In this study, the 21st Century School Fund (21CSF), with support from the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities, examined the state capital outlay funding for elementary and secondary public education facility construction and modernization. The authors examined how much capital outlay has been expended by states from 2005-2008 as…

Facilities stewardship means high-level and pervasive commitment to optimize capital investments, in order to achieve a high-functioning and attractive campus. It includes a major commitment to capital asset preservation and quality. Stewardship is about the long view of an institution's past and future. It ultimately forms the backdrop for…

The author begins her comments on "Reviewing Adolescent Literacy Reports: Key Components and Critical Questions" by commending the authors for taking on this rather massive project. The project required not only locating and reading the many lengthy reports that exist on adolescent literacy but also sifting through the numerous claims, ideas, and…

Near the shores of Lake Superior, Michigan's Houghton-Portage Township School District is known for academic leadership and strives to provide an exceptional and secure learning environment for its students. However, like many districts around the country, Houghton-Portage is not immune to the economic restrictions. In a recent effort to address…

At the original Hubble Middle School, neither the views (a congested Roosevelt Road and glimpses of downtown Wheaton) nor the century-old facility that offered them was very inspiring. Built at the start of the 20th century, the 250,000-square-foot building was converted from Wheaton Central High School to Hubble Middle School in the early 1980s.…

Given their value to the student experience, institutional identity, alumni loyalty, and economic welfare, historic preservation efforts must unite with institutional sustainability efforts and other high priorities to develop an approach for mutual success. Further, it is important to recognize the limits in the current milieu of economic…

Master planning identifies long-term ways to improve and expand a campus. The end product typically is a beautifully rendered campus site plan showing enhancements to green spaces, improvements to vehicular and pedestrian circulation paths and parking, additions to existing buildings, and new buildings. These plans imagine what a campus could…

Rapid growth or obsolete facilities can cause an education institution to pursue more construction and renovation projects than ever before. When an education institution has so much construction or remodeling that it has to add staff to manage the projects, it should consider hiring an owner's representative. Hiring an owner's representative can…

It is most surprising that Yale University is spending $126-million to renovate and add to a 1963 Modernist building that almost everyone has hated for decades. Aside from that, the project's champion is a high-society architect whose own career refutes pretty much the whole Modernist design theology. This article talks about the renovation of…

Each year, the Association for Continuing Higher Education (ACHE) gives a "Creative Use of Technology" award for "innovative uses of instructional and distance learning technologies in lifelong learning." In November 2008, the award was presented to Clemson University for its Teaching with Technology Experimental Classroom--affectionately known as…

In this testimony, Patricia K. Whitefoot talks on behalf of the National Indian Education Association with regard to the President Obama's Fiscal Year 2011 budget request. She notes that Native education still faces enormous challenges, including severe underfunding. Far too many students and schools continue to experience abject failure. Under…

Each day over 53 million school children and 6 million adults--20 percent of the entire U.S. population--enter the nation's 120,000 school buildings to teach and learn. Unfortunately, in too many cases, they enter "unhealthy" school buildings," that undermine learning and health. In a recent five-state survey, more than 1,100 public schools were…

This paper examines the disclosure and reporting of expenditure under the UK government's "Building Schools for the Future" programme. The study finds that there is little detailed and useful financial reporting, and the public's right to know under Freedom of Information Act 2000 is very limited. The lack of such information makes it…

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…

What are "Green School" programs and how do they benefit students, teachers and the community? Green School programs seek to weave concepts of sustainability and environmental awareness into the social and academic culture of the school community. Green schools are high performance facilities that have been designed, built, renovated operated or…