Environmental Education: Improving Student Achievement

________________________ Date i ABSTRACT Environmental education: improving student achievement Oksana Bartosh The present research, being one strand of the Environmental Education Consortium's longer research effort, aims to study the impact of environmental education (EE) programs on student achievement in traditional subjects such as math, reading and writing. By comparing " environmental schools " and schools with traditional curricula and analyzing their teaching and learning environments, the present research aims to obtain statistical evidence of the positive impact of EE on student learning and to make an educational case for environmental education. The research compares two groups of schools selected by the author after consulting with various EE providers, and other EE and educational experts: a group of EE schools that have been fully implementing EE for at least three years, and a group of comparison (or non-EE) schools which do not have an environmental education program or are only starting to develop it. Schools were paired using US census and OSPI information. To evaluate the impact of the EE programs on student achievement, data about WASL and ITBS tests from the OSPI web site were used. WASL and ITBS data were analyzed through several statistical tests (t-tests, discriminant analysis, longitudinal analysis, etc.) Also in order to evaluate the schools' teaching and learning environments an electronic survey was administered. According to the results, schools that undertake systemic environmental education programs consistently have higher test scores on the state standardized tests over comparable " non-EE " schools. The mean percentages of the students who meet standards on WASL and ITBS tests are higher in WASL and ITBS in the schools with environmental programs. There were no EE schools that had lower percentage of students who meet or above standards in all six areas. Overall, 73 pairs out of 77 EE schools had higher scores in at least one subject. Also the research shows a pattern indicating that in schools with environmental educational programs, teachers tend to use natural areas more; have more EE professional development/training; have more support from parents, community and administration; and see more value in environmental education. To conclude, the author believes that the present research shows the correlation between level of implementation of environmental education and student achievement and emphasizes the necessity of more in-depth studies of this issue. ii Acknowledgements