IURD awarded U.S. Department of Education funding to establish National Center on School Infrastructure

Over the next five years, NCSI will work to build the capacity of public school leaders and stakeholders to deliver safe, healthy, energy-efficient, and climate-resilient school facilities that promote learning for all students, improve teacher retention, and benefit communities.

“Every day, millions of children in the U.S. attend public school in unhealthy, unsafe, educationally inadequate, environmentally unsustainable, and financially inefficient facilities,” said Jeff Vincent, principal investigator and project director for NCSI. State and local school district stakeholders face many barriers to improving and modernizing school facilities, including training, information, and funding gaps. 

“NCSI aims to address these challenges by connecting leaders and practitioners to information resources and technical assistance focused on improving school buildings and grounds, particularly in high-need, low-wealth districts,” says Vincent.

NCSI will be developing an online information clearinghouse that will serve as a “one-stop shop” for research, policy resources, and effective practices for the planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and utilization of educational facilities. The clearinghouse will also act as a portal to public school infrastructure funding opportunities, data, events, and news. NCSI is also developing school facility data tools and technical assistance services that will support improved planning, governance, funding, data management, and accountability. 

Technical assistance services will initially be targeted to the U.S. Department of Education’s  Supporting America’s School Infrastructure grantees, but the reach of services will expand over time. “NCSI technical assistance services will level the playing field so that states and local school districts can overcome disadvantages in providing high quality schools for all children and communities,” says Kathleen Moore, technical assistance project manager at the National Council on School Facilities.

Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century School Fund, noted that NCSI will help build the vision, plans, and funding for equitable and efficient public school buildings and grounds. “NCSI’s work is ultimately about systems change,” says Filardo. “Our efforts will serve both to improve the technical capabilities to institute facility standards and practices based on modern knowledge about health, education, energy, and resiliency, and to foster policy and funding environments that will support equitable school infrastructure over the long term.” 

 “Equitable and sustainable education infrastructure is vital to social and environmental justice,” says Charisma Acey, the co-principal investigator for NCSI and research director at IURD. “IURD is honored to house NCSI and its important suite of resources that will support safe, healthy, and climate resilient school environments.”

On April 26, Vincent will be participating as a panel moderator during the White House’s Summit for Sustainable and Healthy K–12 Infrastructure, which will highlight the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to providing communities equitable access to energy efficient, climate resilient, and healthy school facilities that are conducive to learning. School stakeholders are invited to tune in to the opening plenary and panels on April 26 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.