In an increasingly competitive world, America's determination to educate its children for success needs all the help school building design can provide.

The education paradox
As citizens of the world's richest, most powerful and most technologically advanced country, Americans do many things well. Maybe that's why they find their children's academic achievement so puzzling. What's happening inside today's successor to the Little Red Schoolhouse presents a mixed picture of young Americans facing a world of relentless competition.

Are Americans serious about education? The statistics offer a resounding "yes." In 2000, the United States and Korea spent the highest percentage of their gross domestic product (GDP) on education expenditures — 6.6 percent — among OECD countries. This is also true at each level of achievement. At the elementary/secondary level, America spent 3.9 percent of GDP, while the average for all reporting OECD countries was 3.6 percent. At the post-secondary level, the nation allocated 2.7 percent of GDP toward education expenditures, while the corresponding OECD average was 1.3 percent.

And yet, for all the time and money spent on improving public education, too many younger American students still do poorly in reading and mathematics. "The Nation's Report Card," a study produced in 2003 by the Department of Education, found only 31 percent of 9-year-olds and 32 percent of 13-year-olds could read at a proficient level or above. Similarly, just 32 percent of 9-year-olds and 29 percent of 13-year-olds scored in mathematics at a proficient level or above. Especially in the context of increased international competition for quality jobs, such an unpromising assessment of American children's prospects is hardly encouraging.

Investing in school construction
One way to improve the quality of education in America is to improve the built environment. According to the United States Conference of Mayors, a significant increase in education construction is underway that will be sustained over the next several years in K-12 schools and colleges. In 2003, the volume of school construction by America's educational institutions reached an all-time high of $48.1 billion — almost a 20 percent increase over 2002 — as reported by American School & University magazine's 30th Annual Official Education Construction Report. The report also projects that nearly $150 billion will be spent from 2004 through 2006.

Sums like these should help alleviate school overcrowding, deterioration and obsolescence, particularly in K-12 facilities. Yet school officials need more. With the school population rising to some 54 million by 2005 and expected to grow more in the coming years, such chronic problems as classroom shortages, leaky roofs, inadequate electrical systems and persistent lead paint and asbestos are shortchanging too many children.

Indeed, in 1995 the General Accounting Office found that nearly three out of four school buildings needed at least one major renovation, and that the average public school building was over 40 years old. This picture remains largely valid today, with the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 doing little to provide new federal funding for construction. As a result, children in schools with poor academic performance are seldom finding vacancies in the better schools where they want to transfer, and failing schools are not being taken away from the jurisdiction of local school boards by states, who have no desire to take control and few ideas or dollars to help them transform losers into winners.

How to build Grade-A schools
Fortunately, new and renovated schools around the United States are employing numerous fresh ideas that aim to stimulate and encourage students, raise academic performance, recognize multiple paths to learning, reduce class and school size, facilitate group learning, increase parental and community involvement and alleviate school district financial problems. School facilities will inevitably reflect the vision, mission, culture and resources of the communities that build them, but there are numerous good ideas worth sharing from school to school, as the following examples suggest.

• Flexibility is being programmed into floor plans to support varied activities held simultaneously and to open or close specific areas at different hours and days to separate users. A school that doubles as a senior center, community recreation center or community arts center stays busy year-round and enjoys tax payers' support.Flexibility is being programmed into floor plans to support varied activities held simultaneously and to open or close specific areas at different hours and days to separate users. A school that doubles as a senior center, community recreation center or community arts center stays busy year-round and enjoys tax payers' support.
• Specialized areas, such as discovery zones, learning studios and activity rooms, are becoming as important as standard classrooms for supporting multiple ways of learning, better capitalizing on the diversity of students and their individual academic needs.
• Libraries are evolving into true resource or media centers as they help students master new ways of storing, retrieving and using information. For children from families without computers and Internet service, they can be indispensable.
• Social interaction is sanctioned through lounges, atriums and corridors with seating nooks, while solitude and quiet deliberation are fostered by contemplation centers. Group learning is thereby given supportive spaces to develop.
• Environmental conditions are being upgraded through such means as daylight and outdoor views, sophisticated climate controls and superior lighting and acoustics. These improvements help students stay healthier, and they allow schools to remain open and active throughout the year.
• Advanced information and communications systems are giving universal access to students and faculty alike, creating opportunities to combine textbooks and lectures with new media.

How Knoll can help
Knoll can expand on these innovate ideas and help create sturdy, handsome and adaptable spaces that offer much needed utility, comfort and stability to university educators and administrators alike.

Regardless of what the future holds for America's students, their schools will play a vital role in preparing them. Knoll is proud to be able to contribute to a quality educational environment. Wherever schools — colleges and universities in particular — have private offices and general office areas for administration, as well as faculty lounges and dining rooms, Knoll furniture systems, seating, desks, storage units, collaborative tables and filing cabinets can help create sturdy, handsome and adaptable spaces offering much needed utility, comfort and stability to educators and administrators alike. Their ease in coping with wear and tear, mountains of paper and tight spaces promise a lifetime of stellar performance.