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for K-12 public, private, or parochial schools; prekindergarten schools; and community colleges in the United States and Canada. Project descriptions, photographs, key data, and contact information for each entry provide a ready reference for school leaders who are planning to build new schools or renovate existing facilities. Articles by accepted experts in the field provide practical advice on construction and in-depth coverage of design trends. Learning By Design online provides PDF files for each of this year's construction projects, plus region-by-region listings of experienced school architects and the complete text of feature articles from our print edition. Exclusively online, the Resources page links users to regularly updated news and information, practical articles, and useful Internet sites. 
The ideal education, it's been said, is a good teacher sitting at one end of a log and a student at the other. Of course, the ideal learning environment involves a good deal more than a log. But that old idea of the essence of education -- the interaction between teacher and student -- remains just as valid today. The best schools are designed to facilitate that interaction. These schools are learner- centered -- inviting, attractive, safe, and flexible enough to accommodate today's varied teaching methods and adapt to future trends. More and more, too, successful schools are designed with an eye to what we know about how children learn best. Research tells us that small schools pay large dividends in terms of student behavior, teacher morale, family satisfaction, and student achievement. Research also shows the importance of a healthful learning environment, one with natural lighting, good acoustics, and excellent ventilation. Today's school design also takes into account the school's responsibility to serve not only as a center of the community, but as a wise steward of our natural resources. This trend takes many forms, from energy- efficient design and use of durable, cost-effective materials to sharing physical and human resources with other educational and community organizations. The result -- as this edition of Learning By Design makes clear -- is a generation of school facilities that are sensitive, sustainable, and appropriately scaled. That's what our panel of judges looked for among the 102 entries in this year's competition. Successful school design, the judges agreed:
Well-designed schools, the panel said, are welcoming, inviting, and friendly. These schools are environmentally friendly and user friendly, cost-effective and easy to maintain. They are clearly connected to their sites, making use of natural amenities for instruction. They are sensitive to the functional relationships of one area to another, providing gathering spaces for students and convenient access to common facilities such as the media center and cafeteria. Perhaps most important, well-designed schools support current educational practices and provide flexibility for the future. Among the many outstanding entries we received this year, the judges picked two Grand Prize winners and eight Citation winners. The winners, and the school-by-school descriptions that follow, provide a wealth of ideas that can be useful to school leaders nationwide who are planning to build or renovate school facilities. We urge you to consider the expert advice offered in this year's feature articles as well. In one article, John B. Lyons of the U.S. Department of Education digests a growing body of research on the impact of school design and construction on student learning. In another, Joe Nathan of the University of Minnesota's Hubert H. Humphrey Institute describes the movement toward shared facilities and small schools of choice within large buildings. Finally, Katherine N. Peele, AIA, of Boney Architects and Sara Malone of the American Institute of Architects provide strategies for lessening the impact of school construction on the environment. This year, we want to give special thanks to the American Institute of Architects, the Council of Educational Facilities Planners International, and the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities, which cooperated with the editors of American School Board Journal to bring you this issue of Learning By Design. We believe you'll find it a valuable addition to your school planning library.
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Published each spring
by the National School Boards Association's flagship magazine 
