Amid all the clamor of big banks failing, we see an alternate approach applied to our schools. Throughout the country, school systems are abandoning large schools in favor of smaller ones: sometimes in the name of “charter schools” and sometimes – as we have seen here in New York City – breaking up the once praised larger schools into multiple smaller entities.

The arguments in favor of the large facility with its economy of scale and ability to provide a broader range of facilities – such as sports, science and theatre complexes – are yielding to the belief that the smaller schools can be more effective in spite of their often minimal, bare bones settings.

As an architect I cannot help but wonder about the implications of this situation. Are our claims that design matters and that architecture can make a difference self serving? Or, on the contrary, when we remove the frills – is design more important than ever?

We don’t yet have an overall measure of the success of the 5,000-plus charter schools that have been established in the United States over the last decade. But I hope that by focusing on individual schools and writing about them in the coming months, I will be able to offer a perspective on how much of a role architectural design has played in a charter school’s success or failure.

HEBREW LANGUAGE ACADEMY

I start with the Hebrew Language Academy, a new charter school in Brooklyn, which opened just a few months ago. As the name suggests, the vision of the school is to teach Hebrew as a second language to its students. This may seem a strange vision for an ethnically diverse school with a 40% minority population but the underlying goals go beyond the obvious. The school is founded on the belief that the student diversity will develop healthy relationships between students and serve as a catalyst for bridging the gap between the parent populations.

And it seems to be working. In its first months, the students and faculty have made remarkable strides in learning Hebrew and establishing a sense of community both among themselves and their parents. “We see the children’s successful integration as a catalyst for bridging the gaps within the parent community,” says Maureen Campbell, the school’s principal.

Has the physical plant of the school had anything to do with this success? Hard to say. The school is located in a midcentury school building that had been rather poorly maintained in recent years. Classrooms are adequately sized with rather standard fare, i.e., neutral templates where teachers and students provide the real decorations. Administrative areas are bare bones and cramped. There are no resource spaces, art studios, teachers’ rooms, and music room. Teachers can be found working one on one with students in the narrow hallways. Yet, In spite of these shortcomings the school has seen remarkable successes. Next year as the school grows to include two more grades, support spaces will be added as well as classrooms. The comparison should prove interesting. Expect to hear more about it next fall.