In this age of education innovation and reform, schools must evolve and react to current policy trends. This accessible book offers research-based insights into six key educational trends and issues that are impacting K-12 learning today: year-round schooling, assessments, educating minorities, anti-intellectualism, issues of social promotion and…

Joint use of public school facilities is a complex but manageable approach to efficiently enhancing the services and programs available to students and supporting the community use of public schools. Building upon on our 2010 paper titled "Joint Use of Public Schools: A Framework for a New Social Contract," this paper identifies the…

In this paper, the 21st Century School Fund and the Center for Cities and Schools at the University of California Berkeley provide a conceptual frame for the joint use of PK-12 public school buildings. There is a growing conversation about and demand for joint use as a way to provide services to children and families in convenient locations,…

Every day in America more than 50 million children go to neighborhood public schools. Parents send them off with every hope they will be safe while there. And yet, as has been the case in too many cities, violence shatters that hope. The Council of Educational Facilities Planners International (CEFPI) seeks to lead in the effort to bolster schools…

The changing demands of the 21st century--and the students growing up in it--are generating fundamental challenges to historical assumptions about what education looks like. The challenge today is to provide a deeper level of personalized learning to each and every student so that all can achieve mastery of the Common Core standards and other…

Carefully organized and effectively implemented predesign activities offer long-term benefits in planning or improving a science building. A number of the predesign studies described were used in planning the Center of Science and Technology at Iona College (New York). (Author/MLF)

Faced with increasing enrollment and state legislation requiring more laboratory work, this school system hired an architectural firm to devise a cost-effective "District-wide Science Facility Master Plan." The process of developing that plan and some of its conclusions are described here. Illustrations are provided. (DCS)

A school district's organization of facility needs assessment instruments and generic education facility specifications coupled with the computer capabilities of a South Carolina architectural firm shortened a school building project by over one year. (MLF)

Discussion of underground buildings constructed primarily during last two decades for various reasons (energy conservation, density of environment, preservation of landscape and historic buildings) notes advantages, disadvantages, and psychological and design considerations. Examples of underground libraries, built mainly in United States, are…

Planning, creation, and current operation of the Transgenic Mouse Research Facility at the New York University Kaplan Cancer Center are discussed. The university considered need, space, funding, supervision, and marketing and followed a logical and structured management process embodying both scientific and administrative input. (Author/MSE)

The development, content, and implementation of a space model at the University of Minnesota are detailed. Its objectives were to (1) obtain a management tool for assessing current space utilization and projecting facility needs; (2) assess quality of existing facilities; and (3) identify and assimilate the university's unique space needs.…

This book provides guidelines for the music director, architect, and others in designing and constructing new music facilities or remodeling existing ones. It deals with music facilities at all educational levels and is concerned with the location, design, and size of the facilities; storage and auxiliary space provided; auditoriums and music…

One way to make the most of existing facilities and limited resources is an assessment of program usage in addition to facilities usage. Cites a comprehensive facility and programming inventory for the Boston Public Schools that produced very detailed, high quality data for facilities and programs. (MLF)

To respond to fluctuations in population, a Maryland school system selected pre-engineered relocatable classroom modules. If school enrollment declines, the classroom modules could be removed, disassembled into halves, and trucked to another site. (MLF)

An outline and worksheets are provided for developing school design specifications that will meet the educational needs of students. The outline lists and briefly describes the key elements required of an educational specifications report, including a brief description of the community, the curriculum and support plans, building space…