LESSON 1:
A healthy school environment supports learning

A healthy school environment supports learning.

Perspectives Charter School, February 2008

One of the most powerful lessons that has emerged from Chicago schools in recent years is that healthy high-performing "green" school environments support learning in addition to reducing operating costs and protecting the environment. Green building attributes offer benefits in building renovations as well as in new construction.

Healthy schools need regular maintenance. The age of the average American school building hovers around 42 years, and schools in Chicago are no exception. Aging school buildings often come with years of deferred maintenance and increasingly urgent repairs: fixing crumbling walls, updating faulty electrical systems, removing asbestos, replacing fire alarms, and addressing problems such as toxic mold. Important to the health and safety of all children and teachers, these updates are especially critical to the 17 percent of children who suffer from asthma that can be triggered by poor indoor air quality. When children are sick, they are absent more frequently and are less able to concentrate and learn at school. At its most basic, a healthy school environment is one in which school leaders have the funding and staff necessary for ongoing maintenance so that children do not face health and safety hazards.

Green attributes and good air quality support learning. Beyond basic repairs, simple healthy building attributes in schools can make a tremendous difference for children’s ability to learn: natural daylighting, good acoustics and healthy air quality have been linked with increased productivity in both students and teachers. Air quality, in particular, is becoming increasingly critical for school leaders to consider as more and more children suffer from asthma. African-American and Latino children—who comprise more than 85 percent of the Chicago Public Schools student population—suffer disproportionate rates of childhood asthma. Poor air quality or exposure to asthma triggers (such as harsh cleaning chemicals or mold in ceiling tiles) can cause asthma attacks that require children to leave the classroom and miss out on instruction. At the least, the breathing difficulties associated with asthma and other respiratory ailments make it difficult for children to fully focus or concentrate in school. Healthy indoor air quality, on the other hand, cuts down on absences and supports children’s ability to concentrate in the classroom.

Tarkington School, May 2008

Breathing easy—and learning more—at Chicago’s first green school. Chicago’s Tarkington School of Excellence, a public school that draws students from nearby neighborhoods, provides a shining example of how students can benefit from healthy building attributes. The first LEED-certified green school in Chicago, Tarkington provides vast amounts of natural daylight and a commitment to healthy air quality. The building design, ventilation, construction materials and maintenance practices are guided by a commitment to ensuring that the air children breathe at school is healthy and clean.

“I think that the best part is that there’s not pollution [inside]. There are [air] filters [in the school building] for kids with asthma,” said Tarkington student Alfredo Favela, 14. “There’s a lot of troubles with air pollution, and I think having a school like this is great because it not only helps the students but it helps the whole city.”

Vincent Iturralde, founding principal of Tarkington School and a member of HSC’s board of directors, said that even he has been surprised at how dramatically students have responded to the air quality. Iturralde overheard one student tell a guest at the school that he hadn’t used his asthma inhaler since he began attending Tarkington. At his former school, he had to use his inhaler almost every day.

Healthy buildings can support healthy lifestyles. In addition to providing healthy air and supporting students’ opportunities to learn, healthy buildings can support wellness. Tarkington school was designed in a way that maximizes available space, giving children extra room to play and be active. School buildings can also support health by including adequate kitchen facilities for cooking (rather than just re-heating) school meals, by including gym space for physical education and open space for recess, and by including appropriate facilities for a school nurse office or school health clinic.

Policy implications to support healthy school environments

To ensure that all children have access to school facilities that support health and learning, Healthy Schools Campaign asks that the federal government:

Provide resources for school construction, repair and maintenance. One of the greatest barriers to a healthy learning environment is a lack of resources to repair, renovate and maintain our nation’s existing school building infrastructure and to construct the next generation of healthy, high-performing schools. Providing funds to improve the health and safety of our schools is an important step toward improving children’s health and opportunities to learn. Connecting this funding to the use of best practices for energy efficiency, health and sustainability in school renovation and construction can help ensure the long-term viability of our school infrastructure.

Promote best practices for school siting. As the location of a school building plays a large role in the health and safety of students and staff, it is important to identify best practices for the siting of schools. Guidelines for school siting must take into account children’s special vulnerability to hazardous substances—such as those they may be exposed to when schools are constructed near contaminated land or in areas with high levels of air pollution—and that school siting determines whether children will be able to increase their daily physical activity by walking or biking to school.

Add a "learning environment index" to NCLB. A new “learning environment index” requirement under the No Child Left Behind Act is important to better measure and improve environmental conditions in schools as part of an overall strategy to raise student performance. Many of the schools not making adequate yearly progress under NCLB do not have adequate facilities, safe conditions, or school environments that support learning. A learning environment index would identify and measure conditions that contribute to student achievement. Schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress would be required to show improvement on their learning environment index, and states and districts would be required to provide the resources to ensure that schools address the conditions identified for improvement.

Fully fund voluntary EPA programs related to schools and children’s environmental health. The EPA’s voluntary programs have shown great results in promoting simple, effective best practices that provide significant public health benefits in school settings. In recent years, the funding and staffing resources for these highly successful programs have been dramatically reduced, hindering their effectiveness and limiting their reach. Restoring funding for these established, proven programs is an important step in making widespread, meaningful change in school health and safety.