Schools should be designed for 21st century

These are some of the recommendations in a report issued June 12 by the American Architectural Foundation and the KnowledgeWorks Foundation.

The recommendations are from a National Summit on School Design, which brought together more than 200 mayors, city planners, business leaders, philanthropists, architects, students, teachers, and community leaders last October to redefine the American school.

“We have moved beyond the one-size-fits-all approach to school design to an age of greater innovation and flexibility tailored to meet the needs of individual students, schools, and communities,” says Ronald E. Bogle, president and CEO of the American Architectural Foundation.

Bogle, a former president of the Oklahoma City school board, says, “The successful schools of the future need to apply the research on how students learn and how the quality of our educational facilities affects student performance, health, safety, self-esteem, and well-being.”

“You can’t expect children to learn 21st-century skills in schools built for the 1950s,” says Chad P. Wick, president and CEO of the KnowledgeWorks Foundation. “We need schools designed for 21st-century success.”

The report identifies the following components of school design for the 21st century:

• Design schools to support a variety of learning styles. Not all students learn the same way, so school facilities should support project-based learning, interactive classrooms, and individual work stations, as well as more traditional classrooms.

Bogle cites the Media and Technology Charter High School in Boston as an example of a creative design to facilitate learning. The entire third floor of the school is devoted to tutoring and mentoring by recent college graduates who are paid a small stipend and given free housing at the school.

• Enhance learning by integrating technology. Since High Tech High was developed in San Diego in 1998, it has become a model for schools across the nation. There are several “high tech highs” that offer a wireless environment enabling students to use laptops for research and to collaborate with one another and learning areas configured to meet a variety of learning formats.

• Foster a “small-school” culture. Bogle acknowledged there was “a fair amount of tension on this topic” at the summit but said most participants agreed there are benefits when students and teachers have more personal relationships.

While it might not be practical to tear down large high schools and build new ones for 400 students, large schools can be divided into separate components, each with its own principal and academic focus.

• Create schools as centers of the community. Some schools are designed with the idea of providing recreational centers, before and after-school programs, health clinics, day care centers, and community meeting spaces for local residents, as well as traditional educational services for children.

When a school is built in partnership with a library or museum, the cost of both facilities can be reduced and students and adults can have more opportunities for learning.

The School of Environmental Studies, known as the “Zoo School,” is located on the grounds of a zoo in Apple Valley, Minn. It offers hands-on, project-based learning for 11th and 12th graders, taking full advantage of its unusual setting.

• Support neighborhood schools. “Strong schools are critical components of healthy thriving neighborhoods,” Bogle says.

The John A. Johnson Achievement Plus School helped transform an older neighborhood in St. Paul, Minn. The school district worked with the YMCA to convert an abandoned school building into a elementary school that also houses a gym that serves local residents as well as students, a health clinic, day care center, and classrooms for adult education.

• Engage the public in the planning process. Wick says designing a school should involve the public in an “open and authentic engagement process” that includes school and community stakeholders and recognizes minority opinions.

• Make healthy, comfortable, and flexible learning spaces. Good school design addresses such issues as security, lighting, ventilation, and acoustics. Furniture should be easy to reconfigure, and technology should be embedded into classrooms to support interactive whiteboards, Internet access, and videoconferencing.

• Consider nontraditional options. Underused civic, retail, and cultural facilities can be adapted to house schools, and such arrangements can offer opportunities for students to learn academic subjects outside the classroom.