Figuring out how to furnish a school cafeteria the right way is harder than it looks. A facilities director in Illinois found that out the hard way. She ordered cafeteria tables in June. The tables arrived in August. They looked right, fit the room, and came in under budget. By November, her custo …

Last August, a district purchasing officer in Minnesota placed an order she had placed a dozen times before. Thirty individual desks for a third-grade classroom. Same spec, same configuration, same logic as fifteen years ago. By October, the principal was on the phone asking about returns. The des …

Six weeks after a school installs standing desks, many secondary students stop using them. Not because the desks failed, but because standing through an entire class period is harder than most schools expect. Without a classroom structure that regularly rotates students between sitting and standin …