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Research Supports the Importance of Quality Facilities

Establishing the connection between facility conditions and learning environments is relevant because facility conditions are a substantial, manageable determinant of educational outcomes. This connection underscores that all stakeholders in schools have a mission-relevant reason to attend to facility conditions.

A national research programme conducted by a third party individual provides evidence for a number of ideas that support the importance of attending to school facility conditions. The following is a summary of the major findings.

1. School facility conditions are systematically connected to teaching and learning outcomes.

 
• A review of over 480 scientific papers and reports from many nations demonstrates a systematic connection between school facility conditions and teaching and learning outcomes.
• Dozens of specific facility condition effects have been identified, ranging from critical building components (e.g., lighting, heating/cooling, indoor air quality, acoustics) through programmatic considerations (e.g., science labs, music rooms) to building cosmetics (e.g., painting, landscaping) as well as health and safety concerns (e.g., fire code compliance, mould abatement).

2. Canadian research reveals that principals’ assessments of school facility conditions are reliably related to the quality of teaching and learning environments.

• School facility conditions have both direct and mediated effects. The direct effects are related to facility conditions that cause teaching and learning impairments, such as indoor air quality that causes asthma or acoustics that hinder communication.
• The mediated effects of facility conditions on learning outcomes occur through QTLE, which includes a wide-range of considerations including such items as student and teacher morale and commitment.
• Canadian research demonstrates that as facility conditions improve so does the quality of teaching and learning environments. Enhancing the quality of the teaching and learning environment through targeted facility renewal sets the stage for teachers and students to optimize their efforts.

3. Engineering assessments of school facilities are unrelated to the quality of teaching and learning environments in schools.

• Recent research in different school boards reveals that the Facility Condition Index (FCI), which is the property management standard for measuring facility conditions, is unrelated to the quality of the teaching and learning environment in schools.
• This research demonstrates that a school’s FCI provides no reliable indication of the teaching and learning environment, which is central to the educational mission.
• These findings carry the following important implication for the management of school facilities: If school facilities are measured, monitored, and managed against the FCI, administrators should expect no systematic improvement in the QTLE of these organizations.
• When FCI and the School Learning Index (see discovery 4) are considered together, they enable us to collaboratively develop a plan that — when implemented — will contribute to an enhanced teaching and learning environment.

4. Educators’ assessments of school facilities are systematically related to the quality of the teaching and learning environment.

• A new measuring instrument has been developed for assessing the condition of school facilities from an educators’ perspective. This instrument is called the School Learning Index (SLI). The SLI probes four fundamental, educationally-relevant dimensions of school facilities including:


• pedagogical functionality
• programmatic suitability
• cosmetic appropriateness
• participant wellness


• In contrast to the FCI, which provides a property-management perspective on school facilities, the SLI generates an assessment of school facilities in terms of their relevance to the education mission.
• Recent research demonstrates that SLI scores are systematically related to the QTLE in schools. This mission-relevant connection makes SLI a powerful new tool for creating more balanced facility condition assessments. By allocating renewal investments to improve schools’ SLI, administrators can impact and enhance a school’s educational mission.

For copies of School Facility Conditions and Learning Environments: Canadian Evidence, please contact

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