ED479182 2003-09-00 Back to the Agora:

Workable Solutions for Small Urban

School Facilities. ERIC Digest.

ERIC Development Team

www.eric.ed.gov

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Back to the Agora: Workable Solutions for Small Urban School Facilities.

ERIC Digest................................................................... 1

STRATEGIES................................................................... 3

CONCLUSION.................................................................. 5

NOTES........................................................................... 5

REFERENCES.................................................................. 5

ERIC Identifier: ED479182

Publication Date: 2003-09-00

Author: Lawrence, Barbara Kent

Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools Charleston WV.

Back to the Agora: Workable Solutions for

Small Urban School Facilities. ERIC Digest.

THIS DIGEST WAS CREATED BY ERIC, THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

INFORMATION CENTER. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ERIC, CONTACT

ACCESS ERIC 1-800-LET-ERIC

Two preconceptions make providing facilities for small schools a challenge: that they

will be more expensive per student than facilities for large schools, and that teaching

and learning must occur in isolation from the community. Yet Socrates taught in the

ED479182 2003-09-00 Back to the Agora: Workable Solutions for Small Urban School

Facilities. ERIC Digest.

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"agora," an open market in ancient Athens, which, like the Roman "forum," functioned

as a marketplace for ideas and commerce. For students and teachers it offered an ideal

place in which to learn and teach. This Digest suggests adapting such a model to meet

modern needs, and shows that there are successful small schools that have already

done so while reducing costs.

Several successful and innovative small urban schools (discussed below) have created

places that are the modern equivalent of the agora, places where students and adults

can interact with the community, share resources, and learn from each other. Such

school designs can be "courageously evolutionary--not just astoundingly revolutionary"

(Bergsagel, 2002, p. 1).

In a foresighted report, researchers DeArmond, Taggart, and Hill (2002, p. 5) identified

five trends of education that should guide decisions about facilities: "pressure on

schools to perform for all students, . . . demands for the personalization of learning, new

technologies, periodic shortages of teachers, and shifts in student population and

residency patterns." These pressures may require that school facilities be reconfigured

in creative and innovative ways. DeArmond et al. suggest that "facilities should focus on

students' learning and achievement . . . be flexible . . . be responsive . . . trade-offs and

choices should be transparent . . . provisions should be driven by data, and facilities

should be economically efficient" (DeArmond et al., p. 13).

How can the ideas of the ancient Greeks and modern researchers in education apply to

school facilities?

* Create small schools that have greater flexibility and personalized opportunities for

teaching and learning (Darling-Hammond, 2002; Lawrence et al., 2002). Small scale

supports these qualities in at least two ways: (1) by aiding people in getting to know

each other and in being known and (2) by offering the flexibility that will allow for

changes in teaching needed to serve the largest (and most mobile) cohort of students in

U.S. history (Sack, 2001, p. 15; Bergsagel, 2002, p. 2).

* Create a facility that supports the educational program and allows its occupants to

focus on their primary goals of teaching and learning.

* Involve the community in open discussions of the goals and mission of the new or

renovated school and plan accordingly to gain community support (U.S. Department of

Education, 2000).

* Obtain as much accurate information about the condition of the facility as possible to

inform decision making. Such information is not always readily available but should be

sought to avoid the skewing of information to serve particular interest groups (Beaumont

& Pianca, 2000).

* Plan for efficiency. The word "efficient" has grim connotations for advocates of small

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schools because it has often justified closing schools. New research, however,

challenges "economies of scale" by showing that large schools can be inefficient and

small schools efficient. Reports offering new staffing models and budgets show small

schools can be cost-effective to operate (Darling-Hammond, 2002, pp. 60-64) and

cost-effective to build (Lawrence et al., 2002).

STRATEGIES

Today's teachers and students aren't likely to meet in an open market, but schools "can"

take advantage of their own locale by giving students opportunities to interact with the

community. Forming partnerships with the community grounds and enriches students'

education (Nathan & Febey, 2001). The following paragraphs highlight strategies

communities have successfully employed to keep their schools small and local.

Sharing facilities with other schools. The Julia Richman Education Center in New York

City exemplifies ways in which a large facility can be converted for use by small

schools. The 1923 facility was a comprehensive school of 2,000 students, many of

whom were failing. By the mid-1990s the Board of Education accepted a proposal from

the Coalition of Essential Schools to open six small autonomous schools of choice

within the space (Cook, 2000).

Reconfiguring large high schools. Creating schools within a school may not fully achieve

the personalized environment of autonomous small schools (Raywid, 1999), but can be

a stop-gap measure for dealing with problems of large schools. Another alternative is to

reconfigure grades to PK-12, which works by drawing students from a smaller

geographical area, resulting in a similar size school but with much smaller grade cohorts

(Coladarci & Hancock, 2002).

Sharing with an education partner. In New York, three new specialized small high

schools, each serving a maximum of 100 students, have opened in campuses of City

College: Queens High School for the Sciences at York College; the High School for

Math, Science, and Engineering at City College; and the High School of American

Studies at Lehman College (New York City Public Schools, 2002).

Sharing the facility with noneducation partners. In the South Jamaica section of

Queens, New York, a new facility will house the Police Athletic League Community

Center and the High School for Law Enforcement and Public Safety (Fuchs, 2002). The

Zoo School in Apple Valley, Minnesota, and The Henry Ford Academy in Dearborn,

Michigan, are examples of similar partnerships. (1)

Sharing with the community. Many schools welcome use of the facility by the

community, often charging for space and services. Chicago provides community

services within its schools, including tutoring, job-training, arts, sports, and family

therapy. Other schools house health centers and libraries for students and members of

the community (Whalen, 2002). These models show that using the school as the center

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ED479182 2003-09-00 Back to the Agora: Workable Solutions for Small Urban School

Facilities. ERIC Digest.

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not only benefits the community, but increases the time in which the facility is used and

can augment funds for its maintenance and operation (Warger, 2001).

Leasing space in the community. Schools can also lease nontraditional space for

classes and programs in factories, malls, office buildings, churches, and other large

structures and use community facilities such as libraries, gyms, and parks. Students in

the Snowden International High School in Boston, Massachusetts, for example, use the

Boston Public Library across the street and the facilities of the YMCA located a few

blocks away. Students at Cambridge Ridge and Latin, a high school on a small lot in

Cambridge (MA), share a city park with local residents, which offers extensive fields and

a competition-quality track.

Using the small facility in new ways. Schools can be so well integrated into the

community that they use community facilities on a regular basis. For example, students

at The Big Picture Company's Met Schools spend two days a week in an internship in

the community, and three days a week working with their peers and an advisor at the

school. Met school buildings are small in scale and reflect local architecture. In fact,

they look more like homes or offices than schools, and are intended as places that will

nurture relationships among students, teachers, and members of the community. The

Big Picture Company "believes that the physical design of a small school shapes the

reform efforts and learning that goes on within that school." (2)

Leasing the whole facility. Districts lacking funds for capital projects may find private

investors for joint ventures, or to build the facility and lease it to the district. In 1997 the

school district of Niagara Falls used private funds to construct a school-community

facility, and the way in which it was financed is instructive (DeArmond et al., 2002, pp.

20-23).

Capitalizing on the facility. Some facilities can be leveraged to create funds for

renovation or new construction projects and rental income. Many closed schools were

turned into desirable residential apartments and commercial spaces. When the student

population has diminished and the school facility or its site is too large, space can be

leased or sold to appropriate users, including condominium owners and tenants. James

F. Oyster Bilingual Public Elementary Schools and Henry Adams House, a 211-unit

apartment house, is a successful example of capitalizing on the land to fund a new

school (National Council for Public-Private Partnerships, 2001).

To attract and retain teachers, Santa Clara School District in California invested $6

million to build 40 low-rent apartments for new teachers on land occupied by a school

that was closed (Folmar, 2002, p. 1). This strategy can reduce teacher turnover and

provide income for the district.

Districts might sell air rights over single-storied schools (especially when buildings are

architecturally undistinguished) for construction of a new school and residential

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apartments on the same site. This strategy could defray initial costs and contribute to a

continuous income stream.

Promoting renovation instead of new construction and locating new schools on sites

already served by infrastructure or planned for growth promote investment in existing

infrastructure. Maryland has been a leader in this approach. In 1991, 38% of the budget

for school construction in Maryland was allocated to renovation of existing buildings, but

in 2002 that percentage had risen to 79% (Noonan, personal communication, 2003).

CONCLUSION

Though "small is not synonymous with successful" (Darling-Hammond, 2002, p. iii), the

message from education research over the past 30 years is clear: small schools offer

many advantages for learning and for supporting communities, and physical structures

should promote good educational programs. Schools need to be flexible, promote

personalization of learning, and be adaptable to shifts in population. School facilities

also need to provide flexible and responsive environments and opportunities for

community engagement, and to be efficient. Some schools are meeting these

challenges with facilities that are so well integrated into their communities that they

function much like the "agora."

NOTES

1. See http://www.isd196.k12.mn.us/schools/ses/ and http://www.hfacademy.org/.

2. See http://www.bigpicture.org.

REFERENCES

Beaumont, C., & Pianca, E. (2000). Historic neighborhoods in the age of sprawl: Why

Johnny can't walk to school. Washington DC: The National Trust for Historic

Preservation.

Bergsagel, V. (2002). Designing schools that work for all kids: What does effective

educational design look like? Seattle, WA: School Construction.

Coladarci, T., & Hancock, J. (2002). Grade-span configuration. Journal of Research in

Rural Education, 17(3), 189-192.

Cook, A. (2000). The transformation of one large urban high school: The Julia Richman

Education Complex. In E. Clinchy (Ed.), Creating new small schools: How small schools

are changing American education (pp. 101-120). New York: Teachers College Press.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2002). Redesigning schools: What matters and what works.

Stanford, CA: School Redesign Network at Stanford University.

ERIC Resource Center www.eric.ed.gov

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Facilities. ERIC Digest.

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DeArmond, M., Taggart, S., & Hill, P. (2002). The future of school facilities: Getting

ahead of the curve. Seattle, WA: Center on Reinventing Public Education, Daniel J.

Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington. (ERIC Document

Reproduction Service No. ED 470 977) Retrieved August 12, 2003, from

http://www.crpe.org/pubs/pdf/report_facilitiesweb.pdf

Folmar, K (2002, April 19). District school builds homes for teachers: Low-rent

apartment complex believed to be first in state. Mercury News, p. B1. Retrieved August

8, 2003, from

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/3096678.htm?templa te=cont

entModules/printstory.jsp

Fuchs, M. (2002, September 18). Schools adapt old lesson: Share and share alike. New

York Times, p. B8.

Lawrence, B. K., Bingler, S., Diamond, B. M., Hill, B., Hoffman, J. L., Howley, C. B. et al.

(2002). Dollars & sense: The cost effectiveness of small schools. Cincinnati, OH:

KnowledgeWorks Foundation.

Nathan, J., & Febey, K. (2001). Smaller, safer, saner successful schools. Center for

School Change, Humphrey Institute of the University of Minnesota. Washington, DC:

National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities. (ERIC Document Reproduction

Service No. ED455680)

The National Council for Public-Private Partnerships. (2001). James F. Oyster Bilingual

Elementary School: Case study. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved August 12, 2003,

from http://ncppp.org/cases/oyster.html

New York City Public Schools. (2002). 2002-2003 specialized high schools student

handbook: Admissions information and sample examination. New York: Author.

Retrieved August 11, 2003, from http://www.nycenet.edu/hs_directory/shsat/shsat.pdf.

Noonan, Jim. (2003). Personal communication, August 14, 2003.

Raywid, M. A. (1999). Current literature on small schools. ERIC Digest. Charleston, WV:

ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. (ERIC Document

Reproduction Service No. ED 425 049)

Sack, J. L. (2001, September 5). K-12 Enrollment sets another record, but dip by 2011

forecast. Education Week, 21(1), p. 15.

U.S. Department of Education. (2000). Schools as centers of community: A citizens'

guide for planning and design. Washington, DC: Author. (ERIC Document Reproduction

Service No. ED 436 082) Retrieved August 12, 2003, from

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/archives/inits/construction/commguide .pdf

www.eric.ed.gov ERIC Custom Transformations Team

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Warger, C. (2001). Research on full-service schools and students with disabilities.

ERIC/OSEP Digest. Arlington, VA: ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted

Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service. No. ED 458 749) Retrieved August

12, 2003, from http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed458749.html

Whalen, S. P. (2002). Polk Bros. Foundation's full service schools initiative. Synopsis of

evaluation findings (1996-1999). Chicago, IL: Polk Bros. Foundation. Retrieved August

12, 2003, from http://www.polkbrosfdn.org/full_service_schools_initiative.htm

-----

Barbara Kent Lawrence, Ed.D., is a former high school teacher who ran a construction

and real estate brokerage for many years. A professor at Lesley University, she writes

about education and facilities and works as an educational consultant specializing in

small schools.

This publication was prepared with funding from the Institute of Education Sciences,

U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. ED-99-CO-0027. The opinions

expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of IES, the

Department, or AEL.

Title: Back to the Agora: Workable Solutions for Small Urban School Facilities. ERIC

Digest.

Document Type: Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs)

(071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073);

Available From: For full text: http://www.ael.org/eric.

Descriptors: Building Conversion, Building Innovation, Change Strategies, Educational

Change, Educational Finance, Elementary Secondary Education, House Plan,

Partnerships in Education, School Buildings, School Community Relationship, School

Restructuring, Shared Resources and Services, Small Schools, Urban Schools

Identifiers: ERIC Digests

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