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Category: Dissertations and Theses

Published on

Ford, 2016

Over half of the school facilities in America are in poor condition. Unsatisfactory school facilities have a negative impact on teaching and learning. The purpose of this correlational study was to identify the relationship between high school science teachers’ perceptions of the school science environment (instructional equipment, demonstration equipment, and physical facilities) and ninth grade students’ attitudes about science through their expressed enjoyment of science, importance of time spent on science, and boredom with science. A sample of 11,523 cases was extracted, after a process of data mining, from a databank of over 24,000 nationally representative ninth graders located throughout the United States. The instrument used to survey these students was part of the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:2009). The research design was multiple linear regression. The results showed a significant relationship between the science classroom conditions and students’ attitudes. Demonstration equipment and physical facilities were the best predictors of effects on students’ attitudes. Conclusions based on this study and recommendations for future research are made.

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Published on

Mahoney, 2015

Current trends for primary public school design do not account for the psychological effects everyday stress and trauma have on the ability for students to effectively learn. Set design standards and regulations efficiently disregard designing to alleviate student stress and for child-, community-, demographic-, and age- centered environments in order to foster learning for all students. The aim of this thesis is to define the principal architectural concepts responsible for the creation of a child focused primary school environment integrated with the specific elements needed for the mitigation of everyday stress and trauma on the student.

The relevance and limitations of current primary school design trends will be addressed to situate the discussion of designing schools to mitigate the effects of mental or emotional strain or tension on students. Typically, children are less able to cope with these situations leading to a state of mind ‘turned off’ to learning. A primary school designed for the student needs to respond to the emotional needs of the student while providing a positive first impression of learning. By defining the spatial qualities needed to address the effects of everyday stress and trauma combined with how to design for children and the critique of current design trends, this thesis will present the final design aims and methods for providing an urban, public school for the downtown Cincinnati area meant to mitigate the effects of everyday stress and trauma on students in order to promote learning through the built environment.

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Published on

Thorton, 2006

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between building conditions and student achievement of students identified in the subgroups of poverty and minority in high schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The targeted population was identified by using the study conducted by Crook (2006) which included information obtained from seventy-two high schools across the Commonwealth of Virginia. Building conditions used in the study were based upon the responses received from principals on the Commonwealth Assessment of Physical Environment (CAPE) form.

The scaled scores of economically disadvantaged students and minority students on the Standards of Learning tests administered in grades nine through eleven during the 2004-2005 school year were used to measure student achievement. The status of economically disadvantaged students was controlled by the classification of a student receiving free and reduced-priced lunch during the 2004-2005 school year. The status of minority students was controlled by ethnicity as reported by the individual schools to the Virginia Department of Education for the 2004-2005 school year.

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Published on

Stevenson, 2001

This research project sought to determine if a relationship exists between school academic outcomes and school facilities characteristics. To address this issue, data were gathered from a variety of sources including research literature, state data files, principal questionnaires, and focus groups.

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Published on

Sheets, M., 2009

If the condition of facilities in some schools is such that the schools cannot provide a quality education for its students equal to that of other schools, then equal educational opportunity may not be available for all children. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the condition of rural public high school facilities in Texas and student achievement, student attendance, and teacher turnover, while controlling for the effects of student wealth level, school district wealth level, and percent minority students. The measures for the condition of facilities variables used in this study were obtained from the 2006 Texas Comptroller's Facility Survey of the 1,037 public school districts in Texas. The participants for this study were the 72 rural public high schools out of the 309 total responses to the survey from all district types. Multiple regression analyses were utilized to examine which selected condition of facilities variables and demographic variables best predicted certain educational outcomes. This study found that the student wealth level contributed most to the variance in student achievement. However, the condition of school facilities has a measurable effect over and above socioeconomic conditions on student achievement and teacher turnover, particularly when found in rural schools made up of primarily low-income students. Significant findings with regard to condition of school facilities included: 1. Rural public high schools with a large percentage of portable classrooms have lower student achievement and higher teacher turnover. 2. Rural public high schools with a large percentage of deferred maintenance in their facilities have lower student achievement. School leaders are not able to control the socioeconomic conditions of the students they serve. The do, however, have some control over the quality of their school facilities. Excellent facilities for children who need them the least and inadequate facilities for the ones who need them the most violates the principal of equal educational opportunity for all children.

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Published on

O'Sullivan, 2006

This study investigated the relationship between school building conditions and student academic achievement in Pennsylvania’s high schools. Research questions analyzed by step-wise multiple regression were: (a) Is there a relationship between overall school building conditions and student academic achievement in Pennsylvania’s high schools when socio-economic status (SES) is held constant?; (b) Is there a relationship between the cosmetic conditions of school facilities and student academic achievement in Pennsylvania’s high schools when socio-economic status (SES) is held constant?; and (c) Is there a relationship between the structural conditions of school facilities and student academic achievement in Pennsylvania’s high schools when socio-economic status (SES) is held constant?

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Published on

McGowan, 2007

The purpose of this study was to explore the possible relationship between school facility conditions and school outcomes such as student academic achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate.

School facility condition for the participating schools was determined by the Total Learning Environment Assessment (TLEA) as completed by the principal or principal’s designee on high school campuses in Texas with enrollments between 1,000 and 2000 and economically disadvantaged enrollments less than 40%. Each school in the study population was organized by grades nine through twelve. Data for achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate were collected through the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) managed by the Texas Education Agency.

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Published on

Lanham, J., 1999

Across the country, increased accountability for public education has emerged over the last decade as a central theme in both the educational and political arenas. Calls for higher standards of learning, more rigorous testing of the country’s school children, and greater degrees of accountability for both teachers and administrators have been heard from the White House, Congress, governors’ mansions, and state legislatures. In his 1998 State of the Union address, President Bill Clinton expressed his desire to raise standards, expectations, and accountability in the nation’s elementary and secondary schools. At the same time, political leaders and public bodies have also focused on our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, particularly the sorry state of many of the nation’s schools. Members of Congress have requested extensive reports from the General Accounting Office to document the state of the nation’s school facilities.

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Published on

Lair, 2003

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect school facilities have on student achievement as measured by the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, TAAS, test in a high-performing, high-poverty school district in Texas. A relationship between the condition of school facilities and student achievement, while assumed, is difficult to assess. This study contains a presentation of the information and data findings from the Ysleta Independent School District and its decision in 1994 to include school facilities as a component of its student achievement initiative. The schools were randomly selected and the case study ix research was conducted using a mixed-method approach. Data provided by the schools’ principals on building structure, maintenance, and housekeeping were collected using a questionnaire based in part on the “Commonwealth Assessment of Physical Environment” used by Cash (1993), Hines (1996) and Lanham (1999) in Virginia. Student achievement was measured using the percent of students at each school passing the TAAS sub-tests of reading, mathematics, and writing and the percent passing all the TAAS tests from 1994 to 2001. The effect school facility conditions have on student achievement found definition through the major themes of risky decisions, powerful people, buildings matter and accountability.

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Published on

Hines, 1996

This study, involving selected Virginia urban high schools, examines the relationship between school facility condition and student achievement and behavior. The study determined student achievement by using the Test of Academic Proficiency for grade eleven during the 1992-93 school year; student behavior was determined by the ratio of the number of expulsions, suspensions, and violence/substance abuse incidents to the numbers of students in each school. The study's findings show that student achievement scores and disciplinary incidents are higher in schools that have better building conditions. Science achievement scores also are higher in schools that have better science laboratory conditions. Finally, the varying of climate control, locker, and graffiti conditions are factors in improving student achievement scores. Appendices contain statistics on student population and demographics, a copy of the survey used to assess a facility's physical status, documents pertaining to the study sample, and research questionnaires.

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