Educational subject experts here released a study this week revealing that test scores and achievement are strongly correlated to the value of the school buildings in which they learn. Toss out theories on small class sizes, quality of teachers, and all other factors, they concluded. It all boiled down to brick and mortar.
"If you build it,
and it costs a really lot of money,
they will achieve."...W.E Think
........................................................................
OK...so maybe THAT was an April Fool's day parody.
But this next story ain't no joke.
If one were to read today's Wisconsin State Journal, one might happen upon a small blurb about school referenda in this week's spring elections. One of those is Beloit's referendum attempt for $70M.Beloit has the largest proposal before voters, a $70 million question for improvements to schools and construction of a $17.2 million middle school for 660 students.So...let's get this straight....
Read more
Beloit has a plan for a school with a capacity of 660 kids for $17.2M ($26,060/kid).
Meanwhile, as part of the Sun Prairie School Board's Elementary Task Force, an estimate of $19.1M was presented for an elementary school with capacity of 500 ($38,200/kid).
The rendering looks pretty spanky...
...and the architect for Beloit is our very own Bray & Associates!
So...how come we need to spend 50% more per student on bricks and mortar?
Put in another way...how come Beloit can come up with a design that costs $2M less than our estimate with a capacity for 32% more kids?
It begs the questions...dontcha think?
Note: In all fairness, there have been studies attempting to correlate academic achievement with building quality. Typically, these focus more on older buildings. One such article can be found here: http://www.ncef.org/pubs/outcomes.pdf
Posts
