Overwhelming evidence suggests that U.S. classrooms are too noisy and reverberant, contributing to negative effects on teacher performance, speech perception, reading/spelling ability, student behavior, attention, concentration and educational achievement. Using the most recent ASHA policy documents and ANSI standards, this forum provides evidence on the prevalence of this problem, acoustic solutions, and methods for advocacy and implementation.

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• recognize the importance of appropriate acoustical environments for all students
• recognize indoor and outdoor classroom factors contributing to high background noise and reverberation times
• identify internal variables that will improve listening conditions in classrooms with poor acoustics
• describe appropriate school facilities and modifications for students with speech-language-hearing disorders
• describe methods for advocating and implementing acoustical solutions
• summarize the effects of background noise and reverberation times on the educational performance of all students including those with speech-language-hearing disorders

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