Students are highly dependent on the emergency planning and evacuation decisions made by policymakers and school personnel when disasters occur. The purpose of this study was to examine selected cases of school-related disasters, highlighting how factors of the school context intersected with natural hazards and subsequently affected…

Public school facilities primarily serve an educational role, and they also serve a civic role as voting places and emergency shelters. School districts collectively spend tens of billions of dollars each year on facilities construction needs at the nearly 100,000 K-12 public schools nationwide. About half (an estimated 54 percent) of public…

This article considers how the private finance initiative, a contract for infrastructure, affected teachers' perceptions of efficacy, job satisfaction, and morale at an urban secondary school in the United Kingdom. Qualitative data collection techniques, including unstructured observation and semistructured personal interviews, were utilized to…

The Hawkins-Stafford Elementary and Secondary School Improvement Amendments of 1988 (Public Law 81-815) provides federal funds for constructing and renovating schools in districts that educate "federally connected" children, such as those whose parents live and/or work on military installations and Indian reservations. A study was done…

This report examines how states and local school districts have been dealing with the issues facing their public school facilities, including: (1) the trends since 1990 in elementary and secondary school construction expenditures and how these expenditures were divided between land, buildings, and equipment; (2) trends since 1990 in the amount of…

This study examines the extent to which states fund local school district school construction and renovation projects and explores the governance of that funding. It determines the different types of funding assistance that state departments of education provide to local school districts for their educational facilities and what state-level…

New schools will have to be built and existing facilities rehabilitated to house California's growing enrollment. The state conducted a study to determine the need for funding to meet this new demand. Questionnaires were sent to each of the state's 1,029 school districts and 58 county offices of education. Offices responsible for over 85 percent…

In February 1990, special hearings were held by the Kansas Senate and House Education Committees on the physical condition of school facilities. This document offers a three-part synopsis: a brief and selective review of the testimony given in February 1990; an overview of general finance methods; and a state-by-state executive summary of the…

A number of new legislative mandates placed on Texas public schools has had the effect of requiring extensive school facility construction and alterations. The Interim Committee, established by the Texas Senate, enlisted the services of the Center for Policy Studies and Research in Elementary and Secondary Education at East Texas State University…

This paper, which highlights the findings of a recently completed doctoral dissertation, attempts to: (1) identify the desirable professional competencies of superintendents as perceived by South Dakota school board members and superintendents, themselves; and (2) determine which competencies, when performed unsatisfactorily, are the most common…