麻豆原创

Four 麻豆原创 students and their professor are helping New York City evaluate a pioneering environmental program

Since 2009, New York City has been the only major municipality in the country to require each of its public schools to appoint a sustainability coordinator 鈥� part of the city鈥檚 broader sustainability plan to send zero waste to landfills by the year 2030. In a city of 1.1 million students and more than 1,700 public schools 鈥渢hat gives you a huge team of change agents who potentially can work miracles across the five boroughs,鈥� says Teachers College鈥檚 Oren Pizmony-Levy, Assistant Professor of International and Comparative Education.

But are the school coordinators making any impact 鈥� and if so, what kind? No one has been able to say for sure, because the coordinator role is to some extent open to interpretation by the teacher or staff member who is appointed or takes it on at each school. And while the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) has been collecting data about the coordinators, it lacks the expertise and capacity to analyze that data.

Enter Pizmony-Levy and four of his students in 麻豆原创鈥檚 International & Comparative Education Program 鈥� master鈥檚 degree candidates Lauren Bowden, Melanie Nethercott and Erika Kessler and second-year doctoral candidate Carine Verschueren. Working on a pro bono basis, they have put the city鈥檚 data in useable form, mined it to draw some basic conclusions, and raised some important questions about what, ultimately, the program is trying to achieve. In late December, the 麻豆原创 team delivered a presentation of their work 鈥� titled 鈥淚f You Can Make It Green Here, You Can Make It Anywhere鈥� 鈥� at a conference at New York University convened by the Environmental Education Advisory Council, a nonprofit that is assisting NYCDOE on the sustainability coordinators project.

鈥淲e asked the coordinators to discuss what 鈥榮ustainability鈥� means to them. There鈥檚 not much research on teachers鈥� views of this big, amorphous concept, which very obviously must affect how they do their jobs as coordinators.鈥� 

鈥� Melanie Nethercott

Bowden, a former Houston elementary school teacher, was tasked with 鈥渃leaning up鈥� NYCDOE鈥檚 raw data so that it could be mined with a statistical tool called Stata.

鈥淓verything had been dumped into one giant spread sheet in a quasi-logical way,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淲e literally got an Excel file with 1,400 records, very messy 鈥� which wasn鈥檛 DOE鈥檚 fault, the data had been collected by another agency.鈥�

Bowden conducted a preliminary analysis to learn who the coordinators are 鈥� specifically, what other roles they play at their schools 鈥� and what each has pledged to do. Most turn out to be science or social studies teachers, she reports, and they tend to focus on resource management 鈥� energy conservation and recycling 鈥� rather than on creating new courses or other experiences aimed at prompting students to think more broadly about sustainability issues.

Nethercott, who previously designed education programs for a global nonprofit, conducted a secondary analysis of the cleaned-up data that Bowden provided.

鈥淲e asked the coordinators to discuss what 鈥榮ustainability鈥� means to them,鈥� she says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 not much research on teachers鈥� views of this big, amorphous concept, which very obviously must affect how they do their jobs as coordinators.鈥� 

Nethercott found that even though many of the coordinators do focus on resource management, there is considerable variety in how they define their roles. And even though they operate at the school level, 鈥渙ver half situate sustainability in a bigger context 鈥� the community, the nation, the world.

鈥淭he three pillars of sustainability are environmental, which means resource management; social, which refers to equity, social justice and decreasing poverty; and economics, which focuses on how communities can benefit from economic growth,鈥� Nethercott says. 鈥淥ne of the strengths of sustainability is pluralism in defining it. But it would be great if the coordinators could focus on the second two pillars more.鈥�

鈥淥ur data shows that if a coordinator is a science teacher, she or he tends to define sustainability in ways that keep everything within science, as opposed to, say, social studies. You want them to cross disciplines and create a sustainable whole-school approach to transmitting these values.鈥� 

鈥� Carine Verschueren

Kessler, a former Chinese studies and international business major -- and current 麻豆原创 Zankel Fellow 鈥� is working with six of New York鈥檚 Title I schools (those that, because they have a large concentration of low-income students, receive supplemental funds to assist in meeting students鈥� educational goals) on developing student Green Teams. Not many schools have these teams, which are usually created by student councils, and Kessler鈥檚 goal is find ways to increase such student engagement.  (Learn more about the  and Zankel Fellowships offered by .)

And then there is Verschueren, a mid-career professional and mother of two who is originally from Belgium. With Pizmony-Levy as her adviser, she is writing her dissertation on the politics surrounding New York City鈥檚 sustainability movement. Her focus is on how the school coordinators鈥� program came about, and the different directions it has taken under the Bloomberg and de Blasio mayoral administrations.

鈥淚鈥檝e worked in the field with education NGOs, done research in Kenya on how education does and doesn鈥檛 serve nomadic tribes there, and now I鈥檓 focused on sustainability,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he common thread is global norms and values and how they鈥檙e implemented in different education systems 鈥� how they鈥檙e incorporated, or not.鈥�

Verschueren applauds the city鈥檚 decision to extend its sustainability movement to the schools 鈥� work she sees as critical to building good citizenship. As a policy analyst, however, she鈥檚 keenly aware of how even seemingly bureaucratic aspects of the effort, such as the fact that NYCDOE鈥檚 Office of Sustainability is housed in its Division of Facilities, have political implications.

鈥淭he institutionalization of sustainability impacts what they do and don鈥檛 do,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat fact alone move things in the direction of resource management rather than curriculum and citizenship education.鈥� she says.

There are some hopeful signs that things could move in the latter direction: Where the Bloomberg administration focused on the economic and environmental pillars of sustainability, 鈥渄e Blasio has added the equity piece, but it hasn鈥檛 yet trickled down to DOE,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut maybe that will happen during his second term.鈥� Indeed, Bowden鈥檚 findings show that coordinators who participated in a recent one-day training 鈥渆xpo鈥� held by NYCDOE are more likely to address curricular issues or involve students in some broader way.  

Then, too, Verschueren says, American public education, with its emphasis on standardized testing, is 鈥渇ragmented and discipline-specific,鈥� while sustainability by nature needs to be cross-disciplinary.

鈥淥ur data shows that if a coordinator is a science teacher, she or he tends to define sustainability in ways that keep everything within science, opposed to, say, social studies,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou want them to cross disciplines and create a sustainable whole-school approach to transmitting these values.鈥�

Officials at NYCDOE clearly are listening.

鈥淥ren鈥檚 students were very impressive in their presentation of their research findings,鈥� says Meredith McDermott, Director of Sustainability. 鈥淚鈥檓 confident that their collective contribution will have long-term impact on our outreach and engagement strategies. I can鈥檛 believe it was their first time co-presenting this material. I told them it certainly was not their last.鈥�

The 麻豆原创 team is 鈥渉elping us to identify new opportunities and methods to strengthen and expand sustainability in the city鈥檚 schools,鈥� adds Thaddeus Copeland, Deputy Director of Sustainability, Operations. 鈥淪ome of their research findings are informing our strategic plan to improve school sustainability.鈥�

Indeed, this week, 麻豆原创 is hosting its first workshop for NYCDOE sustainability coordinators, including activities that build on insights from the students鈥� research. For Pizmony-Levy鈥檚 team, there鈥檚 a lot riding on the outcome.  

鈥淎s the U.N. says, education/school plays a crucial role in transmitting these kinds of values,鈥� says Verschueren. 鈥淲ith coordinators reaching 1.1 million students at 1,700 schools, there鈥檚 an incredible opportunity and potential for change. You just have to know how to do it.鈥� 鈥� Joe Levine