Essentials Magazine Essentials Fall 2019 | Page 29

The Impact of New School Facilities
Figure 1: Test scores improve in both subjects
after multiple years of exposure to new school facilities
10%
5%
0%
0
-5%
1
2
3
4+
Years of exposure to new school facility
English Language Arts
ernization generated improvements in the
school environment for many students
attending school in existing facilities.
Despite the importance of school
spaces to learning, there is little agree-
ment in the academic literature over
the link between spending on school
8
infrastructure
and improvements in stu-
dent outcomes.
Some studies have found
6
These new school facilities served a
dual purpose. LAUSD schools were
notoriously overcrowded prior to the
new constructions. Over half of students
attended school on a year-round, multi-
track calendar meant to allow existing
facilities to reach 133% or even 150% of
intended capacity. Remarkably, by 2016-
17 after the completion of the construc-
tion program, there was only one school
remaining on such a calendar.
Many schools in LAUSD were also
in exceptionally poor condition after
decades of neglect and overcrowding.
Stories of broken and missing equip-
ment, non-functioning restrooms, and
inadequate climate control were com-
mon. A 1999 review of facilities practices
in LAUSD and other California districts
noted that the district’s school buildings
were “overcrowded, uninspiring, and
unhealthy”. New school constructions
alleviated these issues for many students,
and additional funding for school mod-
Math
positive associations while many others
have failed to find such connections.
Constructing new school buildings is
often a multi-year project, affects only a
subset of students in a district, and leads
to changes in the school environments
that affect students in ways that may not
be immediately measurable. For these
reasons, much of the prior work is very
4
2
0
0
1
2
Introducing
3
4+
Years of exposure to new school facility
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