Teachers Re-Imagine their Public School: Evidence Supporting Innovations in K-12 Facility Design

Teachers in the United States recently offered their thoughts on a facility-based strategy to reduce teacher attrition and improve student engagement. An anonymous survey of 100 teachers held between January and April of this year, followed by in-depth interviews of five participants, demonstrated a high level of support for this strategy (Krabbendam, 2025b). The survey also identified a number of issues that would need to be addressed if the strategy were implemented. The results may be useful to any system grappling with teacher retention and student disengagement.

In the United States, teacher attrition in 2024 matched attrition in 2012, with 8% leaving the profession annually and 8% changing schools (NCES, 2024). For comparison, a 2011 paper estimated attrition in Finland at 3-4% (Darling-Hammond & Rothman, 2011), and a 2025 report estimated attrition in Australia at somewhat commensurate with Finland (AITSL, 2025). Yet in 2022, ministers issued a National Teacher Workforce Action Plan in response to a pressing teacher shortage. A communique stated: “Teacher shortage is a key issue for all States, Territories and sectors. It is a challenge that faces school communities across Australia, and is particularly acute in rural, regional and remote areas” (Department of Education, 2022, p. 1).

Student engagement in the United States remains challenging. Gallup (2016) identified a drastic decrease in engagement with age, with 78% of fifth grade students identifying themselves as engaged, and only 33% identifying themselves similarly in twelfth grade. Teachers in this study anecdotally endorsed these findings:
“Every day I see high schoolers, especially in my lower classes, just say, “No, I'm not doing that”, or you hand them something, and they say, “Oh”, and then they push it aside to put their head down on the desk. They pull out their phone, and I say, “Off and away all day,” and they look at me and go exactly back to what they were doing, regardless of consequences.” (Participant 3)

Exact comparisons are difficult, but a recent report rates Australian schools as unusually high in disorderly behavior (OECD, 2023), even if retention rates are improving (Australia Bureau of Statistics, 2023, 2024). According to the OECD report:
‘Students in Australia view their teachers positively and teachers themselves have comparatively high levels of job satisfaction. Nevertheless, learning environments are comparatively less favourable in terms of disciplinary climate, intimidation or bullying, and student truancy.’ (OECD, 2023, p. 4)

Perhaps these findings from a very different culture and continent will be of some interest.

The American survey (Krabbendam, 2025b) was structured as a pre- and post-test around a detailed description of how the participant’s school could be re-organized into physical Communities of Practice. In this model, teachers would be given private workstations, collaboration tables, conferencing facilities, refreshments, direct access to the outdoors and resource storage in communal “hives”, the objective being a stronger sense of community, more opportunities for collaboration and mentoring, and a more powerful process of identity-building, especially for early-career teachers. By moving teachers into hives, formerly identical, repetitive classrooms could now be differentiated to more powerfully support a variety of learning experiences. Instead of a neutral container that is entirely dependent on the teacher to bring it and the curriculum to life, the school facility would now support teachers by facilitating and viscerally enhancing interaction, invention, instruction, introspection, inspiration, inquiry, and immersion, not just for special subjects or levels but for every subject or level. Additionally, attention could be captured with itinerant elements like pop-ups, spaces could be made more meaningful when conceived as hybrid elements, and the power of the community and the outdoors might be harnessed by expanding learning beyond the confines of the school building (Krabbendam, 2025a).

The survey participants, all public school teachers in the United States, offered the following responses. 48.8% of respondents expressed support for the proposed reorganization of their school, 28.6% required more information before offering an opinion, and 22.6% rejected the proposal outright. Early career teachers and experienced teachers voiced the most support, with support slipping among mid-career teachers. Teachers that committed to the profession early or right after college were more supportive than late career-changers, who proved more critical of the proposed approach.

Several factors showed a statistically significant improvement across the intervention (that description of a possible reorganization of their school). Teachers agreed, for example, that teacher isolation would decrease and a sense of community would improve after the reorganization. Teacher isolation is implicated in teacher attrition, but the interviewed teachers also acknowledged that it may also have a positive valence, supporting concentration, sense of agency and sense of safety.

Teachers also agreed that monotony would decrease and the variety of experiences would increase, connection to the outdoors would improve, sensual stimulation would increase, and most consequentially, student engagement would improve. 88% of respondents endorsed the proposed reorganization of schools for improving student engagement.

Despite the powerful consensus regarding improved student engagement, a far smaller majority of respondents felt that the reorganization would make them more effective as teachers. 57% of respondents supported this idea, suggesting that their success is contingent on many factors other than student engagement. A number of respondents rejected the idea that the school facility could have any bearing on their effectiveness, citing factors like parents and administrative policies as well as their own expertise as decisive:
“Unless the building/space is an actual hazard, my physical space has NOTHING to do with how I feel about teaching. As the teacher in the room, it is MY job to make learning engaging and enjoyable... I am the decorations.” (Participant 215)

Four variables consistently showed a statistically significant decrease in support across the intervention. Despite considerable support for the proposed approach overall, here were important indications that a number of issues would need to be addressed if this approach was to truly succeed. Respondents indicated a reduction in the sense of safety, a reduction in pride, a reduction in agency, and a reduction in concentration. The interviewees explained that losing their own classroom was implicated in all these factors. They made it clear that the “hives” described in the survey would need to attend very carefully to differing personalities, work ethic and powers of concentration if the approach was to succeed. In addition, the teachers anticipated greater movement of students, and this was cited as a safety concern. They stated that most school conflict happens between classes, when students mill in the hallways. These fears diminished when respondents learned that the frequency of movement between classrooms could be as often or infrequent as their particular schedule and concerns required.

As to the final verdict, a number of teachers clearly voiced their doubts. For some, the tremendous variety of students with individual education plans, language barriers, and mental health challenges in their classroom at one time made the possibility of planning learning experiences inconceivable. More staffing, better planning for special needs students and greater autonomy for teachers were cited as factors that would improve the roll-out of any new system like this. One teacher felt that the educational system needed more resources and a better understanding of contemporary students, not one more researcher with yet another idealistic and probably impractical improvement regime.

“I get it that the kids are not interested in the curriculum: I'm not that interested in the curriculum... It's being shoved down our throats. I think it's horrible. It's boring, monotonous, etc, etc., so I tolerate the fact that they're not engaged by it. Why would they be? They're 14 and 15 years old, and they have to read the most boring stories. Look, every ELA textbook in Florida consists of the lesser works of Dead White Men.” (Participant 5)

Finally, several teachers pointed to a culture of “adapt, adapt, adapt”. They felt that they would find a way to succeed no matter the environment:
“It's been hammered into me over and over, ever since college, that it's all about adapting. You know, whatever situation you're in, you have to adapt. You go to different buildings, you get different students every year, you have to adapt, so it's always been for me, whatever you give me, I know I have to do my best to be effective towards that, so I don't base it as much on my environment.” (Participant 1)

Decisively, however, the verdict was positive. Participant 8 exclaimed: “Sounds like a fun place to teach”!  Participant 9 stated: “I would be willing to try this”! Participant 41 wrote: “I love the idea of being able to move around, different Labs, student-lead learning and immersive spaces”. Participant 45 agreed that this approach would “be engaging for students”. Participant 65 stated: “My school is all about working together to make the best for our students”. Participant 71 stated “Having these classrooms as an option would be good”. Participant 129 stated: “In a setting such as this, the students would have more freedom. Which, in some schools I have worked at, would work beautifully”. Participant 145 offered: “There is no one answer to schools. I think we should have a variety to meet the needs of our students”. Participant 92 exclaimed:
“I would LOVE to be part of curriculum development for a plan like this. I am currently working to obtain a doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction and am looking to move districts in the next 5 years. I would love to talk to someone about the possibility to work with a program like this.”

The notion of greater support for teachers and diversified learning spaces for students had tremendous appeal. That the school facility could offer so much more than neutral, conditioned space struck a chord. Nonetheless, this proposal was also no panacea. Issues of safety, pride, agency and concentration require a well-considered plan. The number of respondents to this survey was quite low and spread throughout the continent, reducing the statistical power of the conclusions. Expanding the sample (the survey remains open) will greatly improve the persuasiveness of these results. 

A number of issues were not addressed in this survey. How does a school find space for teacher hives, for example? Strategies to address this problem are documented (Krabbendam, 2024) but untested in actual practice. Even if a school does not need to dramatically renovate in order to pursue a reorganization, what are the resources that would be required? How much does it actually cost? A more detailed design and costing tuned to local circumstances and involving local professionals would be a necessary next step.  In the meantime, a small pilot study of even one department or grade in one school would have teachers and administrators dealing with the day-to-day implications of this approach. I look forward to finding a pilot study site and reporting on the results in the coming year.

References
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2023, 2024). Schools, Data on government and non-government students, staff and schools. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/schools/2023, https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/schools/2024
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2025). ATWD National Trends: Teacher Workforce (June 2025 ed., 2019-2023). https://www.aitsl.edu.au/research/australian-teacher-workforce-data/atwd-reports/national-trends-teacher-workforce-jun2025/
Department of Education (2022). Education Ministers Meeting Communiqué – 12 August 2022. https://www.education.gov.au/education-ministers-meeting/resources/education-ministers-meeting-communique-12-august-2022
Krabbendam, R. (2025a). Organizing your school facility with Communities of Practice. https://www.futureofschools.com/communities-of-practice
Krabbendam, R. (2025b). Teachers re-imagine their public school: Evidence supporting innovations in K-12 facility design. (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Fielding Graduate University).
Krabbendam, R. (2024). Transforming existing schools into Communities of Practice. Issuu. https://issuu.com/roel_krabbendam/docs/240605_communities_of_practice
NCES, National Center for Education Statistics. (2024). Teacher Turnover: Stayers, Movers, and Leavers. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/slc