Leading up to Wichita bond vote, here’s what a researcher says about student environments

As the bond election for USD 259 schools heats up, the school district and Vote Yes camp are equating newer, more updated buildings to better student outcomes and behavior.

But it’s not the only variable that may lead to better student outcomes and behavior, according to researchers, who say socioeconomic status and environment also play a role.

Christopher Ellis is a professor and researcher at the University of Maryland that studies how physical environments can have an effect on human functioning, especially in schools.

His research found that schools with larger tree canopies, or being able to view more natural environments in the building, can lead to higher test scores and better student behavior.

“When you’re in school for 4, 6, 8 hours, and sort of moving from class to class, it can give you sort of some level of mental exhaustion,” Ellis said. “So what are the ways that, as a school, could you make it possible for them to restore that attention so they may be more effective in school learning?”

The school district has previously stated that its newly rebuilt schools will have more windows and take natural lighting into account, unlike some of its buildings today.

“Our staff need to be in well maintained, climate controlled facilities, and so do our students for an excellent learning environment,” said school board president Diane Albert at a February meeting.

Ellis said it’s important to understand, though, that schools with more natural lighting aren’t the root cause for better student outcomes, but that it’s more likely those schools see better test scores.

The factor that weighed the most when predicting student outcomes were socioeconomic factors, according to Ellis. He and his fellow researchers were able to do this by using publicly accessible free and reduced-price meals data.

“What we found was that the more students you had on free lunch, which is a proxy measure for socioeconomic status, then the lower the school scores would be,” Ellis said.

That may be what the district is seeing with one of its newest buildings, Southeast High School.

The Vote No campaign has pointed out that although the building, which opened in 2016, is newer, it still struggles with student behavior.

Nearly 78% of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

But the school also has dealt with overcrowding issues in recent years, especially as development in the area has taken off. KMUW reported in 2022 that the school was over capacity by more than 20%.

It’s those many factors that go into whether a school performs well, according to Ellis.

“From a statistical standpoint, you’re going to have a certain amount of the variation in the scores [that] can be explained by certain variables,” he said.

The school district also contends that constructing newer facilities and addressing deferred maintenance issues in the bond proposal will allow teachers to focus solely on teaching.

“The biggest variable in learning for a student, or the thing that we can control the most, is the teacher in front of the kids,” USD 259 Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld said. “One of the things to do is put them in an environment where they can do their job as well as they can.”

This story was originally published February 22, 2025 at 6:24 AM.