Successful schools depend on quality school buildings. All schools in all neighborhoods should have quality and adequate facilities that encourage opportunities for a 21st Century public education. Quality school facilities can potentially anchor neighborhoods and become vital centers of the community. In other cases, quality school facilities can even serve as a tool for spurring neighborhood revitalization and development efforts. While most of us know the value of investing in our children’s public education, many do not always link the state of school facilities to learning and teaching. Indeed, we hear from parents, students, teachers, and community leaders that Facilities Matter, and School facilities impact education and learning.

In fact, in NCBG's 2002 Chicago Teachers & School Facilities Study more than 75% of the teachers confirmed that facilities are vitally important to teaching. However, the study also found that nearly 45% of the Chicago teachers surveyed gave their own school facilities a grade 'C' or lower! The Teachers & Facilities Study also found that better facilities can actually add 3-4 percentage points to test scores-So YES, Facilities Matter! Click here to see other highlights from the Teachers & Facilities Study.

Below is a summary of key factors that should also be considered when evaluating the quality of your own school facility and your school district’s capital program.

Overcrowding leads to huge class sizes and poor conditions for learning. How can you determine if New School Construction is necessary to relieve overcrowding, or replace dilapidated buildings whose existence was intended to be a “band-aid” solution, and what are communities doing to become actively engaged in the planning and design of their new schools?

Underutilization in schools (schools that have excess space often due to declining student enrollment) can provide positive learning environments when viewed as “small schools.” Since class sizes are ideally smaller, and underutilized schools often have extra space to accommodate community centered activities, these unintended smaller schools can actually provide enhanced learning environments and be used more creatively to serve the broader neighborhood. For instance, learn how schools in Chicago and all across the nation, urban and rural, are advocating for the use of their public facilities to serve as Community Schools that truly benefit the students and the neighborhood. Do you have the space for such activities, or are overcrowded conditions limiting the creative use of space to implement such programs? By identifying your school’s Design Capacity, you can learn if your school is considered overcrowded, underutilized, or “just right.”

Finally, many schools, adequately sized or not, lack key educational facilities, such as functioning science labs, computer networks, and auditoriums. If the windows are broken, the paint is peeling, and children have to eat lunch in the library because there is no lunchroom, this can become a distraction to learning and teaching. Many of our buildings, new and old, are in need of facility Renovations & Upgrades so that our children are provided safe, healthy, and appropriate learning environments.

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The Neighborhood Capital Budget Group has studied school facilities and the Chicago Public Schools Capital Improvement Program (a.k.a. CIP) since 1996 when they launched their first structured capital plan and program. Back then, CPS was referred to as one of the worst urban school districts in the country, and our buildings were overcrowded, deteriorating, and in much neglect.

Today, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) are responsible for 600 schools in the district, totaling approximately 435,000 students—the third largest district in the country! The Chicago Public Schools’ Capital Improvement Program (CIP) has succeeded in major strides toward improving our City's schools, but much remains to be done. Although more than $2.4 billion have been invested in our schools, CPS estimates that at least $2 billion more is needed!

So you see, facilities do matter—to students, teachers, parents, educators, and the greater community!