For Immediate Release November 13, 2002

For more information, contact:
Jacqueline C. Leavy, Executive Director
Andrea Lee, NCBG Schools Initiative Coordinator
(312) 939-7198.

Today, NCBG will release a new national research study documenting the relationships between overcrowded and educationally inadequate facilities and Chicago teachers’ efforts to deliver better student achievement. The study, conducted by Dr. Mark Schneider of the State University of New York (Stony Brook), in conjunction with a multi-state partnership of which NCBG is a member, brings together the results of surveys of classroom teachers in Chicago and Washington, D.C. with other research on facilities and educational outcomes. Community and parent leaders are being joined by Chicago Teachers Union President Deborah Lynch who will comment on and respond to the research report.

In the wake of the Federal “No Child Left Behind” (“NCLB”) legislation, our public schools are expected to attract and retain a steadily increasing number of “highly qualified” teachers. Chicago has been put on notice that 191 of its schools are deemed to be failing according to NCLB and the Illinois State Board of Education. "This study shows that designing and building educationally appropriate and high-quality school facilities is a critical factor in meeting the rising demands on our public schools,” explained Jacqueline Leavy, NCBG’s Executive Director, “especially for attracting and keeping the teachers our schools need.”

Dr. Schneider’s research report entitled, Public School Facilities and Teaching: Washington, DC and Chicago, provides findings and analyses of a survey conducted of a random sample of 688 active Chicago classroom teachers. Dr. Schneider’s survey asked teachers to assess how important facility conditions are when it comes to teaching, teacher morale, teacher retention, and a teacher's ability to deliver a quality education. The responses were then compared to objective data on school characteristics.

Among the key findings:

• Larger, more crowded schools drew more negative reports from teachers regarding facility problems and inadequacies, as did older school buildings.


• As Chicago spends more capital money on facilities, teacher-reported problems with facility conditions decrease.


• However, despite the amount of capital money invested in Chicago schools, teachers continue to report inadequate design problems, such as the absence or inadequacies of science labs, physical education facilities, art and music rooms, and a deficit of teacher preparation space.


• Nearly 50% of the teachers report poor indoor air quality, with more than 25% of the teachers saying their buildings have caused adverse health affects, such as asthma and respiratory problems, which result in 20% reporting approximately 4 sick days on average per school year.


• Almost half of Chicago teachers interviewed said their schools are too big and the room sizes are poorly configured for teaching an increasingly demanding curriculum.


• Teachers are interested in and willing to be part of finding solutions to facility problems.

"The research supports everything that parents like me have been saying all along about the urgent need to fix, repair, and relieve the overcrowding in our schools. It shows that facilities really do affect our children's learning," said Mildred Wiley, NCBG Board President and a Local School Council member at three Chicago public schools.

At today’s press conference, Dr. Schneider will present the survey results and discuss supporting evidence from other independent researchers. His research methodology included comparing teachers’ survey responses with objective data including demographics, capital spending, and test scores. Dr. Schneider observed that, “After running additional tests of the teachers’ responses against income, per square foot capital investment, and school characteristics such as percent of ELL [English Language Learners] populations in the schools, it is clear that the problems with facilities reported by Chicago teachers are citywide. The problems are not isolated to one geographic area or one specific group." Chicago Teachers Union President Deborah Lynch will comment on the findings.

Peabody School parent and LSC president, Luz Padilla remarked, “Parents have pointed out that many of our schools have unhealthy conditions that we think make our children miss school days. Hopefully, with this research, we can convince CPS to make sure that we get our school repaired and built as promised, maybe even sooner than 2005."

Overcrowding remains a persistent problem in nearly one-third of our schools. NCBG’s Fall 2002 analysis of recent school enrollment data shows that some 161,419 students still attend 171 overcrowded schools. “The southwest side has 64 overcrowded schools. There are 38 are on the northwest side. So, I’m still asking, where’s our promised new elementary and high schools for the southwest side?” said Alfred Rodgers, an LSC member and NCBG 2nd Vice- President.

“When the No Child Left Behind Act has made it clear that many of our schools in Cabrini Green are failing, this study shows that better school facilities can add 3-4 percentage points to a schools’ standardized test scores. That’s an important difference, when NCLB is demanding a 5% annual yearly progress benchmark,” said Deidre Brewster-Matthews, a parent and education organizer in the Cabrini Green Row Houses.

NCBG’s “Rebuild Our Schools” network of parent and community leaders is urging the Chicago Public Schools to improve and reform its Capital Improvement Program by:

1. Annually disclosing every school’s latest building assessment and all building code violations so that schools can be more informed on their building conditions, help pinpoint priorities for capital projects, and build the case for additional funding for facilities.


2. Including educators and parents in planning for major school redesign and construction projects, so that schools truly reflect the needs of those working and learning in the buildings, ensure that school capital investments produce educationally appropriate facilities, and serve as community anchors for generations to come.


3. Establishing a Citizens’ Advisory Panel, charged with helping to create a “Facility Master Plan” that better forecasts and plans for school repair and construction projects.

For the past 6 years, NCBG’s “Rebuild Our Schools” Initiative has brought together parent and community leaders concerned about school repair and construction from across the City, to advocate for educationally appropriate school facility investments, including the relief of overcrowding. Over the past year, NCBG joined forces with education reform groups through the “Building Educational Success Together,” or “BEST” collaborative, to gather more research on the impact that school facility conditions have on teaching and learning, and to promote the role of schools as cornerstones of healthy neighborhoods.