Education and Smart Growth: Reversing School Sprawl for Better Schools and Communities. Translation Paper.

This paper describes how the trend toward building new schools on large sites far from existing development centers, called "school sprawl" or "school giantism," can have far-reaching impacts on school children, school districts, and the larger community.Educators and parents express concern that large schools reduce educational outcomes, particularly for at-risk youth.Schools that are more distant can diminish student participation in extracurricular activities, parental involvement, and taxpayer support. Students are walking and cycling to school less,which contributes to alarming rates of childhood obesity. Many suggest that the growing physical disconnect between schools and community helps create a level of student anonymity and social alienation that sets the stage for tragic events like Columbine. Smart growth groups, which traditionally have not weighed in on educational matters, are now questioning the same trend. Rather than build shopping mall schools at the edge of town, smart growth advocates encourage the continued use of existing schools and the construction of new schools on infill sites within existing neighborhoods.Smart growth advocates' interest in neighborhood schools dovetails with education reformers' interest in small schools, presenting an important opportunity for collaboration. Scattered efforts are underway across the country addressing the shared interests of educator sand smart growth advocates. (Author/EV)