Monday 28 October 2013

Resources for Going Green

Launched in 2011, the U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools recognition award is designed to honor public and private elementary, middle, and high schools and districts for their excellence in health, facilities, and environment achievements. The award spotlights winners’ best practices and their resources, making this information available to all schools and districts.
Nonprofit groups at both local and national levels played a critical role in the development of the award, advising the Education Department and state education agencies. These groups requested the formation of the awards through a compelling 80-organization sign-on letter.
Similarly, federal agencies work together, collaborating with the department to develop criteria, review nominations, and plan the recognition ceremony. These agencies include the Environmental Protection Agency, the departments of Energy, Agriculture, and the Interior, and the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, to name just a few.
In states, ED-Green Ribbon Schools implementation teams also have taken collaboration to new heights for the benefit of students. Typical state implementation teams are made up of facilities, health, and science offices; state health and natural resource agencies; and local volunteers.
The award has brought us all together to look at the intersections of health, facilities, and environment in new ways. The Education Department provided guidance as to how state education agencies might evaluate schools, but ultimately, states had flexibility in their selection processes. They were required to document schools’ comprehensive achievement in the three pillars of the award -- reduced environmental impact and costs, improved health and wellness, and effective environmental and sustainability education.
The fruits of all these new collaborative labors have been exciting. Now in its second year, the program announced the 64 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools and 14 District Sustainability Awardees on Earth Day 2013, adding to the 78 schools named in the inaugural year.
As Education Secretary Arne Duncan said, “Healthy, safe, educationally adequate facilities; wellness practices like outdoors physical activity and good nutrition; and environmental education are part of a vital cradle-to-career pipeline.”
For those not yet in on the action, states have yet another opportunity to nominate their schools and districts by Feb. 1, 2014, for the third cycle of the recognition award. Schools and districts cannot apply directly but must be nominated by their states.
Concrete examples
Among the schools honored this year were 54 public, including seven charter, five magnet, and four career and technical schools, and 10 private schools. Last year’s cohort is equally diverse: 66 public schools, including eight charters, and 12 private schools.
In both years, more than 50 percent of the awardees served disadvantaged populations. That these so-called “disadvantaged” schools were masters of stretching limited resources further should not have surprised us. Green schools, after all, are about creating an education built to last. A sustainable education requires, nearly by definition, ingenuity and resourcefulness. It turns out that our nation’s healthy, safe, educationally adequate, and sustainable schools are a great tool to advance equal access to quality education for all students.
The 2012 and 2013 honorees from 30 states and the District of Columbia provide concrete examples of how all schools can reduce costs and environmental impact, promote better health and wellness, and ensure an effective environmental education, including civics, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), and green career pathways.
These green schools and districts are engaging in some of the most innovative school improvement practices that we at the Education Department have run across in some time. They use sheer ingenuity, a wide array of free federal programs, and strong community partnerships to finance their projects. What all these schools have in common is that they are taking a comprehensive approach to health, facilities, and environment.
Getting the word out
As excited as we are about the gains of ED-Green Ribbon Schools, we are not stopping at a few exemplary schools. We want to get the word out about their stories. The interest generated by the award has provided the perfect impetus for sharing more resources and programs that all schools can use. Through our Green Strides resources and webinar series, we are making all of the tools that these schools and districts use available to the public.
And, to achieve these aims, in coming issues of this magazine, we will be using this space to bring you details on many of those federal resources used by our Green Ribbon Schools and District Sustainability Awardees. Expect information on education and school programs from the departments of Energy, Interior, Agriculture, and others in upcoming columns.
In the interim, we hope you will view our Green Strides portal (www.ed.gov/green-strides) filled with hundreds of free resources and webinars from these agencies as well as nonprofits, a blog with many concrete school examples, a newsletter that shares word of new federal funds and opportunities for schools at all the agencies, and Twitter and Facebook accounts where you can follow the progress of our “Education Built to Last” Facilities Best Practices Tour.
During the tour, we are holding facilities listening sessions across the nation as we visit these exemplary schools to spotlight their practices. We are highlighting what schools and districts can do now to ensure that their learning facilities promote achievement, health, equity, and cost savings. In future years, this tour may well focus on health or environmental education practices that improve health, engagement, and overall educational outcomes.
Speaking of facilities, Secretary Duncan has said, “Educationally modern and rich environments are important for closing the achievement gap, as children from high- poverty families need to make up for lack of opportunities in their communities during their time in school.”
While they weren’t our idea (indeed, the proposal for this award came from the public), these sustainable Green Ribbon ideas appeal to states as commonsense ways of achieving their aims for schools.
In both new and older facilities, schools and districts are making school environments healthier, saving millions of dollars in utility costs, revitalizing communities, engaging students in STEM subjects, and teaching them lifelong health and wellness habits.
With our tour, newsletter, and this new facilities column in ASBJ to help communicate exactly how schools like our honorees use their “greening” efforts as a springboard for school innovation and all-around academic improvement, it’s our hope that one day, we’ll no longer need a federal recognition award to stand up a handful of exemplary schools. They’ll all be using the same resources and practices that our honorees have employed successfully.
Andrea Suarez Falken (andrea.falken@ed.gov) is the director of the U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools program as well as the department’s Facilities, Health, and Environment Liaison, advising on matters at the intersection of school facilities, health, and environment. 

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