Seventy-three percent of public schools report having undergone at least one major renovation

In 1995, FRSS also collected data on the year that schools underwent their last major renovation. About three-fourths (73 percent) of schools reported having undergone at least one major renovation; 17 percent reported last undergoing a major renovation prior to 1980, 17 percent reported the last major renovation between 1980 and 1989, and 39 percent reported the last major renovation between 1990 and 1995 (table 2).

Unlike the age of school buildings, the year since the last major renovation is not significantly related to the enrollment size, locale, or region (data not shown). Of the school buildings that have never undergone a major renovation, 50 percent are at least 25 years old.

A measure combining age of school and year of renovation represents a rough approximation of "condition" of schools, assuming that all other building conditions were equal. Thus, schools built before 1970 and either never renovated or renovated prior to 1980 would be in the "oldest condition"- 29 percent of all public schools fell into this category. Those schools built before 1970 and renovated 1980 or later or built between 1970 and 1985 may be considered to be in "moderate condition"- 61 percent of all schools were in this category. The remaining schools, those built 1984 or after, are in the "newest condition"- 10 percent of America's public schools fell into this category in 1995 (table 2).

The percentage of schools in the "oldest" condition (i. e., 29 percent are more than 25 years old, or were renovated almost 20 years ago) is a concern to educators and policymakers. While newer schools are more likely to be built with convenient connections to the Internet, there is reason for concern that schools in the "oldest" condition may be lagging behind in the nationwide push to connect all schools to the Internet by the year 2000. In fact, of schools in the "oldest" condition, 42 percent were connected to the Internet in 1995, whereas of schools in the "newest" condition, 59 percent were connected to the Internet (data not shown). Schools located on the urban fringe and in the Central region of the country were more likely to be in the "oldest" condition than schools located in towns and in the Southeast region, respectively (table 3; 36 percent compared to 22 percent and 36 percent compared to 21 percent). In contrast, schools in the West region were more likely to be in the "newest" condition than schools located in the Northeast and Central regions (15 percent compared to 5 and 6 percent, respectively). No differences were found among schools in the likelihood of being in the "oldest" and "newest" condition in terms of the percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (table 3).

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