Slides from the NAAEE 2018 workshop delivered by Rhode Island Environmental Education Association (RIEEA) Board Member, Kelly Shea and Project Manager, Jeanine Silversmith

1. Environmental Education:
Inventory of Current Practices Survey
Kelly Shea
Education Specialist
University of Rhode Island
Guiding Education in Math and
Science Network (GEMS-Net)
kellyshea@uri.edu
Jeanine Silversmith
Project Manager
Rhode Island Environmental
Education Association (RIEEA)
jsilversmith@rieea.org

2. EE: Inventory of Current Practices Survey
Process and Implementation
Spring 2017
Initial Committee Meeting
Early Fall 2017
First Draft
Summer 2017
Hired Survey Designer
Late Fall 2017
Pilot Survey
Winter 2018
Revision
Spring 2018
Implementation

3. EE: Inventory of Current Practices Survey
Process and Implementation
Spring 2017
Initial Committee Meeting
● Invited Informal, Formal, &
Higher Education Educators
● Brainstormed ideas and
questions
Summer 2017
Hired Survey Designer
● Developed/Posted RFP
● Contracted with Susan Gracia
Early Fall 2017
First Draft
● Contractor used committee
ideas to create draft
● Reviewed by committee and
RIEEA board
Late Fall 2017
Pilot Survey
● Had second set of questions
built in to gather feedback
● Sent to 100 teachers/admins
recommended by committee
Winter 2018
Revision
● Some easy/clear decisions
● Committee meeting to make
decisions on more difficult
questions and to finalize survey
Spring 2018
Implementation
● Employed variety of ways to
promote and disseminate survey
(State Dept of Educ, RIEEA
members, Principals &
Superintendents Assoc.; Exec Dir
of Catholic Schools & Charter
Schools)
● Sent 3 times; chance to win 1
of 10 gift cards ($100)

4. Educator Survey and Interactive Dashboard
❖ 702 Respondents
❖ 615 (88%) Teachers
❖ 87 (12%) Administrators
❖ Teachers and Administrators feel only “somewhat” prepared to support
students/teachers in EE practices.
❖ Correlations
➢ Positive correlation between becoming knowledgeable about impacts of EE and
positive beliefs about EE
➢ Positive correlation between becoming knowledgeable about impacts of EE and
commitment to EE
➢ Negative correlation between feeling prepared to engage students in EE practices
and perceived barriers to engaging in EE
http://rieea.org/

5. EE: Inventory of Current Practices Survey
Results and Reports
❖ Interactive Dashboard
❖ Executive Summary
❖ Final Report
❖ Survey Questions
❖ Direct conversation with Kelly and Jeanine
RIEEA.org > Environmental Literacy > Educator Survey
http://rieea.org/environmental-education-inventory-of-current-practices/

6. Kelly Shea
kellyshea@uri.edu
Jeanine Silversmith
jsilversmith@rieea.org