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Category: Peer-Reviewed Articles

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Saiz, Kennedy, Bass, and Pressnail, 2006

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to evaluate the benefits, primarily from reduced energy consumption, resulting from the addition of a green roof to an eight story residential building in Madrid. Building energy use is simulated and a bottom-up LCA is conducted assuming a 50 year building life. The key property of a green roof is its low solar absorptance, which causes lower surface temperature, thereby reducing the heat flux through the roof. Savings in annual energy use are just over 1%, but summer cooling load is reduced by over 6% and reductions in peak hour cooling load in the upper floors reach 25%. By replacing the common flat roof with a green roof, environmental impacts are reduced by between 1.0 and 5.3%. Similar reductions might be achieved by using a white roof with additional insulation for winter, but more substantial reductions are achieved if common use of green roofs leads to reductions in the urban heat island.

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Santamouris et al., 2006

The present paper deals with the energy performance, energy classification and rating and the global environmental quality of school buildings. A new energy classification technique based on intelligent clustering methodologies is proposed. Energy rating of school buildings provides specific information on their energy consumption and efficiency relative to the other buildings of similar nature and permits a better planning of interventions to improve its energy performance. The overall work reported in the present paper, is carried out in three phases. During the first phase energy consumption data have been collected through energy surveys performed in 320 schools in Greece. In the second phase an innovative energy rating scheme based on fuzzy clustering techniques has been developed, while in the third phase, 10 schools have been selected and detailed measurements of their energy efficiency and performance as well as of the global environmental quality have been performed using a specific experimental protocol. The proposed energy rating method has been applied while the main environmental and energy problems have been identified. The potential for energy and environmental improvements has been assessed.

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Duncombe and Wang, 2009

Traditionally, financing the construction of school facilities has been a local responsibility. In the past several decades, states have increased their support for school facilities. Using data collected from various sources, this study first classifies the design of capital aid programs in all 50 states into various categories based on the scope of state aid, selection of capital projects, method of grant distribution, and formula components of the grant. The condition of school facilities has increasingly become a concern of school finance litigation in recent years. The equitable distribution of capital-outlay funds is likely to receive additional notice in the future. Using NCES finance data from 1998 to 2002, we examine the relationship between the type of facilities aid program and the level of inequality in capital-outlay distribution in the states.

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Woolner, Hall, Higgins, McCaughey, and Wall, 2007
(Higgins et al., 2005) which looked at the evidence of the impact of environments on learning in schools. We have reviewed the available evidence regarding different facets of the physical environment and provided an analysis based on different areas of effect, including the extent to which different facets interact (positively and negatively) with one another. Our conclusions suggest that, although the research often indicates the parameters of an effective environment, there is an overall lack of empirical evidence about the impact of individual elements of the physical environment which might inform school design at a practical level to support student achievement. However, at a secondary level of analysis, there are indications that environmental change can be part of a catalytic process of school development and improvement. The implications of these findings for Building Schools for the Future will be discussed.

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Haug, Torsheim, Sallis, and Samdal, 2010

The school is an important setting for physical activity. The purpose of the present study was to examine the association between physical envi- ronmental characteristics and participation in daily physical activity during school breaks. Data from 130 schools and 16 471 students (Grades 4–10) in Norway were obtained in 2004 through self-administered questionnaires to principals and students. Multilevel logistic re- gression models revealed that boys at secondary level with a larger number of outdoor facilities at school had 2.69 times [95% confidence inter- val (CI) = 1.21–5.98] and girls 2.90 times (95% CI = 1.32–6.37) higher odds of being physically active compared with students in schools with fewer facilities. Boys at secondary level with areas for hopscotch/skipping rope had 2.53 times (95% CI = 1.55–4.13), with a soccer field 1.68 times (95% CI = 1.15–2.45), with play- ground equipment 1.66 times (95% CI = 1.16– 2.37) and with a sledding hill 1.70 times (95% CI = 1.23–2.35) higher odds to be physically ac- tive compared with students in schools without these facilities. A sledding hill was also associated with girls’ physical activity participation in secondary school (odds ratio = 1.58, 95% CI = 1.11–2.24). Outdoor facilities in secondary schools are associated with students’ daily phys- ical activity participation during school breaks. Therefore, improving the outdoor environment should be considered in physical activity promotion school programs in secondary schools.

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Conlin & Thompson, 2014

We consider issues of equality and efficiency in two different school funding systems - a state-level system in Michigan and a foundation system in Ohio. Unlike Ohio, the Michigan system restricts districts from generating property or income tax revenue to fund operating expenditures. In both states, districts fund capital expenditures with local tax revenue. Our results indicate that although average revenue and expenditures per pupil in Michigan and Ohio are almost identical, the distributions of the various revenue sources are quite different. Ohio’s funding system has greater equality in terms of total revenue, largely due to Ohio redistributing state funds to the least wealthy districts while Michigan does not. We find that relatively wealthy Michigan districts spend more on capital expenditures while relatively wealthy Ohio districts spend more on labor and materials. This suggests that constraints on raising local revenue to fund operating expenditures in Michigan could create efficiency issues.

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Kanters, Bocarro, Moore, Floyd, and Carlton, 2014

Objective: To determine the status and common characteristics of shared use in public schools in North Carolina.

Method: All public school principals (N = 2,359) in North Carolina were invited to participate in an online survey (February – May, 2013) designed to provide baseline information about the extent and nature of shared use of school facilities.

Results: Responses (n = 1182, 50.1%) indicated that most schools share their facilities (88.9%). Formal agreements were more common when schools shared gyms and outdoor athletic fields. Informal agreements were most common with playgrounds and track facilities. Schools with more low income or Black students were less likely to share facilities. For schools that did not share use of their facilities the most frequent reason was no outside groups had ever asked.

Conclusion: Schools may be more accommodating to shared use partnerships. Community organizations seeking to use indoor school facilities or athletic fields should be prepared to complete a formal written agreement. Preconceived notions that schools are unwilling to share their facilities may be preventing community organizations from initiating shared use inquiries. Schools located in the middle tier of economic distress and schools with a greater concentration of Black students were less likely to share their facilities

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Uline, Tschannen-Moran, and Wolsey, 2009

Accompanying the recent concern for the quality of our nation’s educational infrastructure is a growing body of research connecting the quality of school facilities to both student outcomes including achievement, behavior, and attitude as well as to teacher attitude and behavior. Less is known about the mechanisms of these relationships. This study examines the link between school building quality and student outcomes through the mediating influence of school climate. Results of a recent study confirmed a link between the quality of school facilities and student achievement in both English and mathematics. As well, correlational analyses indicated that quality facilities were significantly positively related to three school climate variables: academic press, teacher professionalism, and community engagement. The quality of facilities was uncorrelated to proportion of students receiving free and reduced priced meals, although the quality of facilities was strongly related to resource support. Finally, results confirmed the hypothesis that school climate plays a mediating role in the effects of the quality of school facilities on student achievement.

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Uline and Tschannen-Moran, 2008

Purpose – A growing body of research connecting the quality of school facilities to student
performance accompanies recent efforts to improve the state of the educational infrastructure in the
USA. Less is known about the mechanisms of these relationships. This paper seeks to examine the
proposition that part of the explanation may be the mediating influence of school climate.
Design/methodology/approach – Teachers from 80 Virginia middle schools were surveyed
employing measures including the School Climate Index, a seven-item quality of school facilities scale,
as well as three resource support items. Data on student SES and achievement were also gathered.
Bivariate correlational analysis was used to explore the relationships between the quality of facilities,
resource support, school climate, student SES, and student achievement. In addition, multiple
regression was used to test school climate as a mediating variable between the quality of facilities and
student achievement.
Findings – Results confirmed a link between the quality of school facilities and student achievement
in English and mathematics. As well, quality facilities were significantly positively related to three
school climate variables. Finally, results confirmed the hypothesis that school climate plays a
mediating role in the relationship between facility quality and student achievement.
Originality/value – As we face fundamental issues of equity across schools and districts, leaders
struggle to convince taxpayers of the need to invest in replacing and/or renovating inadequate
facilities. Deeper understandings of the complicated interplay between the physical and social
environments of school, and how these dynamics influence student outcomes, may help educators
build a compelling case.

Published on

Tanner, 2009

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to compare student achievement with three school design classifications: movement and circulation, day lighting, and views.

Design/methodology/approach – From a sample of 71 schools, measures of these three school designs, taken with a ten-point Likert scale, are compared to students’ outcomes defined by six parts of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS): Reading comprehension, Reading vocabulary, Language arts, Mathematics, Social studies, and Science. Data are tested through reduced regression analysis, where the difference between R 2 of the reduced regression is compared to the R 2 of the full regression. This result, in each case, is defined as the effect of the school’s physical environment on students’ outcomes represented by achievement scores on the ITBS.

Findings – Significant effects are found for Reading vocabulary, Reading comprehension, Language arts, Mathematics, and Science.

Practical implications – The study’s findings regarding movement and circulation patterns, natural light, and classrooms with views have implications for designing new schools or modifying existing structures. They are especially important to school leaders, educational planners, and architects who engage in programming for educational facilities.

Originality/value – This study is part of original research efforts at the University of Georgia, USA. Since 1997, the focus of research in the University of Georgia’s School Design and Planning Laboratory (SDPL) has been the measurement of the impact of the school’s physical environment on aspects of affective, behavioral, and cognitive learning. All SDPL research has been quantitative in nature, where measures of the physical environment were compared to measures of student outcomes. There are two immediate values to these studies: educational leaders may use the findings to assess their existing school facilities and determine where improvements will have the greatest impact, or planners may use the findings to guide architects in the design and construction of new educational facilities

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