There are many questions that our communities are asking of our schools and school facilities. How do we create safe and supportive learning environments for our students and teachers? How do we limit our impact on the environment? How can facilities benefit student learning? What can facilities do to support wellness? How can we reduce operating costs? The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) Criteria are here to provide responses to these questions. The CHPS Criteria has been developed by a broad coalition of experts over the past two and a half decades to provide researched based answers to these questions. CHPS provides criteria for school facilities in seven categories that provide a flexible approach to making sure your school project meets or exceeds best practices for providing high quality learning environments. Each criteria provides research-based design and construction requirements that provide clear guidance for how to address these questions throughout your projects. The CHPS Criteria work for new construction and major modernization projects and a new minor renovation program will provide the tools to apply these same standards to projects of all sizes. By following these criteria schools can have confidence that they are following best practices and providing the high quality learning environments that your community needs. CHPS also provides two tiers of project verification and certification which allows each school to find the right approach for their project.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify key community questions about school facilities.
2. Understand the key components of high performance schools.
3. Understand the CHPS Criteria and how they help to answer these questions.
4. Discuss how CHPS can be helpful in communicating the value of high performance schools in your community.