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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.
Do school facilities really make a difference in student achievement? Most of us would instinctively answer, "Yes." After all, we know how important the spaces where we live, work, and play can be to our well-being and our productivity. Why should schools be any different? Increasingly, research shows they're not. Last year in these pages, John B. Lyons of the U.S. Department of Education surveyed a number of recent studies that, he wrote, "strongly suggest a direct relation between a school's condition and the learning that goes on inside it." Now a new publication by Mark Schneider, a professor of political science at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, takes the investigation a step further. To the question posed in his title — "Do School Facilities Affect Academic Outcomes?" — Schneider has an emphatic reply: School facilities do indeed affect learning. Published by the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities, this new report examines research in six areas: indoor air quality, ventilation, and thermal comfort; lighting; acoustics; building age and quality; school size; and class size. "We all know that clean, quiet, safe, comfortable, and healthy environments are an important component of successful teaching and learning," Schneider writes. "But which facility attributes affect academic outcomes the most and in what manner and degree?" "Do School Facilities Affect Academic Outcomes?" sets out to answer that question with the academic rigor of a scientific inquiry. You can read the results online at www.edfacilities.org. It's a timely report. In the face of an enrollment boom and an aging building stock — plus a new push for accountability with the federal No Child Left Behind Act — more and more U.S. school districts are building new facilities and renovating old ones with an eye not only to housing students but also to enhancing their learning. Many of these construction projects are illustrated in the Learning By Design 2003 website. Among the many outstanding entries we received this year, the judges picked two Grand Prize Winners and two 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. One of our winners illustrates a new direction for Learning By Design. This year, for the first time, we move outside the school itself to examine the potential of outdoor spaces both as laboratories for learning and as exemplars of positive environmental impact. The project from the Boston Schoolyard Initiative that won the judges' approbation is a splendid example of a learning landscape, and "Grounds for Learning," by Cheryl Corson, further explores these themes. We urge you to consider the expert advice offered in this year's other feature article as well. In "Designing for Students' Needs," Kelley Carey challenges school leaders to ensure that their schools are designed with security and educational opportunity in mind. Extensive checklists focus on environmental security and security against intruders. Finally, we want to give special thanks again this year to the American Institute of Architects, the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities, and the Council of Educational Facilities Planners International, 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 
