Background Basics

A committee of the Colorado EE Advisory Council was tasked with defining and outlining the basic parameters of a legitimate and consistent way to evaluate and assess EE programs and materials in Colorado and began meeting to develop a plan in May 2002.

The draft plan for a Colorado EE Program/Material Evaluation program was made public at the 2003 Teaching Outside the Box conference, marking the beginning of the public comment period which ended on May 27, 2003. CAEE has incorporated those comments into a second draft. A pilot test involving four programs and 12 reviewers was conducted at the end of 2003 based on the draft plan. Comments from submitters, reviewers, and improvements from the evaluation of the pilot test were incorporated into the final version of the plan. This plan was then used to develop this website to support the online portion of the Resource Review System.

The plan outlines the basic design as well as strategic and tactical processes that will provide for a statewide system of reviews for environmental education (EE) resources - a support service that CAEE intends to offer its members and the EE community at large.

Committee

The Colorado EE Resource Review Project was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The draft plan is the result of very hard work by a committee of Colorado’s EE Advisory Council trying to establish a positive and valuable tool for Colorado’s EE community that is sustainable and workable given CAEE’s resources and organizational structure, and especially – a system that is useful to the general public.

Obviously, those are not easy parameters to fulfill all at once. However, the committee has never blinked despite their daunting challenge, and has come up with solutions full of creativity, innovation, and wisdom. Their work, like the work of the conference and awards committees, is yet another powerful example of the awesome reservoir of leadership that is to be found within CAEE’s membership.

Members of the Research and Assessment Committee
Karin Hostetter, Chairperson - Interpret This
Rob Alexander - Wilderness Education Institute
Roxanne Brickell-Reardon - Colorado State Parks - Eldorado Canyon
Brad Buckner - Colorado State Parks
Kathryn Davis Grohusky
Cece Forget - U.S. EPA Region 8
Stephen Garretson - Aurora Academy
Francesca Giongo - South Suburban Parks and Recreation
Richard Jurin - University of Northern CO, CAEE Board Representative
Kim Langmaid - Gore Range Natural Science School
Debbie Matlock - Wild Rhythms
Mary McCormac - Colorado State Parks - Eldorado Canyon
Susan Toth - Colorado Energy Science Center

CAEE Staff
Mike Way, Executive Director
Ali Goulstone Sweeney, Assistant Director

Criteria and Process

The review criteria (Key Characteristics, Guidelines, and Indicators) are adapted from Environmental Education Materials: Guidelines for Excellence, NAAEE 1998. This document is part of the the National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education (NPEEE) developed through the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), made possible by funding from the Environmental Education and Training Partnership (EETAP) and the Office of Environmental Education within the EPA. For more information about NPEEE please see the following website http://www.naaee.org/npeee/

The draft system is a peer review process. A team of knowledgeable and trained environmental educators from varied backgrounds and organizations within the EE community will complete the reviews. An interesting facet of the process is that it allows for submitters to provide a self-review and analysis. The "distribution" system for the review information is linked to CAEE's on-line EE information clearinghouse system and program profiles.

Ultimately, this is YOUR system for YOUR benefit. We hope you will become more involved by submitting your program, being a reviewer, or using the reviews to find the best resource that meets your needs.

Access Plan

Download the Colorado EE Program/Material Review Plan (pdf format 337 KB)
Download the Colorado EE Program/Material Review Plan (word format 519 KB

Please call CAEE at 303-273-9527 to receive a paper copy of the Plan. If you have problems viewing the Plan email CAEE.