The twenty-first century has seen the rapid emergence of wireless broadband and mobile communications devices which are inexorably changing the way people communicate, collaborate, create and transfer knowledge. Yet many higher education campus learning environments were designed and built in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries prior to…

Personalized learning spaces are emerging in schools as a critical reaction to "industrial-era" school models. As the form and function of schools and pedagogy change, this places pressure on teachers to adapt their conventional practice. This paper addresses the question of how teachers can adapt their classroom practice to create…

The 2014 Thought Leaders Symposium, sponsored in part by DTZ, a UGL company, and Jacobs, focused on the issues and challenges related to leveraging campus facility assets to achieve desired institutional outcomes. More than three dozen higher education leaders--including presidents, provosts, business officers, consultants, association executives,…

When Fayette County (Kentucky) school officials began putting together estimates for upcoming renovation projects at two elementary schools, they based their projections on their district construction projects from 2007. But by February, when construction bids were opened for the renovations of Cassidy and Russell Cave elementary schools, the…

The bottom line on school construction in 2012 is that total spending edged up slightly from the previous year, (to $12.9 billion from $12.2 billion), but the spending for new schools declined from $6.9 billion to $6.177 billion. The increase in overall spending was attributable to more spending for additions and a major increase in spending for…

Most educational institutions have faced the decision whether to demolish, abandon or sell a facility. This article discusses how institutions can decide whether to renovate or build new. The author suggests to develop a campus- or districtwide master plan. A long-range master plan includes assessments of deferred maintenance, educational…

In practice, a green school is the physical result of a consensus process of planning, design, and construction that takes into account a building's performance over its entire 50- to 60-year life cycle. The main focus of the process is to reinforce optimal learning, a goal very much in keeping with the parallel goals of resource efficiency and…

The preschool facility is a critical element of an effective preschool program. The recent economic downturn in the United States makes it difficult for states and individual school districts to consider developing new preschool programs or enhancing current programs or facilities. Yet many Americans still agree that public investment in preschool…

On 26 February in Lisbon a team from the OECD's Centre for Effective Learning Environments (CELE) presented its first review of a national school building programme. The school building renovation programme in Portugal, which began in March 2007, involves the renovation of 332 schools by 2015. However, Portugal plans to complete 205 by the end of…

This research examines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) to integrating e-learning perceived by academic staff at a university in Uganda and a university in Tanzania. Mixed-methods research was used in which a main qualitative study was complemented by a quantitative method. The sample participants were academic staff…

This article investigates international students' challenges, such as financial, English proficiency, loneliness/homesickness in the United States. In addition, it assesses how these students coped with such difficulties by making use of resources on campus, such as an international center, writing center, counseling center, and the student…

This paper reports part of a study that documents the factors affecting the efficacy of teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Vietnamese higher education from the teachers' perspectives. Individual face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve EFL teachers at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology…

The purpose of this guide is to provide states, districts, and schools with information and support to prepare applications for 2015-2016 School Improvement Grants (SIGs). The guide includes tools, checklists, and questions for SEAs and LEAs aligned with the revised SIG requirements, primarily focused on how to leverage the "planning…

In 2013, The National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth administered a survey to school district liaisons, homeless housing providers, and early care/education providers (including Early Head Start/Head Start (EHS/HS), child care, preschool, Early Intervention (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part C), and…

In 2017-2018, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) launched Achieve 180, a program centered upon a comprehensive action plan to increase student achievement at 45 schools, including the 27 schools that received the Texas Education Agency Campus Accountability rating of "Improvement Required" (IR) in 2016-2017 and 18 former IR…