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Do school buildings play a role in school reform? Of course they do — although it's often overlooked, according to more than a dozen thinkers from the fields of education and architecture whose provocative essays are collected in Designing Places for Learning (published jointly by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and the Council of Educational Facility Planners International, 1995).

Editor Anne Meek opens the discussion by reminding readers that most of us inhabit school buildings when we are "young and impressionable, when our minds are busy with the tasks and issues of deep meaning." She encourages educators, policymakers, architects, and facilities planners to get comfortable with "a larger vision of the mission of schooling … by acknowledging the symbolic importance of the school as place."

Education writer Edward B. Fiske, who has been covering school reform for two decades, points out that systemic reform demands "rethinking all aspects of the structure of schooling, including the design of school buildings and other physical aspects of the learning environment."

Architect Steven Bingler suggests that a fundamental shift in thinking about education has occurred and now needs to translate to school design. Instead of seeing education as something "delivered" by teachers to passive students, educators are more inclined to see the student at the center of the learning process. And that changes the role of the school building. Instead of being a container from which knowledge is dispensed, the school must be reconceived as a learning tool, Bingler asserts.

Similarly, architect Anne Taylor describes her vision of the school as a "three-dimensional textbook." Not only the built environment of school but also the school's natural setting, she writes, "reveal the ideas, laws, and principles that we are trying to teach children from textbooks. … The buildings, the trees, the dirt, the grass can become convenient teaching tools for innovative educators."

Designing Places for Learning also includes chapters on revitalizing older schools, designing for students with disabilities, and using cultural information in school design, along with photo essays of successful projects.

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Building safety into schools has become an increasingly important goal to communities across the country. Episodes of school violence that continue to shock the nation have resulted in "enormous pressures on school administrators to do everything in their power to make schools safer and violence free," reports Safe School Design: A Handbook for Educational Leaders (ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management, 2000).

With advice grounded in the real world and informed by research, authors Tod Schneider, Hill Walker, and Jeffrey Sprague outline a set of environmental design principles to enhance school security and improve school climate. The three authors have ties to the Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior (IVDB) at the University of Oregon. Schneider, a national consultant on violence prevention and environmental design, is the Crime Prevention Specialist with the Eugene (Oregon) Police Department. Walker and Sprague are co-directors of the IVDB and nationally recognized researchers on violence prevention.

The authors acknowledge that some schools have reacted to concerns about security with defensive measures, such as installing metal detectors or attempting to profile or identify students with a higher-than-normal risk of violent behavior. Such severe approaches are "fraught with limitations," the authors conclude. Instead, they assert that most schools "will be better served by implementing alternative techniques of a more positive, enduring nature that shape the design, structure, operation, and climate of the school."

Safe School Design begins with research showing that safer schools tend to be places that:

• Are well led.
  
• Have positive climates and atmosphere.
  
• Are inclusive of all students.
  
• Are academically effective.

The most neglected area in school safety, the authors suggest, is the architectural design of the school building and surrounding grounds. The average public school building is more than 40 years old, built at a time when school safety and security were not such high-priority issues. Time-tested principles of architecture can be used today to enhance security in new buildings as well as in older facilities — but only if they are made a priority during the planning process. "The design and use of school space has a huge but often unrecognized impact on the behavior of students as well as staff," the authors note.

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) encompasses a set of principles that have been used extensively to prevent criminal behavior in a range of community settings. Safe School Design traces the origins of CPTED to the work of Jane Jacobs, author of the 1960 classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities. She advocated building neighborhoods on a human scale so that community members would take ownership of public spaces. In more recent decades, urban planners, architects, and law enforcement experts have implemented design principles that build a sense of community and reduce the fear of crime. CPTED strategies have been used successfully in a variety of settings, from inner-city neighborhoods to railway stations to parking garages.

Safe School Design shows how CPTED principles work in school settings. The authors walk readers through the process of conducting a thorough site evaluation, outlining key questions to consider and providing tools to help readers identify potential hot spots on or around campus.

Even schools that almost never see evidence of violence would be advised to pay attention to enhancing the physical safety of their campus. As the authors point out, "It has been the low-risk schools, devoid of security features, that have suffered the most dramatic consequences" in the ongoing spate of campus violence. In a chilling example, the authors retrace the events that unfolded at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, where a student named Kip Kinkel committed a mass shooting in 1998. The school is far from unique, the authors suggest: "The school is vast and sprawling, with at least 14 major uncontrolled access points, mostly in the form of dark, underlit breezeways."

Despite the serious subject matter, the authors focus on enhancing the positive features of schools. For example, they explain that establishing a sense of "territoriality" involves sending "a clear message to others that says, 'We're in charge here.' In schools, it also helps reinforce a message among students and staff that says, 'We belong here and this is our school.'" Attending to the physical aspects of a school should be complemented by curricula, attitudes and beliefs, and behaviors "that create a social ecology of nonviolence and mutual respect."

Safe School Design costs $18 and can be ordered from the ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management. Phone: 1-800-438-8841.

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The outdoor spaces of schools are often neglected as potential sites for learning, but have the potential to offer students "endless possibilities for exploration," writes Sharon Stine in Landscapes for Learning: Creating Outdoor Environments for Children and Youth (John Wiley & Sons, 1997).

The author draws on her dual background in early childhood education and design to inform and inspire both educators and design professionals. She also focuses on the role of the child, "who is often a major force in 'messing up' the space," she adds.

Case studies of successful learning environments are wide ranging, including an outdoor play site in rural Japan, a California high school focusing on environmental studies, a children's art studio, and a school garden that has blossomed on a former vacant lot. The physical transformation, writes Stine, "can be read by the children and the neighborhood as a tangible symbol of the ways people care."

— Suzie Boss

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