Educator to Educator Initiative for Student Learning: A Pacific Northwest Model for Collective Impact

(“E2E Regional”)

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The goal of theEducator to Educator Initiative for Student Learning: A Pacific Northwest Model for Collective Impact(the E2E Regional Initiative) istodevelop, implement, evaluate, and disseminate a replicable model for classroom-to-community-and-back environmental education, or environmental and sustainability education (EE/ESE) in the Pacific Northwest (AK, ID, OR, WA). There is a perceived need for such a model in the Pacific Northwest because it is estimated that as few as 1-2% of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington PreK-12 schools and colleges/universities are systemically providing environmental and sustainability learning across core subject areas and in each grade level, preK-20. This initiative also recognizes that in order to affect systemic shifts in EE/ESE learning across the region, a systemic, coordinated approach is needed, or what is called “collective impact”. The exchange of ideas and resources developed through this model will create a stronger environmental and sustainability literacy network across the region.E3 Washington is the managing partner and for five years has been supporting leaders to scale sustainability and systems learning “up and down the system”, from the student, out.

The E2E Regional initiative addresses two critical questions in the field of EE/ESE.

  • “What are the multiple strategies needed in order to link classroom and community-based educators for increased student learning and environmental stewardship?”
  • “What is the system, from the classroom to the community, up to the state, regional and national levels that is needed for implementation of state environmental literacy plans?”

Addressing both questions will result in a model that a) provides a picture of the current and desired system, b) speaks to the strategies, resources, and tools needed to move toward the desired state, and c) paints a picture of the collaborative work of local, state, regional and national partners that are available to sustain such a model.

Project Activities

E3 Washington will work with EE/ESE leaders at the local and state levels from Alaska, Idaho and Oregon and Washington andtechnical (evaluation/research, systems thinking, project & field based learning and web technology)consultants to achieve five objectives:

  1. Convene the Regional Leadership Team as a Community of Practice
  2. Co-Create a Regional model for implementation of State Environmental Literacy Plans
  3. Implement the model at the state and local levels with project support
  4. Implement, evaluate, and adaptively manage the project’s activities
  5. Package and disseminate the model throughout the Pacific Northwest

The “Collective Impact” structure will be utilized to manage and evaluate the objectives of the E2E Regional initiative and modeled for other states to utilize. The five elements necessary for a collective impact initiative include:

  1. a common agenda
  2. shared measurement systems
  3. mutually reinforcing activities
  4. continuous communication
  5. a backbone support organization

Conceptually, this project is drawn from E3 Washington’s “E2E Local” Initiative: “Leveraging Sustainability and Systems Education”. The E2E Local initiative supports six Washington State school districts, each of which convenes a Leadership Community of Practice (LCoP) to focus on implementing one or more strategies in the Washington State Environmental and Sustainability Literacy Plan (WSESLP).Each local LCoP is made up of school board members, administrators, teachers, students and community members and address an individual school district “persistent problem of practice” such as student core subject area achievement, graduation rates, etc..

For the E2E Regional project, representatives from the state and local levels in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington will convene to form a NW regional LCoP. This group will coordinate, share powerful practices and develop a regional model to address the project questions. Each state team will oversee the implementation of E2E at the local level within their state. E3 Washington will also engage specialists with regional reach to provide professional development, systems design and tools, evaluation and research, and EE/ESE technical support.

The E2E Regional initiative will engage diverse leadership in order to serve diverse populations. The project will emphasize cultural responsiveness and community needs by identifying and generatively building EE/ESE implementation powerful practices in economically, culturally and regionally diverse communities. This model will directly impact over 2,000 students and their teachers, school administrators and community members from each of the six regionally and culturally diverse school district-community teams involved. Additionally, at least 200 diverse business, tribal, governmental and nonprofit environmental education leaders and stakeholders will benefit by engaging with the model that this initiative will produce. From an output perspective, the project will result in multiple case studies and increased leadership capacity in order to fully infuse high quality EE/ESE into the curriculum for the 21st century, interdisciplinary (including Science Technology Engineering & Math (STEM)and applied learning, and career development.