As architects and designers, we face design challenges that are rooted in the built condition. In our collaboration with student activities professionals, the effective use of space to service, engage, and welcome the campus community is at the forefront of design and planning discussions. We must consider the social implications of our physical…

Gendered washrooms and changerooms are sites of tension for many transgender and/or gender non-conforming users. However, these are not the only groups impacted by the exclusive provision of gendered spaces. As gender-neutral facilities become increasingly standardized across multiple sectors, we consider how the rising trend of "universal…

This manuscript contains a discussion of the evaluation of survey instruments used in research studies to assess the influence the school building has upon student and teacher performance. Under the assumption that the school building influences student and teacher performance, it is necessary to determine the actual physical condition of the…

For any government, difficult choices must be made about how and where to prioritize any school construction. In the absence of data-driven decision-making, these choices typically will be made based on opinions; when that is the case, the most powerful people's opinions tend to dominate. On the other hand, data help us ensure all the children's…

This article examines the changing architectural environments of deaf education in the nineteenth century, taking the national institutes in Paris and Bordeaux as its main focus. Founded in the late eighteenth century and initially housed in government-expropriated properties, both schools underwent comprehensive renovation and reconstruction…

School architecture is often taken for granted both in use (where it is naturalized) and in writing on education policy (tending to feature simply as policy setting.) Built policy instead points up the active and ongoing role of the material environment in shaping education. From financing and procurement to the design of individual classrooms,…

This article seeks to share the experience gained in the expository project "Atmospheres for Educational Change," a curatorial proposal focused on education that took place at Normal, the cultural intervention space at the University of A Coruña, aimed at criticizing the position of contemporary art in education and society.…

The study deals with the outdoor learning approach developed by Sreten Adžic (1856-1933), who is considered the founder of the outdoor learning movement in Serbia. He greatly influenced pedagogical practice as a primary-school teacher, professor, and teacher-training school manager. According to this approach, the term outdoor learning had two…

This article is on the development of the School Facility I.Q. Inventory (SFIQI), an instrument to assess the extent of knowledge a school administrator possesses in delivering their assignment to manage his/her school building. The instrument was designed based on the current literature. The validity of the instrument was verified by a panel of…

The campus of United Tribes Technical College (UTTC) has a collection of three large solar arrays over the UTTC Skills Center. This building has been the training hub for professional trades such as carpentry, welding, automotive, commercial vehicle driving, heavy equipment operation, and sustainable agriculture. Most recently, renewable energy,…

This brief describes a new method for states to determine how well their charter school facility needs are being met with state policies, both at present and in the future as the number of charter schools increases. The brief also illustrates how this new approach, called a Charter Facility Index, can be used in practice, with three state…

Excel"in"Ed has developed a methodology called the Charter Facility Index by which states can assess whether they are addressing the full facility needs of charter schools. The Charter Facility Index allows states to determine how well charter school facility needs are being met with existing state policies. The index also helps states…

A school facility's quality and accessibility have important impacts on schools' functionality to serve as places of high-quality education. While these challenges are familiar to most schools in the United States, charter schools are responsible for acquiring and paying for their educational facilities, a responsibility that local school…

Amid increasing global and national interest in the built educational environment, this editorial considers developments within the Nordic countries that are investigated and discussed within the articles in this special issue. We discuss commonalities and divergences in the experiences of transition and change in the schools, located in a range…

State policymakers can help public charter schools overcome obstacles to their stability, growth and ability to provide high-quality options to students--simply by providing these schools with access to affordable financing to build their own facilities. Ownership is a critical option to address charter school facility needs. Most charter schools…