Discussion and Implications

This section contains a brief discussion of major findings and suggests a number of recommendations for CAEE.  The section is divided into discussion of the CAEE Market, CAEE Programs and Services, CAEE Advocacy, Private Sector Opportunities, and finally, Tracking and Evaluation.  In no way does this discussion exhaust the implications of this research.  Rather, it is meant as a catalyst for thinking, discussion, and decision-making. 

The CAEE Market

The typical respondent of this survey was female, between the ages of 31-50, educated, Caucasian, Democrat, spiritually unaffiliated, a front-range resident, earning an income between $25-75K per year with a better than 50% chance of being employed in the public sector, and aware of CAEE (Table A3).  To some degree, this typical respondent is likely due to the non-probability nature of the sampling strategy.  And yet, even those unaware of CAEE assigned a fairly high importance to EE in almost all venues (Table A1).  This should be viewed as an opportunity for CAEE.  If people (aware of CAEE or not) feel that EE is important, there is a high likelihood they might avail themselves of the programs services of an organization who is already prepared to provide such opportunities.   Results also show however, that in order for people to become members of CAEE, individuals will have to feel membership is relevant for them (in their work or otherwise) (Table A1a) and that the benefits of membership are clear and meaningful (Table W1).  

In addition, one very telling finding from this study is the number of respondents who are unclear about the benefits of CAEE membership and/or who do not know about specific CAEE programs or services (Tables W1 and W5).  Clearly, CAEE could improve the marketing of its goods and services.  These findings suggest a couple of things for CAEE.

·         Recommendation #1:  Develop a marketing process/plan to facilitate a reach beyond what is typically considered mainstream environmental education consumers (e.g., K-12 educators, informal educators, and others who might fit the typical demographic of this study, i.e. middle age, female, educated, Caucasian, democrat, middle-income citizen, and spiritually unaffiliated (Table A3).  This would include targeting diverse market niches such as minority and low-income populations, members of the business and/or private sector (see also Recommendation #10), and those who may share conservative political values and/or diverse spiritual affiliations (See also Table AP2).  This means targeting non-Denver metro, non-Front Range, and/or non-urban areas of the state (Table A2). 

·         Recommendation #2:   As part of a marketing process or plan (mentioned above), develop a simple but professional organizational brochure that describes the organization’s vision, mission and guiding principles, as well as provides a brief but helpful description about each of the specific programs or services.  Descriptions should include the purpose, intended audience, and benefit for each (See recommendation #3 below prior to developing such a brochure).  In addition, such a marketing brochure should describe clearly the benefits of CAEE to the state of Colorado (See Table W1 and Appendix B).  The purpose of this brochure would be two-fold:  (a) to help those individuals who are aware of CAEE but not yet members understand why CAEE exists and succinctly review available programs and services, and (b) to help market CAEE to yet untapped venues such as religious organizations, minority groups, businesses, private sector organizations, government, and non-profit organizations (Appendix D).  And, although the webpage and online newsletter appear to be very useful, a printed brochure may still be an effective tool for achieving entrée into many organizations.

CAEE Programs and Services

For years, CAEE has offered a number of valuable programs and services to its members.  From this study, the most useful of these seems to be the networking and information sharing efforts such as the online Newsletter and the Website, and to some degree, the Online Directory and the Professional Development Series, the EE List Serve, and the Educator Guidelines.  Of lesser utility are the Resource Review System, the Teacher Liaison Network, and the Regional Networks (Tables W4 and W6).  In allocating resources, CAEE will need to consider carefully, which programs and services best maximize existing resources.  Based on the data summarized in Tables W2-W6 consider the following:

·         Recommendation #3:  To the degree possible, discontinue or reduce attention to the Teacher Liaison and Resource Review Programs.  These programs seem have low use and fairly low usefulness.  Although some teachers may find these programs helpful, nearly 1 in 3 teachers do not teach EE in the schools because of limits on their time, lack of resource and/or administrative support, and conflicts with effort on standardized testing (Table T2) making it difficult for teachers to make use of these resources.  Relative to the other CAEE audience segments, stretching staff efforts to maintain these programs reduces efficiency across all programs.  

·         Recommendation #4:  Conduct a quick cost-benefit analysis[1] for the EE List Serve, the Regional Networks, the Professional Development Series, the Online Directory, Outside the Box Conference, and the Guidelines.  These programs are used by many but have varying utility (Table W4, W5, and W6).  Based on current strategic planning and visioning for the organization, the cost-benefit should render which programs that might provide the greatest reach/benefit for the least effort.  Consider also the other programs included in Table W3 (e.g., the CAEE Auction, Awards and Recognition, Diversity Roundtables, etc.).

·         Recommendation #5:  Nurture and maintain the Newsletter and the Website. These services seem to be the most used and the most useful to the greatest number of people which is consistent with the top two perceived benefits/values of a CAEE membership – networking and general information sharing (Table W1).

·         Recommendation #6:  Review both Appendix B (perceptions of CAEE) and Appendix C (desired additional programs and services) to develop a list of possibly opportunities that may draw either members or funding.  As decisions are made to either eliminate or add programs and services over time, use this list as reference for strategic planning, marketing, and funding. 

CAEE Advocacy

Approximately 1 in 3 respondents indicated that they work in formal education (PreK-12 or Higher Education - Table W10).  For those teachers who work in K-12, nearly 30% indicated that EE was not taught in their school due to lack of time, resources, training, administrative support, or constraints associated with standardized testing (Table T2).  These constraints are formidable when deciding where to allocate CAEE resources.  As recommended above, reducing or eliminating on-the-ground teacher training efforts may be the best choice.  In the long run, it may be more helpful for CAEE to advocate for education reform at a higher level (e.g., State Legislature).  Advocacy in fact, is one of the top four values perceived by the CAEE members (Table W1) and one of the CAEE focus areas ranked very high in importance (but low in performance) by respondents aware of CAEE (Table W7).  Even those unaware of CAEE indicate high support for its mission and desired support of state government of the mission (Table NA2).  Toward this end, CAEE could be a leading voice for EE in the state by articulating, clarifying, and tracking issues related to education about the environment.  Steps toward this goal might include the following.

·         Recommendation #7:  Using the issue chunking in Tables A5 and AP3, prepare a number of very brief one-page issue statements or white papers to distribute to legislators, policy makers, government departments, watch-dog groups, media, and/or educational organizations to help increase the clarity on topics and issues for our statewide educational system.  In addition, suggest ways that these topics and issues are (and can be) integrated into statewide educational efforts. 

·         Recommendation #8:  Showcase organizations and partnerships that already exist within the state to teach nature, science, and the environment.  Use examples like EDUCO, Beckwourth Outdoor Education Center, Gore Range Nature Science School, Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, and other regional efforts to showcase successful partnerships between the public school system and informal providers.  Use the diversity of approaches and venues (Table AP1) to demonstrate the multi-faceted support for and involvement in statewide science and nature education. 

·         Recommendation #9:  Leverage the current (and likely short-lived) momentum created by Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods, to push for systemic change at the state level for lifelong learning about the environment.   Use content in Tables A5 and AP3 for examples to describe the incredible diversity of topics and issues that affect all citizens and about which we are desperately need comprehensive public education.  Furthermore, it is likely that some of the regional networks may be also be initiating Louv-type efforts.  Monitoring and tracking these efforts will only enhance the power of this leverage at the state level.

·         Recommendation #10:  Research and reference other state’s initiatives where EE organizations like CAEE have worked with state governments to set policy and initiate education reform (e.g., Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, and California[2]). 

Private Sector Opportunities

Less than 1 in 3 respondents (unaware of CAEE) had some sort of organizational Environmental Management System (EMS).  Of those who did not have such a system, many are interested in what an Environmental Management System might mean for them (Table NA3).   In addition, respondents who were unaware of CAEE showed high personal support for CAEE’s mission (Table NA2).  This suggests that CAEE might:

·         Recommendation #11:  Advocate for and support environmental attention in the private sector.  Partnering with organizations such as the National Energy Renewable Lab (NREL) in Boulder as attention to alternative fuels becomes more salient (see Table A5 – Energy), or the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado in Denver as attention to green building and LEED certifications become more prevalent is timely but also critical to citizen education about science, natural resources, and the environment (see Table AP3 – green building).  CAEE is ideally positioned to advocate for citizen-education with private sector organizations.

Tracking and Evaluation

Finally, nearly three-quarters of the education provider respondents suggested that they have conducted some form of program evaluation (including surveys, observations, counts, interviews, tests, and focus groups).  This is a very positive finding and one that probably represents, to some degree at least, CAEE’s diligence to evaluation training and opportunities over the last few years.  Of those providers who have not conducted any evaluation, reasons were mostly lack of time, money, and training.  CAEE should not lose sight of the opportunity to maintain and enhance evaluation among state providers.  Toward this end, the following are suggested:

Recommendation #12:  Continue efforts to promote, sponsor, conduct, or market evaluation classes, training, speakers, and resources. 

Recommendation #13:  Gather, organize, and utilize state environmental education program evaluations to buttress advocacy work.  Information and data (descriptive, statistical, and/or anecdotal) about program successes (or failures) can be tremendously helpful in advocating for citizen education.