The issue as to whether to provide student lockers in high schools and middle schools is a conversation you should have with your design professional early in the planning stage of your project. It seems like a simple decision, but it will have ongoing implications of safety and security for your school.
We still see the majority of our clients requesting student lockers to be located down various corridors, much as we have been accustomed to seeing in schools for years. The difference being now, as opposed to say 15 years ago, is in the placement of the lockers. They can still be located down a corridor, but don't position them adjacent to exterior doors where it makes it easy for students to bring in contraband unseen. If lockers are grouped together in a specific area, do not extend the lockers above eye level so as to block the view of the monitor for that area.
We have had several school districts eliminate student lockers all together. The ongoing trouble of dealing with drugs and other paraphernalia has been the driving force to get rid of them. The solution has either been to make students carry all their books in a back pack or provide a second set of books located in the classroom. Of course, providing the second set of books has a monetary impact that has kept many schools from choosing this option. As school districts go this route, we see more teachers requesting some type of cabinet in the classroom to store or hang the back packs as students are carrying all their worldly possesions with them from class to class.
There is a third option I believe that we will see in the near future and that is the introduction of the iPad or other similar note books. As this technology becomes more readily available, standard hard cover books as we know them will become less attractive, thus eliminating the need for a locker. This won't happen quickly, I believe it will be a slow transition. And if this does occur, it brings up another issue as to the viability of libraries as we know them now. We'll save that discussion for another time though.
I'd love to hear your thoughts and issues/solutions to student lockers in your school.
Michael D. King AIA
I was talking to an educator about this issue yesterday and there is a fourth option to the locker issue. It seems this particular district has eliminated their lockers and simply issues one set of books for the classroom and none to the students to take home. This does not seem like a wise policy to me. It makes me wonder how they rank in their State testing accountability system.
ReplyDeleteWe did this very same thing in a district I worked at. Students could take books home by checking them out. The campus was rated acceptible by TEA. There was some parent concern, but once explained it was fine.
DeleteIn ten years lockers will likely have become mostly obsolete as electronic text books see increasing use in the classroom. Technology used to view these books will only get cheaper, and schools will likely see devices such as the Kindle more cost-effective and practical for use among public school students. This would virtually eliminate the need for individual student book storage, and I believe that school administrations should consider this possibility when considering allocating money for the placement or replacement of lockers. This might be more of a long-term transition in reality, but it should be kept in mind nonetheless.
ReplyDelete-M. Bennett (Kansas State University)
I agree that lockers should not be in a school. I just finished overseeing a bond in a schoo district and I did not allow them to put lockers in any of the facilities. It is just too easy for students who want to cause trouble to keep unsafe items in their locker. I know books are a big issue, and one day students will have some device that will have all of their books on it and the need for books will be out. For now most students carry all of thier books in a backpack so I don't think it is such an issue to do away with locker.
ReplyDeleteKent Coker (Tarleton Stat University)
Since I sent my last blog about lockers or no lockers I have contacted a district who does not have lockers and issues lap tops to all students. The principal said it is terrible to issue students laptops. According to this administrator, students loose them, leave them laying aroudn the school and dont take care of them. Administrator said no lockers a good idea, laptops not such a good idea. The district I worked at had student sets and students could check out a textbook to take home.....again no need for lockers.
ReplyDeleteIn the rural area of Nebraska where my children attend/attended school the issue is not only books, and lockers but also backpacks.
ReplyDeleteThey were not allowed to have locks on their lockers and several items went missing. They could not take backpacks into classes either.
Thus, the solution I would advocate is the creation of a check-in area where the students store their purses and packs. They can stop between classes to switch out books or get materials they need.
While not a perfect solution, it would satisfy both security and access issues for the school and students.
Terry Tucker
LAR/RCP
Kansas State University
Just for what its worth.....I went to a high school last week and the lockers there were in the front of the school in the main foryer of the school. They were stair stepped in small clumps of lockers. It was a very open area with a lot of supervision from the office. A concept I had not thought of before.
ReplyDeleteI have seen the 'clumps of lockers' in many schools, even designed some of these a few years back. Some of the negative comments I have heard regarding this type of design, is that it brings all the students to one or two areas at a time during class change. The congestion leads to bumping into either other and then fights tend to occur. Also, depending on where the designated locker area occurs, it may be difficult to get from one end of the campus to the other in the designated amount of time given between classes. If you are going to do this concept, be sure that the lockers are only one tier high in the center of the space so that proper supervision can occur.
ReplyDeleteGranted, lockers present more problems than utility, backpacks are cumbersome and a possible health risk to students, and netbooks/laptops/ipads are expensive to distribute and retrieve. So, the question becomes - how do students transport and store the educational tools necessary for success in the classroom? Having been a principal at a charter high school for an at-risk population where backpacks and lockers created equal concern, my biggest issue today is the discussion about the textbooks that would be stored in the backpack or locker. I currently work with college freshmen and, as a matter of course, they need textbooks (and as stated previously, e-textbooks are not garnering as much popularity as had been hoped). If our goal in public education is to prepare our students for success in college, they need to learn how to manage, read, transport and maintain their textbooks for the duration of their study in the class which requires them. Backpacks seem to provide the answer and the expense is on the students/parents not on the facility budget. A possible solution might be to balance the scheduling of classes that require over-sized textbooks in alternate semesters.
ReplyDeleteThe presence of lockers in schools do create safety issues in school districts where students can store illegal items. However, there is a concern about storage of students personal items and classroom resources such as textbooks. One alternataive that has been metioned is the assisgnment of laptops or IPADs. Security and theft protectioin are new addedd concerns with the assignment of electronic devices. I have heard similar stories from a school district who assigned laptops to their students. The students did not take care of the laptops and more problems were created with the distribution of laptopos than soluutions.
ReplyDeleteL. Mills
Tarleton State University
I am not sure there is a perfect solution to this dilema. As a teacher I have requested that a class set of textbooks be put in my room as opposed to each student having their own textbook. I did this for several reasons. The first is that it cuts down on excuses for tardiness to almost zero. The second is that I can guarantee that when I deem the textbook is necessary everbody will have one readily available. One thing that I did not like about my arrangement is that since students did not have to lug my textbook around they lugged everything else they could bring that could possibly be a distraction. Another downside to my system is that we had the choice of either having a classroom set, or the students having a book of their own...they couldn't have both. I suggested that we have a class set of books and purchase a subscription for the online version of our textbook that students could access either at home or at the library.
ReplyDeleteMandi Nelson
Tarleton State University