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Category: Peer-Reviewed Articles

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Barrett, Davies, Zhang, & Barrett, 2014

Assessments have been made of 153 classrooms in 27 schools in order to identify the impact of the physical classroom features on the academic progress of the 3766 pupils who occupied each of those specific spaces.

This study confirms the utility of the naturalness, individuality and stimulation (or more memorably, SIN) conceptual model as a vehicle to organise and study the full range of sensory impacts experienced by an individual occupying a given space. In this particular case the naturalness design principle accounts for around 50% of the impact on learning, with the other two accounting for roughly a quarter each.

Within this structure, seven key design parameters have been identified that together explain 16% of the variation in pupils' academic progress achieved. These are Light, Temperature, Air Quality, Ownership, Flexibility, Complexity and Colour. The muted impact of the whole-building level of analysis provides some support for the importance of “inside-out design”.

The identification of the impact of the built environment factors on learning progress is a major new finding for schools' research, but also suggests that the scale of the impact of building design on human performance and wellbeing in general, can be isolated and that it is non-trivial. It is argued that it makes sense to capitalise on this promising progress and to further develop these concepts and techniques.

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Hudley, 2013

Much has been written about the poor academic achievement among students in “urban”, “minority” and otherwise coded schools over the past decades. However, the conversations about the heightened challenges facing students in urban public schools must recognize that on average, 64 percent of students receive free or reduced price lunches, indicating that their families are at or near the federal poverty level. Guidelines for the 2013-2014 academic year locate the federal poverty line at $23,550 for a family of  four; eligibility for the federal free breakfast and lunch programs requires an income of no more than $30,615 before taxes. The comparable income maximum for reduced price breakfast or lunch is $43,568 (USDA, 2013). Thus, in urban public schools, many students and their families are living with severe economic disadvantage.

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Condron & Roscigno, 2003

The debate over whether educational spending shapes achievement has persisted for decades, largely because of methodological and analytical limitations associated with the use of districtlevel data. In this study, the authors analyzed unique within-district variations in spending and achievement among 89 public elementary schools in a large, North Central, urban district. The analyses reveal considerable disparities in spending within the district, which are linked to local patterns of racial and class stratification and concentration. They show how these locally driven inequalities and their links to specific school resources have consequences for achievement in five distinct subject areas. The authors conclude by discussing the implications of their findings for understanding the local production of class and racial educational inequality and recent moves toward resegregation that are evident in many U.S. cities.

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Gaffron & Niemeier, 2015

It has been shown that the location of schools near heavily trafficked roads can have detrimental effects on the health of children attending those schools. It is therefore desirable to screen both existing school locations and potential new school sites to assess either the need for remedial measures or suitability for the intended use. Current screening tools and public guidance on school siting are either too coarse in their spatial resolution for assessing individual sites or are highly resource intensive in their execution (e.g., through dispersion modeling). We propose a new method to help bridge the gap between these two approaches. Using this method, we also examine the public K-12 schools in the Sacramento Area Council of Governments Region, California (USA) from an environmental justice perspective. We find that PM2.5 emissions from road traffic affecting a school site are significantly positively correlated with the following metrics: percent share of Black, Hispanic and multi-ethnic students, percent share of students eligible for subsidized meals. The emissions metric correlates negatively with the schools’ Academic Performance Index, the share of White students and average parental education levels. Our PM2.5 metric also correlates with the traffic related, census tract level screening indicators from the California Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool and the tool’s tract level rate of asthma related emergency department visits.

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Kerlin, Santos, & Bennet, 2015

Many K-12 school districts are embracing energy conservation efforts and constructing environmentally sustainable buildings with the purpose of lowering operating costs of their facilities. Investments in green infrastructure to improve operating efficiencies and occupant health are important but the impact of green buildings on instructional practice should also be considered. This study focused on teachers’ perceptions of the many impacts of a new sustainably designed middle school on students and teachers and explores the use of the school as a learning laboratory. Grades 6-8 teachers participated in open-ended focus group discussions near the end of the first school year in their new green building. An emergent coding framework was created to characterize conversation topics. Analysis of the coding yielded insights into seven major categories of teachers’ perceptions of the impact of the new green school on their work in the building and their students’ attitudes and academic performance. The seven major coding categories of green infrastructure, student behavior, student awareness, teacher awareness, curriculum, health, and professional development were further analyzed to formulate considerations and recommendations for others to capitalize on the instructional potential of sustainably designed school facilities as learning laboratories.

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School Design and Planning Laboratory, Department of Workforce Education, Leadership, and Social Foundations, University of Georgia, 2008.

The purpose of this study is to compare student achievement with three school design classifications: movement and circulation, day lighting, and views. 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. Significant effects are found for Reading vocabulary, Reading comprehension, Language arts, Mathematics, and Science. 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.

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Andrade, I., Dorneles, V., & Ely, V. (2012). The present work demonstrates, through a case study, the importance of theoretical knowledge in practical application of spatial accessibility in order to guarantee equal conditions for all people in the movement and use of space. Initially there was a literature review on the accessibility of space and how design in a accessible way. Next, we show one makeover proposal in one public school that wants to provide access to people with disabilities. This makeover was done and so we could evaluate the buildings changes through the method of accompanied walk with two people. Finally we present the main results and discussions.

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Mostafa, M. (2014). Architecture, as a science, deals with the manipulation of the physical environment to facilitate certain functions and elicit intended behavior. This environment is comprised primarily of sensory elements- textures, colors, patterns, acoustics etc. In accordance to the sensory definition of autism, these elements play an important role in autistic behavior and their cognition and integration are at the core of the disorder. This definition is the basis of the Autism ASPECTSS™ Design Index as discussed here. The objective of this paper is to illustrate the use of this index and its seven principles- Acoustics, Spatial sequencing, Escape, Compartmentalization, Transition spaces, Sensory zoning and Safety- as a design development tool. The paper summarizes the impact of these principles on the development of spatial design criteria for the Advance Center for Special Needs in Qattameya, Cairo, designed by Progressive Architects, and presents a possible prototype for schools for autism which would follow the ASPECTSS principles.

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Kirsten Krahnstoever Davison and Catherine T Lawson, 2006. Background: Many youth today are physically inactive. Recent attention linking the physical or built environment to physical activity in adults suggests an investigation into the relationship between the built environment and physical activity in children could guide appropriate intervention strategies.

Method: Thirty three quantitative studies that assessed associations between the physical environment (perceived or objectively measured) and physical activity among children (ages 3 to 18-years) and fulfilled selection criteria were reviewed. Findings were categorized and discussed according to three dimensions of the physical environment including recreational infrastructure, transport infrastructure, and local conditions.

Results: Results across the various studies showed that children's participation in physical activity is positively associated with publicly provided recreational infrastructure (access to recreational facilities and schools) and transport infrastructure (presence of sidewalks and controlled intersections, access to destinations and public transportation). At the same time, transport infrastructure (number of roads to cross and traffic density/speed) and local conditions (crime, area deprivation) are negatively associated with children's participation in physical activity.

Conclusion: Results highlight links between the physical environment and children's physical activity. Additional research using a transdisciplinary approach and assessing moderating and mediating variables is necessary to appropriately inform policy efforts.

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Kelly R. Evenson, Fang Wen, Sarah M. Lee, Katie M. Heinrich, and Amy Eyler, 2010. The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence of indoor and outdoor physical activity facilities at schools and the changes in prevalence of the availability of those facilities to the public in 2000 and 2006. Secondarily, we sought to determine whether the availability of these facilities differed by several potential correlates. This will help determine if progress is being made toward the Healthy People developmental objective and provide some guidance for school-level interventions.

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