CAUSE Sees Opportunities For Consensus, Access, and Collaboration Through K–12 POEs
Multistudio’s Research Center makes K–12 post-occupancy evaluations (POEs) publicly available to demonstrate how our work addresses important outcomes for the school districts we serve. These evaluations equip school leaders with data-rich case studies to support new projects and provide a point of collaboration across education design firms. Publicly available POEs have an impact that extends beyond a single facility or studio.
The Coalition for the Advanced Understanding of School Environments (CAUSE) recognizes the widespread impact of making open-access POEs the norm. CAUSE co-founders, including Multistudio Director of Research Dr. Michael Ralph, are transforming how we gather and share knowledge in the K–12 market to encourage consensus, collaboration, and innovation while driving better outcomes for students and teachers.
The CAUSE coalition evolved from an ongoing dialogue between Dr. Ralph and his colleagues, three researchers at the forefront of educational design: Renae Mantooth, PhD (HKS); Erika Eitland, ScD (Perkins&Will); and Raechel French, PhD (Austin Independent School District).
This team, which became CAUSE co-founders, recognized a shared commitment to improving K–12 environments through new approaches to applied research.
“The firms that I think are doing the best work all have some things in common,” said Dr. Ralph. “We all have formally trained researchers who have effective practices for research analysis, data sharing, and fundamental constructs that we’re in agreement about.”
Guided by shared methods and values, Eitland, French, Mantooth, and Ralph determined that they could make a broader impact on K–12 facility design by standardizing POE tools, much like those created by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and the International WELL Building Institute™ (WELL).
CAUSE envisioned what Dr. Ralph calls “open access, open science, and aggressive transparency” to develop a common language for meaningful cross-firm collaboration. However, they first needed to understand why standardization for K–12 POEs had not yet gained widespread adoption.
Ralph and other CAUSE collaborators conducted an industry review of POEs across K–12 education, looking at the 13 firms with at least $25 million in K–12 revenue in 2023. The team discovered that only four of those 13 firms had conducted publicly available POEs; firms that share more than half of all K–12 revenue either don’t perform POEs for this market or silo them as proprietary research services.
“We want to get away from locking things down and protecting or controlling instruments. We are very opposed to that,” said Ralph. Standardized, open POE tools will allow architecture firms to operate within a shared framework, leading to collaborative studies, larger datasets, and, potentially, new questions.
In an introductory video for CAUSE, Ralph stresses that standardization does not limit any firm’s research autonomy.
“[Firms will] still design their own studies, answer their own questions, and differentiate themselves for their clients,” he said.
CAUSE was intentional about ensuring their tools would not be influenced by any one firm’s priorities, choosing the Center for Advanced Design Research and Evaluation (CADRE), an independent nonprofit, as a neutral home turf.
The CAUSE Coalition will also invite comment from architecture firms that use these tools so that they can be refined.
“Some firms are going to adapt our tools and make them better. We’re trying to build consensus,” Dr. Ralph said.
In 2025, CAUSE will also release initial data from five firms that were invited to participate in closed beta testing.
The CAUSE Coalition will pilot its POE with bond projects in the Austin Independent School District during the 2025–26 school year. Other districts have already expressed interest in partnering with CAUSE for POEs at their facilities.
The measurements CAUSE has tested and will implement in the Austin ISD include items related to the direct physical and sensory experience of the environment; a “pedagogy profile,” which evaluates how teaching and learning happen in particular spaces; and the district’s high-priority outcomes, such as student engagement and teacher job satisfaction.
Dr. Ralph plans to adopt CAUSE’s POE tools for Multistudio’s education research. A former educator in K–12 schools, he looks forward to visiting partnering school districts to work with students and teachers, ensuring their voices are respected as part of the POE process. Ultimately, their experiences in the school environment matter most.
Stakeholders in school design, design research, and educational policy, along with school districts and education design firms, are welcome to join CAUSE’s mission to develop standardized, publicly accessible tools for K–12 POEs.
To learn more, visit the CAUSE Coalition or follow Dr. Michael Ralph on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
