Keys to Success in 2011
Dec 1, 2010 12:00 PM, By Mike Kennedy
Understanding and effectively addressing these 10 issues will help schools and universities provide better learning environments.
Educators know how hard it can be for students to perform well in school when they come from impoverished and dysfunctional environments. Still, most schools have embraced the philosophy that every student can learn, and they work to enable students to overcome the obstacles in their lives and strive for success.
In the same way, schools and universities may face many impediments on the path to success: inadequate financial support, unrealistic expectations, apathetic parents, political interference, to name just a few. But to have any chance at success, education administrators have to embrace the philosophy that every school or university can overcome its obstacles and provide a high-quality learning environment.
A key part of providing that high-quality education experience is having facilities that are safe and healthful, and offer students and teachers an opportunity to interact in spaces conducive to learning. Here are 10 areas that education institutions should be addressing as they strive for effective schools and universities:
1. Finances
The overriding issue for all schools and universities is whether they will have enough money to provide students with the level of education that they expect. Administrators always examine education and facility issues in the context of cost vs. benefits, but when budgets are depleted, all proposed projects should undergo more intense scrutiny.
Education administrators should continue to strive to provide the best education opportunities while always watchful for ways to deliver those opportunities in the most economical way (see related article, p. 18).
2. Sustainable design
To ensure that the money spent on building and renovating facilities is a wise investment, schools and universities should pursue projects that will last a long time and cost less to operate and maintain. Embracing sustainable design enables education institutions to provide facilities that use resources efficiently and minimize the impact they have on the environment.
The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program has become the most prominent way for those in the design and construction industries to judge a building’s adherence to sustainable principles. The LEED certification process awards points in six categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Materials & Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Innovation in Design.
Other organizations, such as the Collaborative for High-Performance Schools, also have rating systems that assess a facility’s green design elements.
Some schools and universities that are unable or unwilling to bear the time or expense of pursuing a certification process such as LEED still should try to incorporate environmentally friendly and energy-saving strategies into their building projects.
3. Operating efficiency
Whether or not a school facility was built with a sustainable design, building managers should try to make sure that the finished project is delivering on its promises. Building commissioning enables designers and school officials to determine if a building and its systems are performing as design models projected.
Schools also should take steps to provide training for those using a building so that they do not undermine or counteract energy-saving features of a facility. Energy efficiency can involve the interaction and balancing of many factors, and opening windows, tinkering with climate-control settings or overriding automatic lighting controls can throw off those calculations.
4. Educational technology
The presence of computers and Internet connections in classrooms has become routine in most American education institutions. But technological improvements and innovations continue, and schools and universities can acquire numerous devices that can enhance or supplement classroom learning.
Some of those: mp3 players that enable students to listen to lectures away from the lecture halls, or podcasts of relevant content; personal response systems, known more commonly as "clickers," enable teachers to collect immediate feedback from students and gauge how well they comprehended a lesson. The pervasiveness of cell phones enables instructors to communicate with students (and parents) via text messages or voice mail.
A National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) survey of teachers in 2009 found that 36 percent reported having access as needed to LCD or DLP projectors; 28 percent had access to interactive whiteboards; 22 percent had access to personal response systems; and 21 percent had access to video conferencing.
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