Stages of Green: A Summary Evaluation of the Boston Schools Environmental Initiative (BSEI) Program from 2005-2009

The Boston Schools Environmental Initiative (BSEI) program worked with several Boston Public schools to foster “hands-on, minds-on” science and environmental awareness. The overall finding from this evaluation, conducted over four academic years, was that the longer a school participated in the BSEI program, the more the culture and operations of the school changed in the direction of the intended BSEI outcomes. BSEI is a program of Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center (BNC), which places a teacher naturalist part time in each school, and provides ongoing professional development and project coordination for BSEI schools. The goal of the program is to move through a model-mentor-coach cycle over the course of a four-year period. The teacher naturalist and school educators move back and forth between these roles throughout this four-year period as the model becomes more fully integrated into educator practice and school culture. In the last year of BNC’s formal involvement with the school, the program emphasizes leadership and action from within the school.