Designing High Performance Schools

Designing High Performance Schools

When so much is being said about restructuring schools and so little is actually being done successfully, it is a pleasant breath of fresh air to read Designing High Performance Schools. There is outcome-based education, year-round schools, alternative assessment, and site-based management. There are new methods for student evaluation, a return to nongraded schools, a redesigning of grouping, and attempts to connect classroom experiences with community-based activities. Wading through this maze of possibilities and unresolved solutions comes an answer for the critical decade of the 90s. If you are a school practitioner or a consultant working with schools, here is the most practical, step-by-step guidance available on how to plan, conduct, and evaluate a comprehensive and complex restructuring. Using a model derived from the fields of socio-technical systems design, business process reengineering, knowledge work, quality improvement, and organization development, this book lays out every aspect needed for restructuring.

Energy Design Guidelines for High Performance Schools

Designing the Sustainable School

Having designed more than 75 K-12 school projects, and with a long-standing commitment to sustainability and a passion for architecture, Alan Ford is perfectly positioned to present this illuminating collection of sustainable school projects from around the world. Designing the Sustainable School is a compendium of ideas illustrating how some very talented architects and committed facility planners are meeting the challenge of creating better schools for the 21st century. They are creating schools that are eco-friendly, embody high-performance design principles, are rich in architectural character, and enhance the health and well-being of students and teachers. The projects represent a wide range of design solutions, aesthetics, location, and scale, ranging in size from the Aga Khan Award-winning three-room schoolhouse in Burkina Faso by Diebedo Francis Kere, to the 2500-student, 260,000-square-foot high school in Santa Ana, California by LPA Architects. Each of the 45 featured projects is presented with an overview of the components of the high-performance "tool kit" employed by architects to achieve sustainable design goals. Collectively, these demonstrate the breadth of tools that today's architects can employ to build a sustainable future for our children.