Improving the Physical and Social Environment of School: A Question of Equity

Abstract

This study explored the interplay between quality facilities and school climate, charting the effects of facility conditions on student and teacher attitudes, behaviors, and performance within schools slated for renovations in a large metropolitan school district. The research applied a school leadership–building design model to explore how six characteristics of facility quality—movement, aesthetics, play of light, flexible and responsive classrooms, elbow room, and security—interact with four aspects of school climate: academic press, community engagement, teacher professionalism, and collegial leadership. Because the schools were older and participants in the research perceived them as being in great need of maintenance and repair, the school building characteristics were often described as absent qualities. The survey data revealed moderate to strong relationships between the quality of school facilities and school climate. The interviews further explicated these relationships. Two additional themes—counterbalance and equity—emerged as being significant to occupants’ interactions with their current facilities. This study used a mixed-methods triangulation design–data transformation model. Specifically, school climate surveys, photo interviews with students, walking tours of the school facility, and formal interviews were triangulated to obtain complementary data and a more complete understanding of the educational facility to be renovated and its impact on occupants.