A Checklist for Leadership Teams
Prelude
PUT REAL PRELUDE TEXT HERE; several sections
The Checklist
1) Understanding and Monitoring the Current Status of Environmental Literacy
It is important to understand the current reality as one designs and implements plans to change that reality. You have to know the landscape you are trying to improve.
Current status of existing practices and programs
Current Knowledge of and Attitudes toward Environmental Education
Good design needs to address the interests and concerns of clients and stakeholders – organizations, groups and individuals who care about this effort, one way or another.
- Who are the key stakeholders who have an interest in and influence on the efforts we make to develop environmental literacy?
- Do we understand the broader attitudes and values of our broader community toward environmental issues, environmental learning, environmental education, climate change, social issues and the environment?
- Do we know the level of understanding that key stakeholders have of environmental literacy and the ways in which environmental learning might exist in our schools? These stakeholders include but are not limited to:
- Community organizations: youth, science, environmental, etc.
- Parents and guardians
- School board
- District leaders
- Principals
- Teachers
- Students
- Do we know how stakeholders (listed above) rate the overall importance of environmental literacy and environmental learning opportunities in the overall education of students?
- Do we know how key stakeholders rate the relative importance of strengthening and improving environmental learning experiences in comparison to other subject areas and issue areas?
- Do we know how key stakeholders understand and value pedagogical strategies that could be used to promote environmental literacy (e.g., place-based education, project-based experiences, integration with other subjects, out-of-school learning experiences)?
- Do we understand the extent to which key stakeholders value and prioritize the improvement of education for communities and students that have been historically under-represented in environmental literacy programming?
Motives for Improving Environmental Education
Good design must solve existing important problems and also create new exciting possibilities. Which problems does developing environmental literacy solve? Why are various stakeholders interested, or potentially interested, in this effort?
- Do the key stakeholders (listed above) understand the ways in which environmental literacy can support the implementation of state learning standards such as the Next Generation Science Standards, Common Core State Standards, California History-Social Science Framework, and California English Language Development Standards?
- Is there broad dissatisfaction with the nature, level and quality of the opportunities for students to gain environmental literacy?
- Is there awareness and dissatisfaction of the degree to which environmental learning opportunities are not currently equally accessible to all our students?
- Do we think that the state vision (Blueprint) and/or our own district vision, or other relevant local, regional, and/or national plans are now (or could be) an important source of inspiration that can motivate a broader desire for improving environmental literacy?
- Do we understand the degree to which each of the following potential motives are, in fact, operating in our district at this time?
- Unhappiness with the absence of environmental learning experiences
- Unhappiness with the quality of environmental learning experiences
- Inspired by a vision of what environmental literacy could be
- Inspired by other examples, programs
- Place-based, or project-based experiences as an inspiring vision
- Environmental literacy as a context for strengthening other subjects (e.g., science, writing)
- Environmental literacy as a way to improve learning opportunities for all students more equitably
- Environmental literacy as a way to engage disengaged students, and make education more relevant
- Environmental literacy as critical in a world where the health of the environment affects us all
- Overall, how would we assess the “level of demand” for strengthening environmental literacy in our schools?