a XXI century education require more thoughtful solutions that would make
buildings-furniture- equipment valuable teaching tools at the disposal of the education
effort.

Through this study, we will present some of the intimate relations between teaching,
learning and built environment. We will show a cause and effect relationship between a
safe, educationally appropriate, attractive and stimulating school building and how student
teachers and communities engage and maximize their potential. However, we are fully
aware that the building by itself can’t educate alone. The most beautiful, functional and
solid building by its own merits, should not be expected to be the only or even the most
important factor in education. There is still a very important role for a well-qualified teacher,
with a good lesson plan, working within a school system where there is accountability and

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rewards for high performance. In summary, investment in education should consider both
ends in an harmonic way.

Most of World Bank projects are geared to make education better, to each more potential
students and to be more meaningful to individuals and society. The following chapters will
try to demonstrate how capital investment can support and leverage educational efforts.

Research method

The answer to the question: what evidence is there about the impact of school buildings on
student achievement will be sought through bibliography review. There is a large number
of books, expert papers, presentations at conferences and research studies that will be
studied in their entirety, looking for compelling evidence about each and every factor in the
physical environment which affect the educational process.

Some of the factors to be studied will be: the very existence of a needed school building in
a particular location; its environmental characteristics (light, sound, air quality); health and
safety concerns; dimensions and functional characteristics; and compliance with local
regulations and World Bank safeguards.

Sources will be vetted for credibility and quoted only when concurrence of opinions is
found. Even though we know a priori that most of the research on the subject has been
done in Western Europe and North America, we will make an effort to find further
validation in documents produced in other parts of the world.

School size, classroom size, location

School planners have always wrestled with of the idea of creating a school or a school
system -with buildings in different locations- that could solve all education problems.
Although not impossible, it requires a very clear vision on what the expectations are, what
the current situation is, and what is the best possible path to fulfill such expectations. From
the facilities point of view, it is always necessary to have some common quantitative
denominators or parameters that will allow planners to detect anomalies in the system and
designers to come up solutions that meet current and long-term needs. Some of the most
important parameters are school size and classroom size.

There are two dimensions to school size:

 Capacity: which is the simple count of seats available in a standard common
classroom multiplied by the number of classrooms, multiplied by the shifts on which
the school is operational.

 Utilization: which reflects the time measured in weekly class hours, that a specific
room is utilized divided by the number of hours a week that such room is used. It
could be a different value for regular classrooms, laboratories, physical education
facilities, etc. And certainly different by educational level.

Teacher’s involvement, the use of technology, education program, plus building layout and
constraints, will determine the number of seats in a classroom. Usually students in
kindergarten and the lower grades have a “home” classroom where the same group of
students will have most of their activities. If they go for music, art class or outside learning,

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they will always return to their “home” classrooms. In higher grades, usually 9 grade and
above, students may rotate between a classroom, science laboratories, art workshops,
library, sport fields, etc. In this case, different groups of students will use classrooms as
they use laboratories or music rooms on a fixed schedule. By virtue of this rotation, the
school utilization becomes higher than when each group of students has their own
dedicated classroom. This room management plan could help to alleviate overcrowding
situations in some schools, and have an impact on quality by allowing a better student
teacher ratio.

Each country and in some cases each province or district has their own parameters that
are used in planning. This information is presented in codes or standards that apply to all
government sponsored school construction.

In recent years with the advent of a higher use of technology based content, students can
spend several periods of out of the classroom. They can learn at their own pace in
purposely designed break out spaces, outside learning areas or even in corridors, stair
cases, cafeterias, etc. Flexibility and adaptability in the design of formal and informal
learning spaces, not only provides students with a more diverse cadre of knowledge
acquisition opportunities, stimulus and experiences, but also the development of non-
cognitive skills. In some cases, when space permits, proper arrangement of furniture and
equipment could also lead to collaboration, team work and other interpersonal skills.
Quality of education is enhanced by proper planning, design and school operation
patterns.

For years in the USA the size of schools was mostly conditioned by an arguable concept
of economics that considered that the larger the school, the lower the cost per student. An
influential book written in 1959 by James Bryant Conant1, President of Harvard University
calls small high school America’s number one education problem and many very large
high schools were build based on the findings of that book. However, there is plenty of
more recent evidence that small school size and small classroom size, yield better
academic results. The landmark document “Dollars and Sense: The Cost Effectiveness of
Small Schools”2 using data drawn from 489 schools submitted to design competitions in
1990-2001, concludes that small schools can be built and operated cost effectively by a
broad variety of measures.

The same study also mentions that small schools are not effective solely by virtue of being
small. Rather, small schools work best when they take advantage of being small. The best
small schools offer an environment where teachers, students and parents see themselves
as part of a community and deal with issues of learning, diversity, governance and building
community on an intimate level.

The most common drawbacks of larger schools are found to be:

 Increased transportation costs,

1 James Bryant Conant, The American High School Today. Published: New York, McGraw-Hill.
1959
2 Dollars and Sense: The Cost Effectiveness of Small Schools Bingler, Steven; Diamond, Barbara
M.; Hill, Bobbie; Hoffman, Jerry L.; Howley, Craig B.; Lawrence, Barbara Kent; Mitchell, Stacy;
Rudolph, David; Washor, Elliot. Published by Concordia and KnowledgeWorks Foundation. 2002.

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 Higher administrative overhead,
 Lower graduation rates,
 Higher absenteeism,
 Higher rates of vandalism,
 Lower teacher satisfaction.

In 2001 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored an evaluation3 of their initiative
of re-defining American high school, that provided grants to small schools in New York
City. The main objective of these small schools, was to better prepare low-income, African-
American and Hispanic youth for higher education and the work place. The evaluators
found that students in these schools have more positive attitudes; they feel more
supported by their teachers and they are more interested in their school work than
students in more conventional schools. They also have a 60% higher attendance rate than
average and students reported plans to not only graduate from high school but to apply to
college at higher rates than students in other schools.

In Finland, which has one of the highest education scores in the world, school size in
average is 195 students, and classroom size is 19 students4. The Ministry of Education5
current thinking is that the potential of each student should be maximized by providing
strong education guidance and small groups of students doubling their efforts to learn
together. This policy allows for a closer relationship between teacher and students,
students and students and between community and school with a stronger commitment to
education.

According to the Tennessee STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Research)6 completed
between 1985-1989, random students from kindergarten to third grade were placed in
classes, some with small classes and some with large classes. The students in smaller
classes, 13 to 17 students, performed .015 to .020 or about 5% higher on standardized
tests in both math and reading. This was particularly significant for students from
kindergarten to third grade and those benefits were carried on higher grades.

Using a slightly different methodology a study published by the Los Angeles Unifies School
District7 indicates that other things being equal, trends in the data support the hypothesis
that longer exposure to smaller classes, results in higher achievement in reading and
language. In general, larger gains were observed in mathematics, except for students with
limited English proficiency.

California’s Classroom Size Reduction Initiative of 1990, a state-wide effort to reduce
classroom size, has been reviewed by many authors. In 2005 Faith Unlu from Princeton
University8 produces a study using data from the National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP), which contains comparable test scores prior to the program and

3 evaluation of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s High School Grants Initiative 2001 - 2005
Final Report
4 Finnish National Board of Education, Compulsory education in Finland. 2016.
5 Education in Finland. Ministry of Education. 2012.
6 Class size: Project STAR. Jeremy Finn and Alan Krueger. American Youth Policy Forum
7 THE IMPACT OF CLASS SIZE REDUCTION ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT. Penny Fidler. 2001
8 California Class Size Reduction Reform: New Findings from the NAEP. Faith Unlu. Princeton
University. 2005.

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afterwards for California and other states. Using a larger set of data Unlu concludes that
the results are consistent with the view that the classroom size reduction program has had
a positive and significant influence on California students’ achievement scores. In
particular, most specifications suggest that between 1996 and 2000, California 4th
graders’ NAEP test scores in mathematics increased by between 0.2 and 0.3 of a standard
deviation compared to the increase for closely matched students who were not exposed to
the CSR initiative.

Not every school could be designed anew or undergo a total renovation at an acceptable
price. Yet, classroom design, furniture selection and lay out could yield very positive
results. It is every teacher’s concern to keep their students engaged, motivated and eager
to learn and whenever possible the traditional rows and columns are broken to allow for
better communication and interest. Even though we have seen the prevalence of these
arrangements, there are not known studies that indicate any benefit at the K-12 level.
However, there is a study9 done recently in four US universities using an instrument call
Active Learning Post Occupancy Evaluation Tool. The majority of students surveyed rated
nontraditional classroom design better on each of the following 12 factors:

 Collaboration
 Focus
 Active involvement
 Opportunity to engage
 Repeated exposure to material through multiple means
 In-class feedback
 Real-life scenarios
 Ability to engage ways of learning best
 Physical movement
 Stimulation
 Feeling comfortable to participate
 Creation of an enriching experience

Scholar Kathleen Cotton10 indicates that although there is no consensus on the dividing
line between small and large schools, most researchers suggest that a size of 400 to 800
students is the appropriate range for a high school, and many prefer schools no larger
than 400 or 500. These conditions create an environment that contributes to positive
student outcomes: higher student achievement, improved attendance and graduation
rates, and reduced violence and disruptive behavior.

What many researchers agree on, is that overcrowding conditions hinder student
performance. Data from the New York Board of Education11 with surveys of 213 teachers
and 599 students, indicates negative attitudes toward school crowding such as overwhelm,
discouragement, and often disgust. Both students and teachers feel deeply affected by

9 How Classroom Design Affects Engagement. Lennie Scott-Webber, Aileen Stickland, Laura Ring
Kapitula.
10 Kathleen Cotton, “School Size, School Climate, and Student Performance” Publish by the
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) 1996
11 A School System at Risk: A Study of the Consequences of Overcrowding in New York City Public
Schools. Rivera-Batiz, Francisco L.; Marti, Lilian. Columbia University. New York. 1995.

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overcrowding, with many considering it the most serious issue facing the schools. The
study also found that the impact is particularly strong in schools that have a high
proportion of students of low socioeconomic background, where overcrowding is sharply
linked to lower achievement.

Reinforcing the findings shown above, in an experimental setting12, it has also been
demonstrated that uncomfortable environmental conditions such as high temperatures,
high noise levels, crowding, and the like contribute to interpersonal dislike, hostility, and
even violence, to the extent that such environments evoke negative feelings.

On a purely numeric outlook, classroom and school size are important elements of the
facility planning process on the supply site. When contrasted with demand, will indicate a
deficit or surplus of available seats in a given planning area. The divergence between the
need and the availability will be the basis to determine specific interventions or programs
to be carried out. Some of the most common are:

Type of intervention or program Development objective
New school creation To alleviate overcrowding
More seats. Updated facilities. To increase enrollment
To provide equity
Old school replacement To improve quality of education
Updated facilities To provide a better learning environment
To provide equity
Major renovation To reduce operating costs
Updated facilities To improve quality of education
To provide a better learning environment
School addition To provide equity
More seats. Updated facilities To reduce operating costs
To improve quality of education
Technology and furniture makeover To provide a better learning environment
Updated facilities To alleviate overcrowding
Sustainability makeover To increase enrollment
Updated facilities To improve quality of education
Regular maintenance To provide a better learning environment
Savings in operation costs
To provide a better learning environment
School closure To reduce operating costs
Savings in operation costs
To improve quality of education
To provide a better learning environment
To reduce operating costs
To improve quality of education
To provide a better learning environment
To reduce operating costs

School size, the mere accessibility of a school service and the availability of the above
mentioned programs are at the core of the issue of equity. According to the Center for

12 Hot and crowded: influences of population density and temperature on interpersonal affective
behavior. Grlffltt W & Vehch R. Kansas State University. 1971.

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Public Education13, equity is achieved when all students receive the resources they need
so they graduate prepared for success after high school. Whether the goal is high school
graduation, university success or just to finish elementary school, the emphasis should be
in an equal distribution of the resources that students need to achieve their goals including
an adequate school facility.

One of the basic principles of the education system in Finland is that all people must have
equal access to high education and training14. Such mandate is found in the legislation of
pretty much every country, but rarely fully realized.

Achieving equity means that all schools should be safe from natural disasters or any other
outside concerns, have all the spaces, furniture and equipment needed to deliver the
curriculum in an effective way. Conversely, in regard to facilities, inequity means lack or
insufficient bathroom facilities, adequate separation between boys and girls, long or
dangerous walking distances to school, or as also mentioned by Kathleen Cotton15, the
fact that many times poor students and those of racial and ethnic minorities have to attend
larger schools than other students.

Another shameful form of inequity, is the discrimination of students with disabilities. Lack
of ramps, inadequate bathroom facilities, poor signage and specialized teacher support,
constitute a commonly overlook problem around the world. This relatively easy problem to
solve with adequate facilities leads to segregation and academic difficulties

Unequal distribution of educational resources creates sentiments of frustration, resentment
and in many cases school abandonment. On the other hand, adequate facilities could
have a definitive role in assuring equity, increasing enrollment and fostering student
retention. World Bank professionals16 concluded in a study that in Peru, building and
renovating school facilities had a positive effect on attendance rates.

All the particular elements described above should be discussed as part of a Facilities
Master Planning process that will deepen in the understanding of challenges and
possibilities to establish priorities for the allocation of funds. And as Mary Filardo17
indicates, this should be done with criteria explicitly stated and developed with public input.

To conclude, there are many instances in which educational facilities can contribute to
support education. Once identified and taken into consideration into the planning and
design process, many improvements could be made to the learning environment.
However, as stated in a 2005 study produced by the Design Council18, the impact of
changes in the physical environment on cognitive and affective measures must be based

13 Educational Equity. How to achieve it? Center for Public Education, 2016
14 Powerhouse: Insider Accounts into the World's Top High-performance Organizations
By Brian MacNeice, James Bowen
15 Kathleen Cotton, “School Size, School Climate, and Student Performance” Publish by the
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) 1996

16 Do School Facilities Matter? The Case of the Peruvian Social Fund (FONCODES). Norbert
Schady and Christina Paxson. World Bank. 1999.
17 Mary Filardo. PK-12 Education Facilities Master Plan Evaluation Guide. 21st Century School
Fund.
18 Steve Higgins, Elaine Hall, Kate Wall, Pam Woolner, Carloline McCaughey. From the Centre for
Learning and Teaching of the University of Newcastle. 2005.

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on an understanding of the complexity of schools. Schools are systems in which the
environment is just one of many interacting pedagogical, socio-cultural, curricular,
motivational and socio-economic factors. Clearly this is not a simple matter of architectural
determinism and even though an important factor, school size and classroom size are not
the only determinants of student success.

Some researchers19 though, believe that school districts would do better to hire fewer
teachers with better credentials than to hire more teachers without regard to the level of
credentials and experience. They argue that it is the quality of the teacher, rather than the
size of the class, that drives student achievement. Along these lines, not less important is
the effectiveness of the school system. When school and class size are appropriate and
teacher qualifications are good, it is still possible to have student failure due to outdated or
inappropriate curriculum, lack of accountability, substandard school environment or many
other reasons.

Health, safety, age

As many of our grandmothers will say, “the most important thing is being healthy” This is
particularly true in a school setting where the education process relies heavily on the
presence and the wellbeing of students and teachers. A child or a teacher that is sick or
has their capabilities diminished by environmental conditions, is much less capable of a
productive engagement in educational activities. McDaniel’s College scholar Tom Zirpoli20
indicates that when children misbehave or don’t embrace their responsibilities, parents and
caregivers frequently focus on assessing and identifying what may be wrong with the child.
Both teachers and parents look for quick and easy answers to questions regarding
children's inappropriate behavior. Blame-the-victim syndrome places too great an
emphasis on how to "fix" children; instead, greater emphasis should be placed on
improving the quality of children's environments.

Even though the notions that good health and a safe environment, are important for
student achievement could be considered self-evident, there are several studies and
reports to back up such assertion. Among others, the two main documents that summarize
and encompass other important studies are:

 Do School Facilities Affect Academic Outcomes? By Mark Schneider. Publish in
2002 by the National Clearing house for Educational Facilities.

 The Impact of School Environments: A Literature Review. Produced in 2005 by the
Design Council. University of Newcastle.

Glen I. Earthman21, one of the most prolific and quoted authors on the link between school
condition and the age of a facility with student achievement, describes inadequate schools
as “poor” schools. He characterizes a poor school as the one that does not have the
adequate conditions of ventilation and temperature, lighting, acoustics, functional furniture
or some variation or combination of these qualities. He further indicates that in his

19 Martin West and Ludger Woessmann. Crowd Control. Education Next. 2003.
20 Behavioral Management. Thomas Zirpoli. McDamiel College. 2008.

21 PRIORITIZATION OF 31 CRITERIA FOR SCHOOL BUILDING ADEQUACY. Glen I.
Earthman. ACLU Maryland. Baltimore. 2004

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research, students in poor buildings scored between 5 to10 percentile rank points lower
than students in functional buildings, after controlling for socioeconomic status.

There are plenty of additional studies referring to the value of healthy environmental
conditions for learning and teaching. Richard Shaughnessey22, director of the Indoor Air
Program at the University of Tulsa, studied the impact of ventilation on achievement in
fifth-grade classrooms in 54 elementary schools. Test scores in both reading and math
suffered in classrooms with the poorest ventilation, while scores in better ventilated rooms
were higher. Similarly, a study of 409 classrooms in Idaho and Washington23 found that
student absences jumped by 10 percent to 20 percent in rooms with poor ventilation.

Also, researchers in Denmark24 took one fourth-grade classroom with typical ventilation
(about half the ASHRAE25 standard) and gave the students math, reading and reasoning
assignments. In another classroom, children were assigned the same tasks, but the
ventilation was increased to just over the ASHRAE standard. After a week, the conditions
were reversed in both classrooms, so the same children were tested under both
conditions. In classrooms with increased ventilation, children’s test scores were higher: 14
percent higher in addition; 15 percent in multiplication; and 14 percent in subtraction and
numbers comparison.

In close environment settings, respiratory problems seem to be the main cause of
absenteeism. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 10
million days of schooling are lost each year by students because of asthma attacks26.
Additionally, a study sponsored by the Center of Control Diseases in New York27, shows
that moisture and dampness can support mold growth and the proliferation of dust mites,
which may produce allergic respiratory symptoms, and dampness can adversely affect
respiratory health by aggravating allergy symptoms or promoting infections. Poor
ventilation may allow an accumulation of particulates, pollutants, and allergens inside
school buildings and decreased air circulation may increase transmission of respiratory
infections.

Poor lighting is also a health concern with students’ performance consequences. In a 1999
a study on daylighting in more than 2,000 classrooms in California, Colorado and
Washington, conducted by the Heschong Mahone Group28, showed that students with the
most daylighting in their classrooms learned about 21 percent faster that students in rooms
with the least amount of daylight. In schools in Capistrano, California, these researchers

22 R. Shaughnessy et al. “A preliminary study on the association between ventilation rates in
classrooms and student performance,” Indoor Air 16, no. 6. May 2006
23 D.G. Shendell et al. “Associations between classroom CO2 concentrations and student
attendance in Washington and Idaho,” Indoor Air 14, no. 5. October 2004.
24 P. Wargocki and D.P. Wyon, “The effect of moderately raised classroom temperatures and
classroom ventilation rate on the performance of schoolwork by children,” HVAC&R Research 13,
no. 2. 2007
25 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers
26 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, IAQ Tools for Schools: Managing Asthma in the School
Environment. Washington, D.C., 2000
27 The Impact of School Building Conditions on Student Absenteeism in Upstate New York. Elionor
Simons and others. 2010. Publish by the National Library of Medicine. National Institutes of Health.
28 . Heschong Mahone Group Inc., Windows and Classrooms: A Study of Student Performance and
the Indoor Environment, for the California Energy Commission, October 2003.

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also discovered that students with the largest window areas progressed 15 percent faster
in math and 23 percent faster in reading, compared with those having smaller windows or
none at all. Subsequent follow-up studies have verified or expanded these results. “We
were especially surprised by the strong statistical association between better views and
better performance,” says lead researcher Lisa Heschong. “Many of the reasons that had
been put forward for eliminating windows had to do with construction costs, operating
costs, security, privacy, distractions. Now, we know that the benefits most likely outweigh
the disadvantages. Staff and children are happier, healthier and have better cognitive
function. And that is the main purpose of the building, right?”

A California study found that 3rd grade students in noisy buildings were 4 years behind in
reading and 2 years behind in math. Sixth grade students in noisy buildings were 7 years
behind in reading compared to students in non noisy buildings.

The Department of Health Services of the State of California29 conducted a rather
extensive study on the effects of noise on academic achievement and behavior. Students
in grades 3 and 6 in schools that were near highways and expressways were compared
with similar students in schools in quiet neighborhoods on the California Test of Basic
Skills. Eighty-one classrooms in 15 identified schools were included in the study and
economic, racial and language differences were controlled by matched pairings of schools.
Measures of community noise and classroom noise were taken throughout the study
period with at least 267 daily observations in the school classrooms. The results showed
that the mean grade equivalent achievement scores of all students in socio-economically
matched noisy and quiet schools were compared. The third grade students in noisy
schools were 0.4 years behind students in quiet schools in reading and 0.2 years behind in
mathematics. For the sixth graders, students in the noisy schools were 0.7 years behind
in reading. Sixth grade students in the noisy schools scored 0.2 years ahead of students
in the quiet schools. Researchers attributed the mathematics score as an anomaly
resulting from the high performance of students in one school.

A worldwide estimation shows that each year, children lose 443 million school days
because of water related illnesses,30 of which 272 million are lost due to diarrhea alone.31
More than 40 percent of diarrhea cases in schoolchildren result from transmission in
schools rather than homes. In addition, 1400 children die every day before they even
reach the age of 532.

Closely related with health and safety concerns is the fact that many schools don’t have
basic services like electricity, potable water, sanitary drains, telephone or proper ways to
dispose garbage and waste. Research done in Latin America33 shows that the lack of

29 Effects of noise on academic achievement and classroom behavior. Report No.
FHWA/CA/DOHS-81/01. California. DOHS, 1981
30 UNDP. Raising Clean Hands: Advancing Learning, Health and Participation through WASH in
Schools. Human Development Report; Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis.
2006.
31 Hutton, G. & Haller, L. Evaluation of the Costs and Benefits of Water and Sanitation
Improvements at the Global Level. WHO, Geneva. 2004.
32 WHO/UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. 2010.
33 Infraestructura escolar y aprendizajes en la educación básica latinoamericana. Jesus Duarte,
Carlos Gargiulo, Martin Moreno. IDB. Washington. 2011.

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these services is highly related to the chances of learning, violence and discrimination.
The study points out that investment in school infrastructure and the physical conditions for
learning is not a luxury but a need.

Additional facts, based on research studies, can be found on Appendix 1.

When well managed, environmental conditions can have a positive effect on students’
performance and wellbeing? It is surprising to see how often times, students don’t mind to
go and play in extreme cold and hot conditions. Several authors34 35coincide on the need
of recreational and physical education activities to provide balance to more intellectual
school work. Play impacts hugely on almost every developmental aspect of children’s lives
holistically and with multifaceted ways allowing for children to play every day on their own
initiative. In Latin American countries 35% of students don’t have any space for sports with
serious consequences in learning outcomes.

In urban areas, where land is scarce and green areas are in short supply, vertical gardens
and “Eco-trees” in courtyards could also provide shade, natural cooling and pleasant
views. Besides, they provide an opportunity to students to explore the practical benefits of
learning to look after plants by seeing first-hand how they grow, are harvested, and
recycled. Botanic, physics, chemistry, biology and other lessons could be held using
outside facilities.

Safety concerns affecting learning could come from outside and inside of schools. It is
easy to imagine how distractive it could be to students, teachers and parents to have
unsafe learning environments. Situations where it is known that the structural system will
not resist the next earthquake, where electrical wiring is exposed, where window glass is
broken or bathrooms are source of contamination rather than a sanitary place. In a school
building that is prone to be flooded by intensive rains, sweep away by high winds or just
exposed to accelerated decay for lack of maintenance, educational activities are
diminished and it is hard to expect the same academic results that are possible in a safe
and healthy building.

When Glen Earthman36 was asked about the most important elements that would be
related to health and safety? He mentioned: potable water, fire safety, adequate lavatories,
security systems, and a good communication system to use in emergencies.

Teachers are not immune to health and safety concerns. Researches37 from several
lending institutions and universities made unannounced visits to primary schools in

34 School playground: Its impact on children’s learning and development. Shahidullah Sharif,
Institute of Educational Development, BRAC University. 2014.
35 Infraestructura Escolar y Aprendizajes en la Educación Básica Latinoamericana: Un análisis a
partir del SERCE. Jesus Duarte, Carlos Gargiulo, Martin Moresno. BID. 2011.
36 PRIORITIZATION OF 31 CRITERIA FOR SCHOOL BUILDING ADEQUACY. Glen Earthman.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Blacksburg. 2004
37 Missing in Action: Teacher and Health Worker Absence in Developing Countries. Nazmul
Chaudhury is Economist, South Asia Human Development, World Bank, Washington, D.C. Jeffrey
Hammer is Lead Economist, South Asia Social Development, World Bank, New Delhi, India.
Michael Kremer is Gates Professor of Developing Societies, Harvard University, Cambridge,
Massachusetts. Karthik Muralidharan is a graduate student in economics, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts. F. Halsey Rogers is Senior Economist, Development Research Group,
World Bank, Washington, D.C. Published by the Jurnal of Economic Perspectives. 2006

Page 13 of 20

Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru and Uganda and recorded whether they
found teachers in the facilities to find that about 19% of teachers were absent. To try to
understand this phenomenon they constructed an index measuring the quality of the
school’s infrastructure that included the availability of a toilet, covered classrooms, non-dirt
floors, electricity and a school library. The analysis for the sample as a whole suggests
that moving from a school with the lowest infrastructure index score to one with the highest
(that is, from a score of zero to five) is associated with a 10% reduction in teacher
absence.

In the view of the American Federation of Teachers38, conventional school construction
often falls short: Teachers, staff and students inherit buildings with leaking roofs,
inadequate ventilation and other nightmares. They go on to say that for two decades, they
have been documenting the high cost of deteriorating schools. Students, teachers and
staff pay the price for these deplorable building conditions in the form of lower educational
achievement, lost income and health problems. The breakdown of America’s education
infrastructure exacts a heavy toll not only on those who spend their days inside school
walls, but also on the environment in general. Until recently, few comprehensive standards
had been developed to guarantee that schools are built well.

Another important factor brought up in Earthman’s research that needs to be considered
when discussing the relationship between student achievement and building condition, is
the inequity of school facilities. Most of the older school buildings and those buildings in
poor condition are located in areas of greatest poverty in each school district, either in the
urban or rural areas. Students from poverty areas, as a general rule, perform less well
than students from more affluent areas. When low-income students attend school in a
building that does not have the basic elements such as safety and health as well as those
elements that have been proven to relate directly to student performance, they are doubly
disadvantaged. In addition to the effect that poor and old facilities have on student
achievement, failure to improve a demonstrably old and failing facility may convey a
message to such students that the system values them less than it does their counterparts
in more affluent areas.

As education does not happen in a vacuum, school buildings are deeply rooted in the
communities they serve by interacting with the social and built environment around each
school. In most communities, school buildings are the most prominent public building, the
center of many civic activities, social and sports life, in addition to cultural and educational
activities. Also, in many cases school buildings are the largest capital asset in a residential
neighborhood. In an Economic Policy Institute Briefing, Mary Filardo39 points out that the
key to the economic prosperity of our communities and nation used to be our public
schools. Filardo noted that responsible management and investment in our school
buildings paid off three times: in skilled jobs in local communities, in the quality that
healthy, safe, and educationally appropriate buildings created for students and teachers,
and in the benefits that quality education reaped for generations to come.

38 Building Minds Minding Buildings, American Federation of Teachers. 2008.
39 Good Buildings, Better Schools. Mary Filardo, Economic Policy Institute. Washington DC. 2008.

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School facilities as a component of an education
improvement program

The two most common objectives of educational improvement programs are to expand
access and to elevate quality. Equity, completion, efficiency, purpose, and accountability
are also important goals that most of the time and imbedded into the main two. Underlying
all these objectives is improving governance, as a way to assure that all ideas could be
implemented within given conditions.

The attainment of each and all of these objectives can be benefited or hindered by the built
environment. Likewise, the availability, characteristics and condition of educational
facilities bares heavily on the possibility of fully obtaining the above mentioned goals. More
than a century ago Maria Montesori40 stressed the importance of senses in the learning
process. When the school building that is presented to students looks ugly, dirty, in a
depleted natural environment, with broken glass and falling plaster, a lesson is presented
to them. A lesson that indicates the value that their institutions place on them and their
future. This bleak scenario is aggravated when comparison is evident between different
schools in not too distant locations, and social resentment brews with negative
consequences at a much larger scale.

At the time of drafting an educational improvement program, it is very important to
understand the implications of the binary relationship between those who understand
educational needs and those who can provide built solutions. How one can positively
influence the other and make the whole better. It is also critical that educators,
administrators and facility planners, develop a common language and understanding of
different options, their cost and long term benefits. It is interesting to note that Harvard
Graduate School of Education is currently teaching a course41 called: Learning
Environments for Tomorrow: Next Practices for Educators and Architects. As explain in
prior chapters, in the 90’s and 2000’s there were many studies about the relationship
between student achievement and build environment, and it is refreshing to see now that a
mayor university is betting on the value of educator and architects working together.

The need for client and service provider to work together is especially necessary in the
early stages of a project or program when ideas are still fresh and the physical form is not
well defined yet. Often times the process starts with a strong vision statement like: “Every
School provides a world-class education…42” or “…. Los Angeles Unified School District
believes in the equal worth and dignity of all students and is committed to educate all
students to their maximum potential.43” These are very powerful ideas that will lead all the
later decisions to be made from planning to design, to construction and operations to
maintenance. At the same time, they guide curriculum updates, teacher training plans,
technology use strategies, and even the layout of furniture in classrooms and the
composition of the whole school building to the entire school network if that were the case.
Facility planers, architects and engineers will have to understand very well where

40 The Montesori Method. Maria Montesori. Transaction Publishers. 2013.
41 Please see website: https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ppe/program/learning-environments-tomorrow-
next-practices-educators-and-architects
42 District of Columbia Public Schools
43 Los Angeles Unified School District

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education wants to be, in order to make specific decisions about simple but important
issues like: the use of daylight, the quality of the tiles in the bathrooms, the electrical and
data distribution network, and so on.

Objective: Improve access

This objective, intends that every member of a particular age group has the opportunity of
attending school. It is an universal concept and includes:

a. All genders
b. Persons with disabilities
c. Urban, rural and marginal area populations
d. Populations in transition
e. Working children and youngsters

School facilities play an important role when the objective is to improve access. The most
straight forward option is to create additional seats by expanding existing schools or
creating new ones. This is usually the most expensive option and often time is limited to
the availability of suitable sites, especially in dense urban settings. However, when there is
an unsatisfied demand, every possible effort should be made to accommodate these
potential students. A less expensive option is, when possible, is to create more seats by
re-arranging the internal distribution of a school that may have excess of space. Also,
operational arrangements could yield a great benefit: like doubling the shifts of operation
and/or to provide year around services. When and where there is explosive enrollment
pressure, the use or relocatable classrooms is also a viable temporary solution. In all these
cases, the dialogue and combined effort between educators and architects is absolutely
necessary in evaluation all options and deciding on the best course of action.

The improved access objective is usually combined with obtaining equity in to the supply
side of educational facilities. To achieve equity could be a difficult issue to sort out and
again it has to be the subject of discussion between educational planners and facility
planners. The fact that for instance, a high school has a swimming pool, does not mean
that all high schools must have swimming pools. In most jurisdictions, having a decent
place to comply with the physical education requirements is enough. In general, issues
related to equity are clearly legislated as for instance, the need of every school building to
provide access to students, teachers, and community members with disabilities.
Unfortunately, the fact that there is specific legislation on persons with disabilities and
other critical building related issues, does not mean that it is universally enforced which
aggravates inequity.

Rural areas with low density population and difficult access, present a particular challenge
that needs to be resolved at micro-planning level, looking specially for an efficient
operation of the system. The creation or the even existence of a school building is only
part of the solution, that has to be combined with transportation services or dormitories to
make sure there in an equitable access to educational services. The decision of closing a
school is always hard, but it has to be made in the context of a long term benefit to the
system and to the region where such school is located. The improved quality of distance
learning systems, and the possibilities brought by alternate scheduling, offer diverse ways
to manage and operate the infrastructure of those areas.

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Objective: Improve quality

High or low quality are relative terms that have to be compared to an acceptable standard
to have real meaning. In terms of educational facilities, a standard building is the one that
meets all the standard requirements contained in building codes, and expressed intentions
of the educational authorities. A high quality building is the one that even meeting the
minimum standards carries additional values: creativity, a very good integration with the
cultural and natural environment and or a strong collaborative process of design, etc. By
contrast, a low quality building is the one that does not meet the codes, but also is short of
providing the necessary support for educational and human activities.

Is it possible to improve educational quality in a low quality school building? Perhaps.
First, the shortfalls of the building should not put in jeopardy the safety and health of its
occupants. Additionally, a sub-standard or low quality building may require an additional
compensatory effort from educators and administrators. Finally, it is possible that a school
building may not have any of the elements that support education like adequate
classrooms, science labs, workshops, physical education facilities, etc. In such case, the
building becomes a deterrent of the improved quality objective.

Improving schools, increasing community wellbeing

A school building often times is, and almost always could be, the center of a community
life. Embracing the concept of lifelong learning opens the reach of education to larger
number of potential users, and at the same time brings community members closer to the
decision making process of what, where and how

Discussing the relationship between school and community, Rotraut Walden44 indicates
that the key to providing school facilities that meet current and future needs in a given
community, is to constantly scan the environment, communicate regularly with educators,
community leaders, businesses and policy makers and to stay aware of current,
educational, design and environmental issues. Otherwise, reliance on “It’s always worked
in the past” or “that’s how it has always been done” may well result in a waste of capital
resources, dissatisfaction in communities and reduced opportunities to optimize instruction
and education outcomes. In other words, schools and communities can benefit for a strong
and creative interaction

Learning could take place in an informal way pretty much anywhere. On the way to school,
at the local library, at a neighborhood theater, at the chase table of the central plaza, or
even at a bar or a hospital, given the circumstances. Why not take advantage of those
opportunities? A project for improving education could use all kind of resources in a
creative manner. Especially when there are space constraints, taking students out of the
school boundaries could be a very enriching experience.

44 Schools of the Future. Design Proposals from Architectural Psychology. Rotraut Walden.
Springer. 2015.

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It is interesting to note that the British Commission for Architecture and the Build
Environment45, when defining the 10 criteria for successful school design, names number
one to be: identity and context. They go on to explain that it is very important to “make a
school of whitch students and community can be proud of” They, see that a successful
school project, has to embody the ethos and identity of a school, to contribute to the
neighborhood beyond its site boundaries and establish an attractive presence in the
community.

Project variables: purpose, time, budget

Once it is established that appropriate school facilities provide opportunities to improve
access and quality of education, there is still a long road ahead. Further studies have to be
conducted and decisions have to be made. All, within the context of a long term facilities
master plan that has to be drawn to provide high level authorities with the confidence that
the right strategies will be put in place, that these strategies are realistic and would yield
the expected results, in a certain timeframe and budget.

The body of knowledge about how to go from defining and educational goal to an
educational result through (among others) infrastructure interventions, has been
constructed more in terms experience than theory.

A pioneer document written by Arnold Oates and Lee Bruch46 in 1989, calls for the need of
an holistic approach to the planning process in the context of scarce resources for
education. The authors place great emphasis in stakeholders’ consultation and planning
with well grounded information that in fact will be the basis for decision making. Part of the
whole, are important pieces like demographics, social makeup, economy, culture,
technology, political landscape, legal issues, environmental conditions, and more.

More recently, and because of the proliferation of crippled plans that emphasize on a few
aspects ignoring others, Mary Filardo47 wrote a master plan evaluation guide. It also
emphasizes the importance of stakeholders’ participation, evidence based decision
making and the need for a clear vision that will inspire the whole school system.
Additionally, provides a quite logical order with great detail in every step of the process
Even though it is meant to evaluate existing plans, it can also be used as a guide for future
plans as breaks down key activities that should not be overseen, rushed or avoided.

In summary, when using public money or even borrowed money for educational
improvement programs that require capital investment, there is a high responsibility for
how funds are invested and for actually delivering the promised benefits to society. The
facility component, when done correctly can extend the benefits of educational initiatives
for many years in a sustainable way.

45 CABE. Website:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110118095356/http://www.cabe.org.uk/design-
review/schools/criteria
46 A Model Schedule for a Capital Improvement Program. Arnold Oates, Lee Burch. 1999.
47 PK-12 Public Educational Facilities Master Plan Evaluation Guide. Mary Filardo. 21st Century
School Fund. Washington DC. 2011.

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Appendix 1. Health/ learning Information source
consequence:
Poor school The research prepared by the
condition: Respiratory diseases Lawrence Berkeley National
Poor ventilation, Laboratory49 on classroom
mold, VOCs48 ventilation collected data on
California elementary school
High or low interior Tropical diseases, classrooms over a two‐year period
temperature respiratory diseases, to investigate associations
concentration, clear between ventilation rates and
thinking and symbolic student illness‐related absences.
manipulation Increasing average ventilation
rates in California K‐12 classrooms
Poor lighting Difficulties in reading, from the current average to the
concentration required level, is estimated to
decrease illness absences by 3.4
percent and consequently to
increased attendance.
Denmark researchers50 also
showed how room temperature
was linked to performance. When
the room temperature was reduced
from around 80 degrees or higher
to 68 degrees, these fourth-
graders completed 28 percent
more subtraction problems and
read about 24 percent faster. A
previous study found that the best
temperature range for learning
reading and math is between 68
degrees and 74 degrees. A
comfortable humidity level is
usually 40 percent to 50 percent.
The ability to learn declines as
room temperatures increase above
74 degrees, particularly if humidity
and dampness also increase.
Several studies investigating the
effect of daylighting on student
achievement were conducted by

48 VOC. Volatile Organic Compounds.
49 DEMAND‐CONTROLLED VENTILATION AND CLASSROOM VENTILATION. Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory. California energy Commission. 2009.
50 P. Wargocki and D.P. Wyon, “The effect of moderately raised classroom temperatures and
classroom ventilation rate on the performance of schoolwork by children,” HVAC&R Research 13,
no. 2. 2007

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Poor school Health/ learning Information source
condition: consequence:
the Heschong-Mahone Group51
between 1999 and 2003. In the
1999 study, data were obtained
from elementary school districts in
three locations: Orange County,
California; Seattle, Washington;
and Fort Collins, Colorado
(Heschong-Mahone Group, 1999).
The study looked for a correlation
between the amount of daylight
provided by a student’s classroom
environment and test scores. Test
results for more than 21,000
students in these districts were
analyzed. Demographic data sets,
architectural plans, aerial
photographs, the presence of
skylights, maintenance records,
and daylighting conditions for more
than 2,000 classrooms were
among the factors reviewed. Other
conclusions indicated that
adequate lighting: improves long
term health, improves mood, helps
to absolve more information,
improves behavior and reduces
the level of the stress hormone.

51 Daylight in Schools. Heschong-Mahone Group. Publish by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.
1999. Fair Oaks, California

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