Effects of school design on student outcomes

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to compare student achievement with three school design classifications: movement and circulation, day lighting, and views.Design/methodology/approach – From a sample of 71 schools, measures of these three school designs, taken with a ten‐point Likert scale, are compared to students' outcomes defined by six parts of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS): Reading comprehension, Reading vocabulary, Language arts, Mathematics, Social studies, and Science. Data are tested through reduced regression analysis, where the difference between R2 of the reduced regression is compared to the R2 of the full regression. This result, in each case, is defined as the effect of the school's physical environment on students' outcomes represented by achievement scores on the ITBS.Findings – Significant effects are found for Reading vocabulary, Reading comprehension, Language arts, Mathematics, and Science.Practical implications – The study's findings regarding movement and circulation pa...