NOAA's Education Program Review and Critique (2010) / Chapter Skim
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6 Conclusions and Recommendations
6 Conclusions and Recommendations
Pages 133-150
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its education evaluation practices, and (5) the impact of its education efforts.
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NOAA must fulfill these responsibilities in the context of a national effort to improve learning and understanding of STEM implemented at state and local levels in both formal and informal settings for learning, and at the same time carry out effective environmental education. Conclusion I.1: The America COMPETES Act assigns NOAA responsibility for advancing and coordinating mission-related STEM education and stewardship efforts and for participating in interagency education efforts (Chapter : Overview and Introduction)
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Conclusion I.5: NOAA's role in education is shaped by the distributed nature of its education efforts across the line offices and the Office of Education, small education staff, and small education budget (Chapter : NOAA's Role in the Education Landscape)
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Its education efforts are more likely to be productive if they align with national and local education needs, because education activities and products that do not consider the needs of the potential audiences are less likely to be used (Chapter : NOAA's Role in the Education Landscape)
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II. EDUCATION GOALS AND OUTCOMES Two goals are outlined in the NOAA education strategic plan for 20092029: (1)
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Conclusion II.1: The education strategic plan has a number of strengths: • Appropriate goals of supporting environmental literacy and work force development; • A commitment to developing education programs informed by evidence about effective practices; • A call to contribute to the body of knowledge on effective educa tion practices in fields related to NOAA's mission; • A call to develop partnerships with appropriate agencies, institu tions, and organizations; • An emphasis on including more members of historically underrep resented groups in fields critical to NOAA's mission; and • An emphasis on the use of ocean, coastal, and other place-based resources as unique and valuable assets for learning (Chapter : The Education Portfolio and Effective Practices)
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From page 139... ...
• There is no environmental literacy outcome related to stewardship, yet many of the local education activities as implemented have stewardship goals. • There is no clear articulation of the specific workforce needs, nor is there clear articulation or a plan to provide a robust assessment of the workforce needs in fields critical to NOAA's mission.
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Third, there is no environmental literacy outcome related to stewardship, despite the fact that stewardship is major element of environmental literacy. An outcome focused on stewardship is needed because it is the primary goal of many local education activities, and it would encourage the measurement of attitude and behavior change in program evaluations.
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The environmental literacy goal, in particular, should include outcomes related to reaching out to underserved and underrepresented communities. Recommendation II.2: To reach NOAA's environmental literacy goal, the Education Council should develop its implementation plan and future revisions of the education strategic plan to: • clarify how it will capitalize on scientific findings, engineering advances, and stewardship activities that relate broad national priorities to local concerns to engage individuals of all ages in education; • articulate how NOAA education programs will draw on the sci entific, engineering, research, and other expertise accessible within the agency as well as in the broader community; • address the mismatch between the lack of an outcome related to stew ardship and the focus on stewardship outcomes in local programs; • consistently define outcomes as measurable concepts that allow an assessment of whether a goal is being reached, to clearly distinguish outcomes on audiences (impact)
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. • The fact that some NOAA education programs have individual legislative mandates that guide their education activities (Chap ter : NOAA's Role in the Education Landscape; Chapter : The Education Portfolio and Effective Practices)
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In a short period of time, the Education Council has shown promise in bringing coherence and coordination to the agency's education portfolio by developing the strategic plan and encouraging a common evaluation framework. The committee is concerned that the Education Council may not have the needed power to enforce difficult decisions regarding the priorities, focus, and components in the portfolio in the near future -- specifically, if the decisions require some line offices to end or restructure some of their education programs.
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The strategic plan mentions the need for internal coordination to support education activities; however, the coordination being discussed is at the Education Council level. Promoting connections among local education staff can be just as valuable in creating internal coordination.
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The imbalance with respect to atmospheric and climate literacy is an issue acknowledged by NOAA education staff. The Climate Office, along with the Education Council, is working to bring greater attention to climate and atmospheric issues.
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They usually do not address outcomes related to attitudes or behavior, and they generally lack control or comparison groups. Summative evaluations have been carried out on a very small proportion of education activities, and there has been little consideration of evaluation that would allow NOAA to recalibrate the education portfolio to effectively meet the agency's educational goals (Chapter : Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs; Chapter : Current Evaluation Framework and Existing Evaluation Efforts)
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To ensure that these practices continue to develop in a positive direction, the committee makes the following recommendations. Recommendation IV.1: The Education Council should continue to improve the evaluation expertise of its education program managers, contract with external evaluators for summative evaluation, and require the incorporation of the most appropriate and rigorous evaluation strategies during program development to guide design, continual improvement, and delivery of its education programs.
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These partnerships have often yielded additional expertise, educational tools, mechanisms for dissemination, and matching funds. Conclusion V.2: Although the current strategic education plan calls for the use of research-based education practices, current education activities do not consistently follow what is understood about effective education practices in the United States and abroad (Chapter : The Education Port
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Recommendation V.1: NOAA education staff should draw on evidence from education research, evaluations of NOAA programs, and external education expertise to identify and implement effective practices for supporting education activities. CONCLUDING NOTE People are NOAA's most valuable assets.
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