U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools Fact Sheet

What’s New with Green Schools at the U.S. Department of Education?

As you may have heard, it’s been an exciting summer at the U.S. Department of Education (ED).  ED, with the assistance of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), has been hard at work developing criteria and award infrastructure for U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools (ED-GRS), the first comprehensive and coordinated federal policy in the three institutional roles of schools related to environment, health and education.

The award acknowledges the work of schools in reaching high levels of achievement under three areas: 1) Environmental impact and energy efficiency; 2) Healthy environment; and 3) Environmental literacy.  Put another way, ED-GRS considers: 1) Schools’ and their occupants’ impact on the environment; 2) Schools’ environmental and behavioral impact on occupants; and 3) How schools teach students about the environment and sustainability to prepare them for citizenship and employment in the 21^st century.

How ED-GRS Came About

The initiative originated from a public request to EPA, ED and CEQ.  This led to a concept launch with heads of EPA, ED and CEQ in April, indicating that the pilot year cohort of Green Ribbon Schools would be named in spring 2012.  ED spent the summer developing award criteria and nomination infrastructure, consulting with associations, states, national and local NGOs, school communities, technical experts, the public, and numerous federal partners.

What ED-GRS Does

The recognition award aims to incent state education authorities and school communities to inform themselves as to energy and resource conservation measures that provide opportunities for cost savings and job creation; environmental and behavioral changes to promote health and productivity among students, staff and other occupants; and the use of environmental and sustainability education to support students’ preparedness for some of the nation’s fastest growing employment sectors.

The encouragement that the recognition award provides to schools, school districts and states to employ pertinent existing metrics and resources, and meet high standards in three key areas reinforces broader efforts to increase the nation’s energy security; reduce our environmental impact; improve students’ health, productivity, and career readiness; and, ultimately, increase the nation’s economic competitiveness.

How ED-GRS Works

ED-GRS recognizes schools that meet a variety of existing standards, implementing or employing numerous complementary policies and resources.  ED-GRS is a recognition award, not a grant.  Recognition awards incent change by communicating high standards and recognizing the most exemplary schools or individuals according to specified criteria.  Among the long-standing recognition awards are U.S. Presidential Scholars Program and Blue Ribbon Schools Program.

State education authorities will serve as the first line of application in the school selection process.  State education authorities will be asked to evaluate schools based on their facilities’ environmental impact and health and environmental education, as well as their compliance with federal civil rights and federal, state and local health, safety and environmental statutory and regulatory requirements.  Based on the evaluation, authorities will select nominees to send to ED.

ED-GRS is a 50,000 foot mechanism designed for existing state and local programs and policies to glide into, regardless of their situation.  This is in response to states and schools’ input that they are at different points on the path to the three areas (“Pillars”) of green schools, and need some flexibility as to how they create their state level green schools selection processes ED-GRS is not federally heavy, but instead designed to build policy infrastructure, relying on existing resources to address environmental impact, health and education issues at the state, local and school level.

Timeframe for Pilot Year

By the end of September, ED will post finalized award criteria, including details on eligibility, requirements and nominating authorities, as well as a brief video of the Secretary inviting states and schools to apply for 2011-2012 year awards.  Revised evaluation and nomination infrastructure will also be posted for state authorities and schools’ use at that time.  This will include sufficient application and nomination infrastructure for state education authorities to prepare for the application process.  Following Office of Management and Budget approval, specific information with a deadline for presentation of nominees to ED will be provided to nominating authorities.

What Does ‘Pilot Year’ Mean?

The aim of the first year of a recognition award is to stand up an exemplary first cohort to which other states and school communities can aspire, and incent change among as many applicants as possible.  Because it is difficult to know how many states and schools will apply in the first year, ED must retain some flexibility as to pilot year awards and will likely adapt the award in successive years based on lessons learned from the pilot year.

ED has taken several actions to lessen the burden on state nominating authorities and schools in the pilot year of the recognition award.  These pilot year measures ensure that the maximum number of states and schools attempt the recognition award and, in doing so, give due consideration to related environmental, health and education policies.  While ED seeks to incent as many states and school communities to create infrastructure to address these matters, ED will award only the most exemplary schools.

Where to Find Additional Information:

More information on Green Ribbon Schools can be found at http://www2.ed.gov/programs/green-ribbon-schools.

Individuals can sign up for Green Ribbon Schools updates at https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USED/subscriber/new?topic_id=USED_27 and follow Green Ribbon Schools on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/EDGreenRibbonSchools.

Additional questions can be addressed to: green.ribbon.schools@ed.gov.

Outdoor Classroom in Every Schoolyard

1. Shifts educational focus from secondary to primary sources. Traditional classroom teaching uses textbooks, lectures, video and the internet as instructional tools. The Outdoor Classroom exposes students through direct experience to nature areas and demonstration models such as weather stations, water flow systems and renewable energy installations.
2. Uses experiential teaching methodologies to engage students. The Outdoor Classroom fosters active, hands-on, inquiry-based learning in a real world setting. Through group problem-solving activities students embrace the learning process as well as seeking final outcomes.
3. Makes learning a multi-sensory experience. By engaging the senses of touch, smell, hearing, taste and seeing, students retain an intimate physical memory of activities that are long lasting and synergistic. E. O. Wilson’s Biophilia Hypothesis reminds us that the human species, having evolved in the natural world, has a deeply-rooted need to associate and connect with nature.
4. Fosters the use of systems thinking. As a mini-ecosystem, the Outdoor Classroom emphasizes the interconnectedness of all things. Through exposure to the intricate web of life, students come to understand that complex natural and societal systems often require holistic rather than linear solutions.
5. Lends itself to inter-disciplinary studies. In seeking a holistic understanding of the outdoor classroom it is often necessary, and desirable, to employ multiple academic disciplines. Laying out a planting bed requires math skills. Distinguishing native from non-native plants provides an opportunity for social studies. Creating a scarecrow is an art project. A garden journal will foster writing and drawing skills.
6. Recognizes and celebrates differing learning styles. As popularized in Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, people have a variety of aptitudes and ways of learning. Although some students thrive in a text-based environment, others will benefit from a more experiential approach. For example, ESL students, SPED students, and students where reading is not prioritized at home – those that comprise the so-called Achievement Gap – may contribute more in the Outdoor Classroom.
7. Connects the school to the neighborhood and the world-at-large. Through learning and stewardship activities students come to understand that their schoolyard microcosm reflects global environmental issues. Proximity to the surrounding neighborhood often leads to service learning projects that emphasize social involvement and responsibility. Accessibility to the Outdoor Classroom provides opportunities for out-of-school time programming. High visibility and interest encourages local volunteerism.
8. Design and installation is a modest capital expense. School systems often struggle with budgetary issues in prioritizing initiatives. The cost/benefit ratio for installing and sustaining an Outdoor Classroom is attractive and the goal of an Outdoor Classroom in every schoolyard is achievable.
9. Projects a positive message about public education. Schoolyards can be degraded and unsafe or vibrant, dynamic school/community open spaces. Either way, we send a message to students and neighborhood about how much we value the education of our children. The Outdoor Classroom is a reminder that innovation is alive and well in public education.
10. Blurs the boundaries between academic learning and creative play. Kids love the Outdoor Classroom. When a teacher asks who wants to go outside every hand is raised. Absenteeism goes down on Outdoor Classroom days. By preserving a child’s innate sense of curiosity and wonder we will foster active and engaged life long learners. Yes, learning can be FUN!

What motivates a kid to learn? Perhaps it’s sitting all day listening to an adult telling you to go to page 57 and read a paragraph or work out a math problem. Perhaps not. Maybe it’s memorizing facts and figures (It’ll be on the test!) about a distant time before your grandparents were born.  Maybe not.

It seems to me that kids are ACTIVE and SOCIAL beings that have an INNATE CURIOSITY about the world around them. We should be using these attributes as a springboard into the wonderful (yes, wonder full) world of learning. A green schoolyard dispenses with the chairs, desks, walls, ceiling, chalkboards and just about everything else found in the indoor classroom. It is an open active space that is asymmetrical and sensory-rich with things to touch, smell, hear, observe, and, yes, taste. It is a patch of land surrounded by a real world neighborhood. It seethes with  possibilities and beckons children to embark together on a journey of discovery. The teacher can even come along.

So, we’re sitting on a boulder in a corner of the schoolyard. This boulder is part of a crude circle of  rocks that reflect local geology. In fact, the school building itself was partially constructed from this same type of stone. The heavy rocks were quarried by immigrants that came from another country to start new lives here (just like many families today). Can we see any other buildings in the neighborhood built with the same kind of stones? How come the new school annex has been built with other materials? Wait a minute, what is a rock, anyway? We take out our hand lenses and begin to take a REALLY close look at our collection of rocks. What are these little sparkly pieces? Why is this one bumpy and this one is smooth? Look at all the bugs under this one? We are engaged in learning. It is not particularly linear, or organized in the traditional way, but it is interesting and has raised many questions. Now, the teacher can take a bunch of curious and excited students back inside to use their texts or the internet to assist in finding answers.

We have entered the school garden. We pick some mint leaves and put them in water jugs in the sun. Later we’ll drink solar-heated mint tea. We wonder why the dwarf pine tree has kept its needles while the apple tree is losing its leaves. We pick up the leaves and add them to our compost pile. A monarch butterfly hovers around our milkweed plant and a big crow perches on the fence post. Our wind-driven pump helps to send water through the irrigation channels we’ve dug. The wind dies down and the flow of water stops. Our scarecrow, that everyone agrees looks a little like the Assistant Principal, sighs as the crow alights on his head. We laugh and just feel really good….this is fun!

I’m sitting at the top of the slide looking at the colorful mural painted on our school. It’s just like a picture in a storybook but 1000 times bigger. I helped paint the ships sailing off to sea and a little bit of the dancer with a torch. I could gaze and dream forever but Willie is pushing me down the slide now. We spend alot of time running around like crazy because we can’t move around in class.

Alright, enough with the vignettes, but I hope you catch my drift. An active and multi-functional schoolyard doesn’t have to REPLACE the indoor classroom but can ADD to the overall mission of our schools – educating the whole child. After all, it’s not as if we have to buy the land – we just need to use what we have creatively. Educators and schoolyard activists can tell you that student engagement in the outdoor classroom is the LEAST of their worries. Kids love to be outside doing stuff. Why not take advantage of this friendly learning environment to further our educational goals and objectives.

Smaller class size and longer school days? Sounds like a good idea to me. But let’s make sure that our kids want to be there. Let’s mix it up and offer different approaches to instruction that embrace our childrens many different learning styles. Some people hate their jobs. Others can’t wait to get to work. Public education should aim for the latter.

1) Engaging Our Grounds Conference: September 16–18, 2011, Berkeley & San Francisco, California

Engaging Our Grounds will bring together leading green schoolyards practitioners from the United States and other countries to share the latest trends and innovations, case studies, best practices, and creative thinking in green schoolyard design, maintenance, curricula, advocacy, and funding partnerships. The conference will include a resource and networking fair, keynote presentations by visionary leaders of the school ground movement from Canada, England, Germany, Japan, and Sweden; tours of outstanding local school grounds; and networking time.

http://greenschoolyards.org/home/about_the_conference

2) Green Schools National Conference – February 27 – 29, 2012, Denver, Colorado

This conference is still in the planning stages but visit the website as more information is posted.

http://www.greenschoolsnationalconference.org/index.php

Recreation & Fitness – Traditionally, school grounds have been used for recess and after school sports. Ball fields and courts, play structures, tracks, and various creative types of exercise stations help contribute to a healthy body and, in turn, help develop a healthy mind. Ask any teacher how productive their students are when deprived of recess. Ask yourself how productive you would be at work if you could never leave your desk. Schools cutting back on recess are making a big mistake.

Teaching & Learning – We all have different learning styles and while some of us thrive on “book learning”, some of us don’t. As Howard Gardner outlined in his Theory of Multiple Intelligences, people have a variety of aptitudes and learn in a variety of ways. Experiential learning takes a hands-on, learn-by-doing approach that resonates with many learners. In the indoor classroom, students are exposed to key concepts through reading, online research, call and response with their teacher and class discussion. In an outdoor classroom, which may include food gardens, wild habitat areas, water flow systems, renewable energy demonstrations, bird feeders, compost bins and more, students use all of their senses, interact with primary source materials, engage in group data collection and problem-solving and learn the fundamentals of systems thinking. A school without an outdoor classroom is missing the opportunity to reinforce key concepts with hands-on activities in a real world setting.

Social Gathering & Community Building – Young people need to hang out, play, interact, be constructive, resolve conflicts and make friends in a safe (and sometimes supervised) social setting. The schoolyard is a safe open space (when parks are sometimes not) and is literally the common ground between the school and the surrounding community. When a green schoolyard is put to its highest use, it is being used by before and after school programs, summer camps, and during off hours by neighborhood residents. Great synergies are often attained when these various groups communicate with each other. And, of course, kids sometimes learn as much through creative play as they do through formal classroom instruction.

When the teacher asks the class, who wants to go outside, every hand goes up. When one observes students engaged in outdoor learning their energy and curiosity is palpable. These are not students burning out – these are students in the process of becoming life long learners.

INTRODUCTION

This concept paper lays out a rationale and strategy for the design and launch of a national Green Schoolyard Network (GSN) that will promote the use of schoolyards for teaching & learning, health & fitness, environmental literacy and as centers of community life. The core mission of the network will be to facilitate communication and sharing between geographically diverse schoolyard programs and to expand the schoolyard greening movement-at-large through advocacy, capacity building and increased public participation. It will include schoolyard practitioners, teachers, education specialists, administrators, policy makers, landscape architects, philanthropists, parents, children, activists and other concerned individuals and organizations. The GSN website will use internet technologies to create an active Community of Practice and its staff will take a leadership role in face to face public advocacy and technical assistance efforts. GSN will partner with member organizations in hosting regional and national training workshops, symposia, and conferences.

A Green Schoolyard Network will share and showcase best practices from programs around the country, foster collaboration in areas of common interest (including research & evaluation, professional development, curriculum alignment, design innovation and cooperative purchasing). It will provide technical assistance to start-up programs, and encourage the formation of public/private partnerships to sustain the movement.

OVERVIEW

There are well over 100,000 (K-12) schools in the United States. Every week, more than 55 million students spend a good portion of their waking moments at school. Nearly all of the school buildings sit in the middle of a schoolyard. So, how are schoolyards contributing to our children’s educational experience? Too often, school grounds are merely wastelands of asphalt, not unlike a typical prison yard, that provide limited opportunities for exercise and social gathering. Students are given their allotted time outside to expend “excess” energy so they can return to the classroom for “serious” study. Back inside, they often sit behind their desks and participate in a monoculture of lecture, call & response, and on-line teaching formats. Most of the time, the schoolyard lies dormant, little more than a useless community eyesore that reduces real estate values and depresses neighborhood residents.

Obviously, not all schoolyards are quite this bad. But a surprising number are. And, across our country, most schoolyards are not being put to their highest use. Over the past decade or so, a movement has arisen that has transformed many of these degraded schoolyards into high quality, multi-use open spaces that benefit both the school and the community-at-large. The green schoolyard typically has areas for both active and passive play, from ball fields, tracks and courts, to lined games to seating areas with chessboards and art activities. Also, central to a green schoolyard are planted gardens, trees & shrubs, and wild habitat areas for exploration, discovery and academic learning. A well-designed infrastructure of fences, pathways, gates, and seating will be highly functional but will also include colorful murals, a community bulletin board, student exhibit space and ornamental embellishments that help define the schoolyard as a special place. The green schoolyard is a multi-sensory learning environment that emphasizes a healthy body/healthy mind dynamic and addresses the needs of the whole child.

Green schoolyard activists reject the false duality that draws a boundary between creative play and academic learning. The green schoolyard movement seeks to harness and direct youthful energy by blurring these boundaries and acknowledging a child’s natural curiosity and active desire to understand the world around them through direct experience. Experiential learning activities conducted in the schoolyard have been found to nicely re-enforce theoretical concepts presented in the traditional, text-based classroom.

The greening of public schoolyards is a highly practical and very achievable goal. The land is already there and available for development. The capital construction costs are modest compared to most school building renovations. If properly consulted and organized, the school and neighborhood can supply huge amounts of in-kind material and services. If necessary, a green schoolyard can be built in phases as resources become available. Considering the value of adding an exciting new dimension to public education, one that provides a positive message and program to students and neighborhoods alike, the installation of a green schoolyard has to be the deal of the century. With the Green Schoolyard Network conducting outreach and giving technical support, we expect to see an exponential growth in schoolyard conversions over the next decade.

As schoolyard committees work with design professionals to install innovative but cost effective green schoolyards, we are seeing the evolution of distinct areas and elements that stimulate the learning process and are easily aligned with systemic curriculum frameworks. Some of these include:

· Natural Areas – These schoolyard green spaces provide students and teachers with regular access to the natural world. If, as Richard Louv documents in his best-selling book, Last Child in the Woods, our children are suffering from a sort of Nature Deficit Disorder, then this is an opportunity to re-establish the important relationship between children and their planet. It is also a chance to study (eco)systems, the interconnectedness of all things, and the notion that true problem-solving often requires holistic rather than a linear approaches. I believe that most adults would agree that exposure to nature should be every child’s birthright. Schoolyard green spaces can provide this in a variety of ways:

o Wild Habitats – These living laboratories tend to be dominated by perennial plantings chosen to attract birds, butterflies and insects and to re-create natural conditions within the built environment. Some include micro-climatic themes such as forest, prairie, wetland, and so on. They are seasonally changing open spaces in which concepts such as pollination, decomposition, photosynthesis, and the food chain become dynamic, real world processes that illustrate the web of life. Water flow systems, weather stations, solar and wind energy demonstrations, and bird houses/feeding stations are common elements of these areas.

o Food Gardens – Here, the focus is on understanding agriculture, nutrition, and the foods we eat. Gardens may include vegetables, herbs & spices, fruit trees, berry bushes, and (rarely) domesticated animals. Elements include composting & vermiculture bins, cold frames, greenhouses, rain gauges, cider presses, solar ovens, rain water collection & irrigation systems. Most focus on organic gardening techniques such as soil enrichment and integrated pest management. Harvested crops are consumed or sold by the students. The food garden coupled with schoolyard recreational areas give students an overview of the benefits of active living and healthy lifestyles.

o Landscape Diversity – Approaches to general campus plantings have evolved from traditional beautification (i.e. a row of Norway maples) to the use of plant materials specifically chosen for teaching and learning (i.e. alternating deciduous & evergreen trees or shrubs). Often, there is a focus on native plants. Trees are popular given the scale of the school building(s) and the need for shade in the open schoolyard.

Nature areas on schoolyards replace asphalt “heat islands”, absorb storm water runoff, and provide aesthetically pleasing gathering places for the school, out-of-school time programs, and the community-at-large. Peace gardens may simply be places for teachers, students and parents to escape momentarily from their otherwise hectic schedules.

· Recreation and Fitness Areas – These are areas such as tracks, ball fields and courts, exercise stations, play structures, climbing walls, and lined games. Although recess has been cutback in many schools, in favor of more time to prepare for standardized tests, green schoolyard advocates believe a healthy body leads to a more productive mind. With childhood obesity at near epidemic levels (some medical experts predict that, for the first time in history, today’s children will have a lower life expectancy than their parents because of their sedentary lifestyles) it is important that we build facilities that encourage exercise in its many forms. Efforts are often made to highlight gender neutral games, non-competitive sports and even the practice of yoga and meditation.

· Public Art, Murals and Educational Graphics & Games – Green schoolyard designs often incorporate brightly colored sculpture or murals that thematically reflect the school and surrounding community. Also popular are painted neighborhood, national or world maps, representations of our solar system, number boxes, alphabet pathways, multi-cultural hopscotch and chalk art areas. These signature features add life, vibrancy, and a sense of ownership for stakeholders.

· Gates, Fences, Pathways, Seating, and Infrastructure – As with any public space it is important to design with its use in mind – form follows function. A well thought out infrastructure separates pedestrian from vehicular traffic, engages students in both large and smaller groups, smartly places active & passive areas, and uses materials and spacing to facilitate on-going maintenance. An ornamental gateway provides a transition into a special place, fencing can display student art, benches, community bulletin boards or streetlight banners can make the schoolyard more neighborhood-friendly, and clustering plant materials can make them easier to water, mulch and weed.

The point here is that school grounds can be an integral part of the educational experience. A green schoolyard will send a positive message to students and the community-at-large that we care about public education. The creative experiential use of this valuable open space will re-enforce traditional text-based learning and some indicators suggest hands-on activities will increase retention rates among students.

Tell me and I’ll forget

Show me and I may remember

Involve me and I’ll understand

- Chinese Proverb

For schoolyard practitioners, the benefits of a green schoolyard are now self evident. Student engagement, according to teachers, is “off the charts”. Data on student achievement is positive but anecdotal and is an example of research that might be done collectively by the network. The impact of green schoolyards on neighborhoods is a wonderful thing to see as residents stroll by, lean over the fence or sit on a bench, and attend community builds, clean up days and special events. As out-of-school time programs utilize the schoolyard, the school/community link is strengthened and, in the end, the school ceases to be an island and once again becomes a center of local activity.

The emerging field of sustainable schoolyard development is growing by leaps and bounds and the movement itself will become sustainable if we build a strong network of thoughtful and dedicated advocates.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

I’d like to briefly use the Boston Schoolyard Initiative (BSI) as a case history. As former (and founding) Executive Director of the Boston Schoolyard Funders Collaborative, I am most familiar with this public/private partnership. BSI shares many commonalities with other programs around the country.

In the early 1990s, the Boston GreenSpace Alliance administered a small grants program that underwrote greening projects in Boston public schoolyards. These urban open spaces had suffered from years of “deferred maintenance” and had become patchworks of degraded asphalt and ripped fences that were virtually indistinguishable from nearby abandoned lots. Teacher parking trumped recreational use and green spaces consisted of weeds that forced their way up through cracked and broken pavement. In addition to being a waste of prime urban open space, these schoolyards sent a negative message to students about how we valued them and their education.

The transforming success of these small greening grants prompted a group of local foundation staff, educators, and community activists to approach Boston’s Mayor Thomas Menino and suggest a public/private partnership to improve school grounds across the city. A cabinet-level task force was set-up to study approaches to the problem and six months later the Boston Schoolyard Initiative (BSI) was born. The four pillars of the program are:

· A public/private partnership that would share funding, governance, and decision-making.

· A participatory community design process that would craft a local vision and sense of ownership.

· A commitment to integrate the use of the schoolyard into the educational mission of the school.

· A commitment to insure the ongoing maintenance of sites and the sustainability of school/community programming.

By 2008, the Boston Schoolyard Initiative had re-designed and constructed over 70 new schoolyards across the city’s many diverse neighborhoods. BSI has won numerous national and local awards including a Blue Ribbon for the Most Innovative Public/Private Partnership from the National League of Cities and the National Community Service Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Programmatically, BSI has worked directly with Boston Public School (BPS) department heads to align instructional activities to the system’s core curriculum. For example, the Guide to Taking FOSS Science Kits Outdoors works in tandem with science kits used by all BPS teachers and the FOSS vendor, Delta Distributors, is interested in incorporating the Guide into FOSS kits used nationwide. In Language Arts, BSI is working within the Writers’ Workshop model used by the BPS system and teachers report more imaginative writing, increased vocabulary, and more enthusiastic student participation.

As the Boston Schoolyard Initiative continues to build new schoolyards, there will be a special focus on the outdoor classroom and its integration into the culture of Boston’s public schools. Harvard professor and author, Howard Gardner, is well-known for his ground-breaking Theory of Multiple Intelligences in which he outlines the many different ways we learn. For example, the Verbal/Linguistic aptitude reflects the ability to learn through the spoken or written word. This is the method most used in a traditional classroom. A Bodily/Kinesthetic aptitude reflects the ability to learn through interaction with one’s environment, to learn from concrete experience. The outdoor classroom, in the green schoolyard, offers a variety of “learn by doing” or “hands-on” opportunities for students. Many lessons in the outdoor classroom are performed by students in groups and this accommodates those with Interpersonal Intelligence, an aptitude that promotes collaboration and working co-operatively with others. The point is that we all have different learning styles and our schools should encourage activities that address a broad spectrum of aptitudes. One hypothesis worth testing is that English language learners, some special education students (i.e. ADHD), and some for whom reading is not a priority at home – in short, those who comprise the so-called Achievement Gap – may perform better in an experiential, hands-on setting than in a traditional text-based environment.

The Green Schoolyard Network will share best practices from Boston and other initiatives to encourage and foster the integration of school grounds into the academic culture of primary and secondary schools across America.

OTHER SYSTEMIC GREEN SCHOOLYARD PROGRAMS

Over the past decade, hundreds of schools have initiated ad hoc schoolyard improvement projects and several other systemic schoolyard initiatives have arisen. Some of these include:

· The San Francisco Green Schoolyards Alliance – Formed in March 2001, the SFGSA is a coalition of Bay Area civic organizations, schools and government agencies whose work supports schoolyard transformations from ordinary asphalt yards into ecologically rich green spaces for learning and play. Member organizations work together to make things happen in San Francisco’s public schools, using their collective voices to successfully advocate for schoolyard greening  (securing $7 million in the November ’03 and ’06 San Francisco school bond for schoolyard greening AND winning recognition from the City’s Commission on the Environment for their continuing efforts).

· Learning Landscapes (Denver, CO) – Since 1998, through a successful collaboration between multiple stakeholders, the Learning Landscape Initiative has transformed 56 neglected Denver public elementary school playgrounds into attractive and safe multi-use parks tailored to the needs and desires of the local community. The success of the Learning Landscape project is founded on a healthy enthusiasm for aesthetic issues with a pragmatic approach to maintenance, safety and recreational issues. All Learning Landscapes are comprised of grass playing fields, age-appropriate play equipment, trees, shade structures, gateways, artwork, gardens, traditional play elements and non-traditional play elements. Learning Landscapes function as local public parks providing much needed green space and social gathering places while fostering neighborhood pride for local communities.

· The Greening of Detroit – The Greening of Detroit works with dozens of schools throughout the city of Detroit, planting trees to beautify children’s schoolyards, and teaching students how to become stewards of their environment. The Greening’s school programming provides extensive workshops, curriculum and training to Detroit’s educators, while providing students with opportunities to experience nature first-hand using the outdoors as their classroom laboratory.

· Trust for Public Land (New York City) – The Trust for Public Land is working to transform vacant school lots into vibrant playgrounds and community parks as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030. This work will create more than 200 acres of new parkland on 185 schoolyards and provide places for more than 143,000 children to play, exercise, and come together for activities.

· Washington DC Schoolyard Greening Consortium – The DC Schoolyard Greening (DCSG) was founded in May 2003 by local and national non-profit organizations, city government agencies, teachers, and concerned individuals. The mission of the D.C. Schoolyard Greening Consortium is to increase and improve schoolyard green spaces to promote ecological literacy and environmental stewardship among students, teachers, parents and the surrounding community.

· First Hand Learning (Buffalo, NY) - B.A.S.E. (Buffalo Advocates for Schoolyard Enhancement) is a partnership between First Hand Learning, Buffalo Public School teachers and other committed advocates of outdoor learning. Its mission is to improve student achievement in all areas of the curriculum by providing opportunities for students to interact with the natural world, using the immediate environment around the school as a rich resource for integrated and authentic learning experiences. First Hand Learning is working with district planners, architects, environmental educators, school administrators and teachers to achieve their goal of incorporating natural areas for educational use within the perimeters of every Buffalo Public School.

SPARK  (Houston, TX) – SPARK was started in 1983 to increase park space in the City of Houston.  The principal sends SPARK a letter of interest describing the school and its needs. If selected, the principal forms a SPARK Committee that works with a landscape architect to design a park that will be open to the neighborhood after school and on the weekends.  To date over 200 public schools in 12 school districts have participated in the program.  About 100 of these school parks have  been improved twice.  (Every 10 years a park can be re-SPARKed). Each   SPARK Park is different – fitting the land area and wants of the school and community.  Parks may include modular play equipment, walking trails, jogging tracks, outdoor classrooms, public art projects, picnic tables, benches, etc.  The public art component has been a way for schools to individualize their parks, highlighting school colors, mascots, or ethnicity of neighborhood.

· REAL School Gardens (Fort Worth, TX) – REAL School Gardens partners with elementary school communities to create learning gardens that raise hope, spark imaginations and connect children to nature. To accomplish this, RSG provides its school partners with support during garden design and installation, year-round guidance on planting and maintenance, and ongoing professional development and networking opportunities. RSG’s goals are to create and sustain school gardens which enhance children’s learning; to grow a vibrant, sharing network of educators and partners; and to foster a cooperative spirit among schools, families and the surrounding community. They currently support 54 schools, 1250 educators and more than 28,000 students in North Texas with plans for national expansion.

The schoolyard greening movement is, in fact, a global phenomenon and some countries already have national programs in place – Learning Through Landscapes in the United Kingdom, the Evergreen Foundation in Canada, Skolens Uterom in Sweden, Barnas Landskap in Norway and Learnscapes in Australia have all put school grounds on the national agenda. Our own national Schoolyard Greening Network will be able to represent the United States as part of this global network.

LAUNCHING THE GREEN SCHOOLYARD NETWORK

The Green Schoolyard Network (GSN) is proposed as a lean but productive mechanism for programs across the United States to communicate and collaborate with each other and as a center for outreach and technical assistance for start-up programs. The network will also seek to raise public awareness on the value of green schoolyards in K-12 education.

Proposed functions for GSN include:

• To share and showcase best practices – Over the past decade we have seen local programs around the country arise organically and independently. There is a positive aspect to this evolution in that a variety of approaches and structures have been tried and tested. Now, however, we are in a position to make these models available to newcomers and help to jumpstart new programs. By sharing best practices (and for that matter, our failures) we can help each other navigate the path toward formalizing (and sustaining) green schoolyards within the culture of K-12 public education. By showcasing programs we can encourage others to join the movement and increase the number of participating school systems. In addition to in-school programming, many out-of-school time programs will benefit from the creation of green schoolyards. Shared resources and co-ordination will foster programmatic synergies where none have existed before.

• To encourage collaboration in areas of common interest – Outdoor education practitioners often have their hands full with daily and seasonal operations. Working locally with schools, government, community-based organizations, industry, foundations, and residents can keep “big picture” projects on the back burner. By working collectively we can share and enhance projects that will serve our entire community. Examples include:

• Evaluations and research on student engagement, student achievement, and education of the whole child.

• Approaches and standards for pre-service and in-service professional development for teachers and other program staff.

• Partnerships with the professional design community to encourage innovative infrastructures and the installation of creative teaching elements.

• Curriculum development that aligns to local and national frameworks and provides a continuous, multi-disciplinary experience at all grade levels. Work with national vendors to include outdoor activities in their curricula.

• Increase advocacy efforts to local, state and the federal government to support the integration of green schoolyards into public K-12 education. Act as convener to encourage the formation of public/private partnerships.

• Expand fundraising efforts to include national foundations, corporations, and private donors to underwrite collaborative projects that have a broad national impact.

• To make available a Schoolyard Greening Toolkit for start-ups – Many existing programs have taken years and years to reach a sustainable status. Newcomers seeking to initiate programs should be able to benefit from those who have preceded them. Although each city and town has a culture of its own, there are generic aspects to organizing, implementing and sustaining programs that can be tailored to fit local circumstances. A start-up toolkit might include:

• The Rationale – Summaries of studies, essays, articles, testimonials and research that support the use of the green schoolyard in public schools.

• Organizing – An overview of who should be at the table when crafting a local plan, how to set an agenda and run a meeting, templates for community outreach flyers, skill bank development and mailing lists, press releases, youth participation, dos & don’ts and the fundamentals of community organizing.

• Designing – A “form follows function” guide to the community design process, working with design professionals, student workshops, sample schematics (general layout & specific elements), checklists to inventory existing conditions, to calculate student/space ratios with regard to pathways, seating and gathering/work areas, plants lists (by climatic zone and teaching value), re-use or recycled building materials, contractor agreements, maintenance planning, warranties, and capital budgeting.

• On-site Programming – Sample lesson activities for in-school, out-of-school and summer programs, tips for practicing experiential teaching methodologies, class management techniques, and aligning instruction with existing curricula.

• Maintenance/Site Sustainability – Seasonal maintenance, custodial care, youth jobs, environmental stewardship, community service days, vandalism, making changes.

• Fundraising – Public/private partnerships, grassroots fundraising, foundation proposals, corporate giving, in-kind goods & services, operational, programmatic and capital needs, evaluation & reporting.

• To promote public/private partnerships in support of Green Schoolyards – Since schoolyards are public facilities, and K-12 education is primarily funded and overseen by state and local governments, some commitment by the public sector is a key factor in leveraging support from private sector philanthropies. For example, a State Department of Education might offer grants if matched by local municipalities. If invited, local foundations might underwrite another matching grant. GSN will work to establish and foster such public/private partnerships.

• To proactively publicize the value of Green Schoolyards – GSN can keep our movement in the public eye through mainstream and sector-driven print & electronic media outlets, website linkage and on-line marketing. It can provide power point presentations (add your own local slides), white papers, and video documentation for dissemination. GSN will make public presentations to interest groups at meetings, conferences, workshops and symposia.

• To maintain a Green Schoolyards resource library – GSN can act as an archive and clearinghouse for collected data, publications, multi-media presentations, and can create an image bank for public use.

• To engage in data collection – Through web-based general and targeted surveys, questionnaires and opinion polls GSN can measure the pulse of the movement, identify needs and prioritize its agenda. It can maintain an e-mail list of outdoor classroom supporters for petitioning and (non-endorsement) political action.

• To publish an online newsletter and establish a listserv – These regular features will provide a forum to highlight and discuss issues of common concern and will develop a sense of community among practitioners and supporters

• To identify and seek financial and in-kind resources – Local funders are best approached by local programs but most national funders will not typically underwrite local projects unless there is potential to replicate them elsewhere. Often a donor willing to fund multiple sites prefers to deal with a single entity as a “one-stop shopping” option. GSN’s mission of fostering a national movement can help identify and facilitate such contributions. It can also act as a principal in collaborative efforts such as broad-based research, conferences, and jointly developed guides, manuals and training materials.

• To maintain an annotated list of related websites – An annotated list of useful websites will encourage collegial exchange and help expand the knowledge base of current and potential practitioners. Web-link reciprocity will increase traffic to the GSN site.

• Provide referrals to link-up practitioners with start-up programs – Keep a database of regional and locally-based organizations that can offer assistance to start-ups in the planning and implementation of Green School programs.

• To provide testimony in favor of legislative and other government support – In addition to seeking funds, it is important to initiate and maintain good relations with school districts, local, state, and federal representatives and agencies and to demonstrate the efficacy of the Green Schoolyard. GSN will work with the membership to craft an advocacy strategy that will provide timely testimony and updates as the movement grows.

• To convene or attend conferences, symposia, and workshops – Whether participating in local events, or convening regional/national summits or open conferences, GSN will work to make the sum of its membership greater than its individual parts. Large public events are also a way to invite new energy and encourage greater diversity within the movement.

The Green Schoolyard Network will create and prioritize an action agenda through dialogue with its founding members and will evolve over time as the network grows. A well run participatory network will speak with a strong collective voice as it seeks synergies that will advance the important but challenging task of bringing a green schoolyard to every school.

AGENDA FOR YEAR ONE

• Secure funding for the planning/pilot start-up phase.
• Formalize Advisory Committee representing all vital sectors.
• Design & establish a website, blog and newsletter.
• Identify & recruit member organizations from all 50 states, territories, and the District of Columbia. Connect with international partners.
• Craft a media campaign to raise visibility of the movement.
• Make presentations to special interest groups to garner support.
• Promote a celebratory National Green Schoolyards Day (end of school year).
• Conduct outreach to GSN constituency to develop a strategic plan (including collaborative projects as outlined above).
• Secure funding for implementation of the strategic plan.
• Convene an open conference and/or national summit for Green Schoolyard Activists.

IN CONCLUSION

The Green Schoolyard Network will open new channels of communication and collaboration among members and will expand the knowledge base and skill sets of those engaged in schoolyard greening projects. The Network will assist in improving the quality of practices and will increase the number of organizations and communities participating in the movement. It will provide news and accurate information to decision makers and to the public at large.

Systemic and innovative change often meets resistance or neglect because practitioners lack the resources, organization and persistent focus to articulate and sustain their message. The Green Schoolyard Network will insure that the message is clear, is supported by thorough evaluation and research, and is kept on the public policy table for debate and action.

Public education has been much maligned in recent years. Poor student achievement has been blamed on substandard teaching and a lack of accountability. Standardized testing has become a dominant political quick fix and has forced educators to slavishly “teach to the test”. Dropout rates are appalling. There are no easy answers to these complex problems but the green schoolyard movement is an ongoing experiment that has already had great local successes and is ready for consideration on the national stage. It is time to think outside the walls and to make green schoolyards a key component of our educational ecosystem.

Kirk Meyer is the former (and founding) Executive Director of the Boston Schoolyard Funders Collaborative, a group of private sector philanthropies partnering with the City of Boston on the Boston Schoolyard Initiative. Prior to his last position, he was Director of Education for the Boston GreenSpace Alliance, a membership network of open space organizations in Boston. Kirk also helped found the Boston Food Bank and was its first Director of Corporate Affairs. During his tenure, the food bank’s membership grew to over 600 agencies and became the largest non-governmental food relief program in New England. During this period he was Chair of the Massachusetts Anti-Hunger Coalition. Before returning to Boston, Kirk was co-owner and President of Snow Flower Frozen Desserts (Woodstock, NY), the country’s first commercially sold and nationally distributed soymilk ice cream. He has also been Interim Director (one year) of the Multi-County Community Development Corporation (Highland, NY) and has been a consultant for the Green Decade Coalition (Newton, MA). Kirk lives in Wayland, MA with his wife Susan (a former teacher). Their children, Melody Liana and Zachary Rowan, are both living in Brooklyn, NY.

Kirk Meyer/Executive Director

Green Schoolyard Network

241 Cochituate Rd.

Wayland, Ma 01778

Office: 508-276-1747

Cell: 508-364-9138

kdmeyer@comcast.net

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