Date/Time: November 5, 2026 | 3:45 – 4:45 pm

Room: TAHOMA 3

Abstract: Designing for Instructional Impact: Beyond Good, Better, Best begins with the reality many districts face: limited budgets, limited space, and high expectations. Rather than asking which package is “good, better, or best,” this session reframes value around a more important question: What is the design actually doing during instruction?

The most innovative learning environments are not those that predict the future, but those that remain ready for it. This session presents school design as an act of foresight – anticipating how instruction will shift, adapt, and evolve within a single lesson. Classrooms are examined not as fixed outcomes, but as responsive infrastructures that must perform under constant change. 

Learning Objectives:

1. Explain the relationship between spatial features, spatial proficiency, and student experience.
2. Identify how Facilities Directors influence learning environments through standards, procurement, installation, onboarding, maintenance, refresh cycles, and equity planning.
3. Apply the three spatial proficiency lenses — well-being, spatial planning, and academic talk — to evaluate a classroom layout or furniture standard.
4. Draft one performance-based facilities question or specification that moves beyond product requirements and describes how the environment should function for learning.