This document is a student project created in connection with a course at The Colorado College. It has not been altered in any form from the original document submitted by the student and is here on the web for STUDENT USE ONLY. No parts of this document may be used or reproduced in any form without written permission of the instructor, Sharon Hall. To email Dr. Hall, click here  

By Samantha Less

Environmental Education in Colorado Springs Schools

Project Overview

Environmental education is a three-step learning process. First, there must be awareness and knowledge of the environmental issues at hand. Second, it is important that one develop skills such as communication skills that are needed to address the controversy that usually surrounds environmental issues. Finally, environmental education is distinct from the other sciences because it requires a commitment to taking action in the community.

Public schools in Colorado Springs are lacking in environmental education opportunities. The main barrier to improving EE in the Springs is the lack of communication between all aspects of the education system. Other barriers include the lack of environmental components in the state science standards, teachers who aren’t trained to teach local issues, and finally lack of funding.

My vision for improving environmental education is to create a "Sustainability Education Task Force" leading to a coordinated effort of educators in Colorado Springs’ schools. This task force will open up communication between teachers, administration, school boards, and the Colorado state education department. The task force members will develop several alternative solutions to overcoming the barriers currently present, and I have provided in this proposal some ideas of solutions for the task force to consider. The task force will also take in input from "Environmental Liaisons" from every school in Colorado Springs. It is my goal that a shared vision of sustainability will become apparent in Colorado Springs. For the sake of future generations, it’s crucial that Colorado Springs’ schools improve environmental education.

Proposed Work

Education is the key to unlocking ignorance. The learning process starts as early as in the womb. And it doesn’t stop.

Our education system in Colorado Springs is found to be lacking. Most notably in communication. That is just one barrier to improving environmental education in this city. I will explain the barriers, and finally a vision for educating towards sustainability which involves Colorado Springs educators coming together and sharing ideas. But first some background…

The very first environmental education conference was held in Stockholm in 1972. A subsequent environmental education conference in Belgrade in 1975 established a charter stating that the goal of environmental education is

Thus the environmental education field is born. Three years after Belgrade, the Tbilisi Declaration was formed by the first intergovernmental conference hosted by the United Nations. This declaration went further into distinguishing the environmental education field than the Belgrade Charter by embracing additional goals such as making sure everyone has the opportunity to gain knowledge, skills, commitment, and attitudes in order to preserve the environment. The Tbilisi declaration also takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the interdependence of humans and the environment by using social, cultural, economic, political, and ecological perspectives. Another goal involves changing current societal behavior patterns towards the environment. More importantly, the declaration emphasizes the need for the current world population to consider the needs of future generations while impacting the environment today. This concept becomes known as sustainability. (NAAEE Guidelines for Learning)

"Environmental education aims for a democratic society in which effective, environmentally literate citizens participate with creativity and responsibility" (NAAEE Guidelines for Learning). The key word in that sentence is "participate". Gaining knowledge of environmental concepts is a great first step, however, it is when that knowledge turns into action that sufficiently changes the environment for the better.

How do we make sure that students in Colorado have the same opportunities to learn in environmental education as students in California? The answer lies in national standards. The idea of national standards was first developed during the administration of elder George Bush in 1989. The National Governor’s Association established the need for national education standards, and President Bush formed the National Education Goals Panel. The first standards were developed in 1989 in the math field. In 1991, the National Research Council underwent the process of developing national science standards after persuasion from numerous professional organizations including the National Science Foundation which was a major financial contributor. The completed science standards were published in 1996. (NSES)

President Clinton not only continued support for the national standards initiative, but also provided "financial incentives for states to adopt and implement standards". The state of Colorado followed accordingly with the formation of State Standards and Assessment Development and Implementation Council appointed by Governor Roy Romer after Colorado state legislation was passed in 1993 that provided for improvement and coordination of K-12 education in the state. This House bill called for improved curricula, instruction, testing, and teacher training based on a set of model content state standards that were being formed by the Standards Council and to be published by the State Board of Education. This legislation also established that each district School Board has the authority to develop its own standards as long as they meet or exceed the model state standards. Proficiency tests in fourth, eighth, and tenth grades administered by the state (CSAP) assess the degree to which each district’s standards are being met to the state standards. (Colorado Dept. of Education)

The state developed standards in 11 subject areas, science being one of them. The state’s models were taken from national sources from which the standards are categorized into eight components: unifying concepts, science as inquiry, physical science, life science, earth and space, science in personal and social perspectives, history and nature of science (NSES).

The overall goal of these state standards is to make sure everyone is made scientific literate. However, this is a changing world, and this is where the importance of environmental education comes in. It’s great that this state of Colorado is striving to achieve scientific literacy for all students, but what good does that do if students do not also gain the skills, motivations, and attitudes necessary to make change happen?

According to the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), the four main issues in environmental education are:

Knowledge of Environmental Processes and Systems - this refers to students having understanding in four areas: The Earth as a physical system, the living environment, humans and their societies, and environment and society.

Questioning and Analysis Skills- this involves students developing skills in asking questions, speculating, hypothesizing, seeking information and developing answers to questions. Central to this strand is students' familiarity with inquiry as a process and concept.

Skills for Understanding and Addressing Environmental Issues - this theme is composed of two categories: student development of skills in analyzing and investigating issues and students developing decision-making and citizenship skills.

Personal and Civic Responsibility - this theme is the final level of study aimed at students making a difference regarding environmental problems through action in their own communities. (NAAEE 2000)

The NAAEE was formed in 1971 and consists of professional educators and students working together to promote environmental education not only from a scientific based perspective, but also from a problem-solving teamwork perspective. The organization also believes that for environmental education to be totally effective, it must be integrated into every aspect of an educator’s curriculum. (NAAEE)

An analysis done by Fletcher Brown, Associate Professor at the University of Montana, concluded that the current National Science Education Standards were fairly consistent with most aspects of the listed environmental education standards by NAAEE except for the most crucial component: students must be able to solve real-world problems if they are to create change regarding environmental issues. Since Colorado standards are based on the NSES, Brown’s argument holds that a central theme of environmental education is missing in our state standards as well.

Some American communities are "educating for a sustainable community", notably a project in Albuquerque called "Albuquerque’s Environmental Story". The idea for a teacher resource book was hatched in 1975 by a sprawling Albuquerque, in turn, bringing up environmental concerns. The book focuses on incorporating local sustainability issues into a teacher’s curriculum while using an interdisciplinary approach. Once the idea was brought up, the Albuquerque community came together to determine what was necessary to promote and support sustainability. The community that identified the issues and developed ways to "conserve resources, promote historic preservation, and celebrate diversity" in Albuquerque included individuals, schools, city government, public interest groups, and even some business corporations. Professional writers and editors were also needed to put it all together into this resource book for teachers. The greatest benefit of the book was that because of its fun, hands-on, interpretive, local, and interdisciplinary approach, teachers and students alike are motivated to learn about their immediate surrounding environment and study ways to implement the shared vision of sustainability into the community. According to the project’s website, the book’s lessons and activities are "easily infused into the existing required curriculum". The website also details the process by which the book was created in two years making it easy to replicate while only having to replace the background information. In fact, the "Friends of Albuquerque’s Environmental Story" encourages other communities to model their own environmental story resource book after their example. (AES website)

In a separate project from "Albuquerque’s Environmental Story", the New Mexico State Land Office has initiated the "New Mexico Communities Environmental Education Project". The main goal of this state-wide project is to "build an inclusive coalition of individuals and organizations in community across New Mexico who will work together to identify and document the local assets and capabilities for education about the environment". One of the ways that the state office goes about gathering this coalition is through the "Community Capacity Assessment" program which involves discussions between educators to assess existing EE programs, to evaluate ways to increase and expand on those programs, to establish a "community core group", and to develop working relationships among educators which include "environmental liaisons from each school". (New Mexico State Land Office website) These two programs in New Mexico are both forward-thinking initiatives utilizing the community to open up communication and bring sustainability right into the students’ lives.

Looking back at environmental education in Colorado Springs, I will first explain the barriers, and then I’ll lay out my vision for improvement. I interviewed four teachers in different districts of the Colorado Springs public school system in order to gain a first-hand account of barriers to incorporating environmental education in the classroom and beyond. I also interviewed Karen Teja who is a member of the District 11 School Board to get the School Board’s position on environmental education. Five general barriers were discussed: lack of communication, lack of environmental concepts in the Colorado state science standards, teachers who haven’t received enough training in the local issues, students not gaining skills to take action, and finally, lack of money.

Before I asked the teachers about the barriers they face, I first asked what environmental education meant to them. All four teachers said something along the lines of not only exposing their students to ecosystem concepts, but also increasing the students’ awareness and appreciation for nature and the outdoors. This falls nicely into the "definition" of environmental education in the Tbilisi Declaration.

A barrier that teachers and Karen Teja both emphasized is the lack of communication and/or miscommunication. For example, Karen said there was a case where a teacher was told she could teach from a flexible curriculum , but a little later, she was told that she must teach strictly from an established curriculum. It was also said that a lack of communication exists in all aspects of the education system- between classrooms, between teachers and administration, between the schools and their district school board, and finally between the districts’ school boards and the Colorado State Department of Education. Lack of communication is also caused by lack of time because it takes "extra" time to go out of your way and talk to another person.

Lack of time is also a cause (though indirect) of another barrier which is lack of environmental concepts in the state’s established science standards (which as you’ll recall is modeled after the National Science Education Standards). Teachers are already pressed for time as it is to find time to cover a full curriculum that requires preparation for the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) which is the standardized state-wide test that every student must take. This test is to assess the teaching of each district’s standards to make sure they’re compatible with the state standards across the state. If environmental concepts are not to be tested, then teachers aren’t required to teach them and instead focus on "teaching to the test". Most teachers are therefore not motivated to go out of their way and find time to incorporate environmental education into their curricula.

As much as the standards are an established part of every curriculum, there are cases where a school can apply for waivers to these standards. For a school to become eligible to apply, the involved teachers must improve their teaching of the basics within a certain time period, otherwise it makes no sense to allow them to move forward with more advanced concepts like biogeochemical cycles which are at the core of environmental issues. However, this process of applying for the waivers even after being considered eligible is very lengthy and costly according to Teja. Therefore, teachers once again aren’t motivated to move forward if there’s no money to do so. However, the Globe charter school in District 11 is an exception to this. They followed through with the process and were rewarded with a "charter" status meaning they could choose a general theme which in this case is "global community", and that they are granted flexibility in teaching the standards as long as they teach within the approved theme. The teacher at Globe said that he has support from all sides and that the school community is very involved in teaching environmental education because it relates to setting up a global community.

Since the Colorado State Department of Education is the state authority on education, they establish the standards and make sure they are followed by every school. If a district does decide to adopt environmental education into their standards, the state is at liberty to remove them since they are not in the state standards. Remember also that even if a district gets away with incorporating environmental education into their curriculum, it is not tested on the state standardized test leading back to the issue of not having time to teach non-tested concepts.

Another barrier is that teachers are not gaining enough training in teaching environmental issues that directly affect Colorado Springs. This could include new science teachers to the area, and also the lack of enough teacher education programs and resources in the Springs. The Catamount Institute, located in Woodland Park, is the only teacher environmental education program in the surrounding area. A teacher told me that a summer teacher program at the Catamount fills up by word of mouth before any advertisement is put out. The program even has to turn away teachers because they are filled to capacity already (about 50 teachers). This shows that there is a demand.

An additional barrier to improving environmental education is that students are not currently gaining the skills necessary to take action which as you’ll remember is crucial to environmental education. In any discipline, a student can be taught how to turn their knowledge of the subject into action. Once again, students are not tested on how to take action in the community, and teachers are constrained to a standards-filled curriculum.

Every teacher I spoke with and Karen Teja said that money is a limiting factor in improving the state of environmental education in the Springs. No surprise there-money makes the world go around. Sad, but true. A lack of money here affects the availability of resources (such as equipment and curriculum books), limits the number of field trips if any at all, and finally there’s less money for salaries and so fewer teachers with environmental expertise are hired.

From an ecological view, these barriers prevent the process of becoming aware and knowledgeable of the environmental issues at hand and taking action. As long as we continue to prevent future generations from learning about the environmental problems in Colorado Springs, the number of people who are aware and have committed to taking action will not increase. It will take more and more environmentally-literate voters to make change happen in this city. Without improvement in environmental education, change will continue to be slow-coming, and there’s no time to lose while the environment continues to be degraded by the majority of the Colorado Springs population.

Now that I’ve laid out the barriers, what can be done to overcome these barriers and improve the state of environmental education in Colorado?

My proposal focuses on improving communication in all aspects of the education system. I propose that a "Sustainability Education Task Force" be created. This task force will consist of interested members of the school community including teachers and administrators, and also outside organization representatives who could contribute their expertise such as the Catamount Institute. About 15 members will convene as the core task force. I will advertise the formation of this group in order to make candidate aware that their interest, expertise, and commitment is needed for this group committed to improving environmental education to become a reality. The task force’s goal will be to go out into Colorado Springs schools to assess the barriers and needs in depth, and then they will develop solutions to the barriers. While the assessment process is occurring, "Environmental Liaisons" will be appointed from every school-one teacher and one administrator. In addition, every district’s school board will designate one of their members as a liaison. Once the core task force has finished it’s assessment process and developed a number of possible solutions, all the liaisons will meet as a whole with the task force. The task force members will present the needs and different solutions to the whole group, and this is the time for the liaisons to contribute their thoughts, expertise, objections, approvals, and suggestions for improving the solutions. If there are no major objections or suggestions, a vote will take place. However, total agreement at first would be ideal. Assuming that there will be suggestions and objections on the first full meeting, the task force will return to the table and rewrite the solutions according to the recommendations of the group. They will present their new and improved solutions to the entire group, and the process will cycle through until there is a final consensus on which solutions to implement.

The idea of developing a task force to address the lack of communication in school systems has been implemented before. If you’ll recall, the New Mexico State Land office initiated the "New Mexico Communities Environmental Education Project" which is a coalition of educators and interested community members whose goal is to "increase and expand environmental education opportunities".

I’ve put some thought into possible solutions for the task force to consider. I’ve come up with three feasible solutions addressing the barriers that I discussed earlier.

To address the issue of environmental concepts not currently present in the state science standards, simply incorporate the NAAEE Guidelines for Learning into the current state science standards which every student is tested on. The drawback to establishing EE standards within the existing ones to be tested is that the "appreciation of nature" can’t be exactly be tested on a standardized test! Remember that all the teachers I interviewed made the point that appreciation of nature and the outdoors is critical. Also, since the concepts will be tested, this solution doesn’t take out the "teach to test" curriculum. Teachers will still be pressed to find time to cover all that will be tested. However, with the addition of environmental concepts into the standards, class time is now justified, and every student must learn about environmental issues whether they like it or not.

Since the establishment and changing of the state science standards can only be done by the Colorado State Department of Education, the implementation of this solution would require lobbying state representatives. They would convince the state that incorporating environmental concepts into the standards would improve the quality of education in Colorado Springs.

Another alternative solution is the creation of a teacher’s resource book called "Colorado Springs’ Environmental Story". This idea is modeled after the city of Albuquerque who designed the book as a valuable resource pertaining exclusively to local sustainability issues. This project would involve a very similar format, however, the background information would be adapted to the issues in Colorado Springs. As I previously discussed in this proposal, a concerned community in Albuquerque gathered information about the background and current issues surrounding natural, built, and human environments in the city. Colorado Springs could potentially undergo the same process resulting in a book that lays out local issues all in one place that’s easy for educators to use and fun for students to learn about the issues that surround them daily around their school and even in their home. This project requires the expertise of educators, the involvement of business corporations as an influential part of the city, and the craft of writers and editors to put the book together in a professional manner. It took Albuquerque two years to complete the book and distribute it so time could be a possible drawback, but it will still benefit the environmental education program here in the long-run. Along with the information presented in organized sections of the book, there will also be fun, interpretive, community-oriented (that involve learning to take action) activities and worksheets inserted for the students to complete. The background information on local sustainability issues in the Springs plus fun activities laid out in easy-to-use format provides for a built-in teacher education program. Though it is no substitute for a hands-on program with fellow teachers, it is a great start to the teacher education process and will give teachers a handy resource before and after they have completed a formal program. The theme of "Colorado Springs’ Environmental Story" is a shared vision for sustainability in our city.

Yet, another alternative plan for the task force to adopt is removing the required teaching of standards as well as the standardized testing altogether and making "Colorado Springs’ Environmental Story" a required part of the curriculum in science courses. Overturning the status quo of standards will require somewhat more effort, however, the benefits outweigh the time and effort. For example, with no more standardized testing, teachers are given much more flexibility in teaching their curriculum instead of sticking to an established curriculum for the sake of testing. Although teachers will still have to pick and choose what they teach (and probably always will since there’s a wealth of information out there in every discipline), teachers won’t struggle with time as much as when there’s the constant deadline of a standardized test hanging over the students’ heads. Teacher and students alike will be motivated to learn about local sustainability issues as it pertains to their daily lives, and with the removal of standards, there will now the time to incorporate the book into the curriculum without as much competition.. Standardized tests don’t test the cause of urban sprawl in Colorado Springs! While standards are an established practice in the country, how helpful are they really? The State Education Department seeks to make sure that standards are being taught across the state and that goal is assessed with the standardized testing, but for example, the school system in Boulder is very different from Colorado Springs as one might imagine. It is not fair to compare different systems and different teaching styles. Incorporating the resource book into the curriculum makes sure that students are exposed to local environmental issues that can be acted upon, but also addresses much of the content of the current state science standards.

To address the issue of lack of funding, a task force member will be designated as head of fundraising. This person will organize environmentally-friendly fundraisers out in the community. The money raised will be put into a fund. The money will be used for additional materials like equipment and books, to fund more field trips, and to subsidize the costly process of applying for the waivers to the standards. Also, the money could help the teacher resource book become a reality. That is, if the task force and liaisons decide on that solution.

These solutions are just a snapshot of what could evolve from the assessment process to be completed by the task force. Once the task force and environmental liaisons come to a consensus on which solution or solutions to implement, the task force will monitor the progress of each school. There will be on going meetings as needed of the task force and/or the liaisons to determine the success of the implemented solutions.

In conclusion, I propose the creation of the Sustainability Education Task Force to break down the communication barrier, and put forth a coordinated effort of Colorado Springs educators towards sustainability education in K-12 public schools. The increase in environmental education leads to future generations of environmentally literate Colorado Springs voters who can make a difference!

Proposal Timeline:

Stage 1: Advertise the "Sustainability Education Task Force", selection of interested representatives from the schools, districts, and outside organizations, meeting of the newly created task force-within 4 months

Stage 2: Evaluation of barriers, assessment process, and developing solutions within one year

Stage 3: Meeting of environmental liaisons and task force, improvements to solutions as needed-within 6 months

Stage 4: Implementation of final solutions within one year

Literature Cited

-"Albuquerque’s Environmental Story" (http://www.cabq.gov/aes)

-Brown, Fletcher. "Finding Environmental Education in the National Science Education Standards". Electronic Green Journal, Spring 2001

-Colorado State Department of Education Web page: http://www.cde.state.co.us/index_home

-National Science Education Standards Web page:http://books.nap.edu/html/nses/html/index.html

-New Mexico Communities Environmental Education Project: http://taipan.nmsu.edu/eep/eep_home.html

-North American Association of Environmental Education Web Page: http://www.naaee.org

Acknowledgements

-Sharon Hall

-Steve Harris

-Julie Francis

-Lee Durr

-Mark Opincariu

-Mark Schultz

-Rose Dicenso

-Karen Teja