OKLAHOMA: Green schools have been cropping up all over the country in recent years, some of them far from noted green building centers. Such is the case with the the Jenks Math and Science Center in Jenks, Okla., (a suburb of Tulsa) which recently became the state’s first LEED-certified K-12 building. The project was built by Tulsa-based Manhattan Construction and designed by Tulsa-based GH2 Architects, and Michigan-based TMP Architecture, and has garnered LEED Gold certification.

Encompassing 91,580 square feet, the Jenks Public Schools Math and Science Center includes ten math classrooms, fourteen flexible science teaching studios, a student health center, a 200-seat multi-purpose meeting room and a 105-seat planetarium. Located in the center of the main Jenks high school campus — creating a visual and physical link between the Freshman Academy and senior high classroom buildings — the building was designed to encourage collaboration between math and science and also between the different grade levels.

Green features of the new Jenks Math and Science Center include a wind power system comprised of via four vertical axis wind turbines, as well as groundsource heat pumps that use the steady temperature of the earth to heat and cool the building (and generate hot water).
The electricity generated via the building’s wind power system is monitored remotely, with data integrated into the school’s renewable energy study program; the groundsource system pumps water through 217 vertical wells, which are each 400 feet deep, using around 33 miles of piping. The building makes use of an energy efficient heating and cooling system, high efficiency appliances and high efficiency plumbing fixtures. Its high-performance building envelope incorporates insulated metal panels and high-performance windows, which are protected by fixed vertical and horizontal sunshades to reduce glare and solar heat gain during the summer months. These same windows also flood the classrooms with an abundance of natural light, helping kids to stay focused during their studies.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: DC would likely close some successful schools while expanding failing schools if it relies upon a study released last week. The much-anticipated study, which the Deputy Mayor for Education commissioned to help plan school closures and charter school policies, is highly flawed.
The goal of the study was to help DCPS balance out near-­empty buildings in some locations with over­crowded ones in others, taking into account the quality of the schools.

For all its colorful charts and maps, the report uses a faulty measure of school quality and does not make any serious attempt to predict how families and schools might react to the changes it proposes. With such important decisions at stake, the Deputy Mayor should insist upon more rigorous analysis.
The report authors crunched a lot of numbers in an admirably short period of time and produced some very interesting descriptive statistics, like the percentage of students below 185 percent of the poverty line in charters (75) versus DCPS (67).

The study counts, within each of 39 neighborhood clusters in the city, the number of "performance," or high quality, seats in schools and compares that to the number of school-age students living in that cluster. The difference is called a service gap. It recommends schools for closure, or in some cases investment, to reduce these service gaps. But it doesn't justify the type of investment. Is it facilities? More teachers? Better teachers?
The authors define a "performance seat" as a seat in a school in the top tier of a 4-tier rating system they devised. Each school's tier comes from estimated percentages of its students who were judged "proficient" on the state assessment test in recent years, projected 4 years into the future assuming a straight line trend.

This study raises a lot of questions for most researchers and even lay readers. Two big flaws stand out, which are so basic and could do significant damage if city leaders overlook the problems.

The District needs sophisticated guidance to begin comprehensive, city-wide planning of school closures and investments and to help coordinate land use policy with charter school expansion. Unfortunately, this report doesn't provide enough of this guidance.