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This research was designed to investigate the possible relationship between the attitudes, teachers have about the condition of their classrooms when the classrooms were independently assessed. Previous research reported teachers in unsatisfactory classrooms felt frustrated and neglected to such an extent that they sometimes reported they were willing to leave the teaching profession. This paper aims to address these issues.

Eleven high schools in which the principals state the buildings are in unsatisfactory condition are identified and matched with 11 schools assessed as being in satisfactory condition. The My Classroom Appraisal Protocol^© (MCAP) is used to gather impressions and attitudes of teachers. The MCAP is entered into the internet, and teachers in the selected schools are asked to voluntarily complete the instrument and submit it electronically.

The differences between the responses of teachers in satisfactory buildings are significantly different than those of teachers in unsatisfactory buildings at the p<0.05 level of confidence. Similar results are obtained on the attitudinal scale of the MCAP, again at the p<0.05 level.

The size of the population is small, which limits applicability.

These findings clearly indicate the physical environment influences attitudes of teachers, which in turn affects their productivity. Such effects could cause morale problems in the teaching staff.

The findings indicate the condition of the classroom can cause morale problems with teachers. School authorities need to recognize the importance physical conditions have upon teachers so that negative feelings and attitudes do not pervade the faculty. Such feelings eventually may influence the achievement of students.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that taking the educational purposes of schools into account is central to understanding the place and importance of facilities to learning outcomes. The paper begins by observing that the research literature connecting facility conditions to student outcomes is mixed. A closer examination of this literature suggests that when school facilities are measured from an engineering perspective, little connection to learning outcomes is evident. By contrast, when school facilities are rated in terms of educational functions, a connection to learning outcomes is apparent.

The paper provides an empirical test of the educational relevance of how school facilities are measured. Using the schools in a Canadian division, the condition of school facilities was measured in two ways, including both conventional, engineering tools and a survey capturing principals' assessments. School facility ratings using these alternate measurement methods were correlated with schools' quality of teaching and learning environments (QTLE).

Two central findings emerge. First, engineering assessments of facilities are unrelated to the QTLE in schools. Second, educators' assessments of school facilities are systematically related to the QTLE in schools.

The findings indicate that more research needs to be directed at developing sound tools for measuring school facilities in terms of their educational relevance. In addition, school administrators need to reconsider policies that devalue the contribution that facilities make to learning outcomes.