Environmental Charter Schools (ECS) provides free, interdisciplinary education to underserved communities in the Southern Los Angeles region with a creative, environmental lens. In addition to being a distinguished U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School, Environmental Charter High School has a 98% graduation rate. 91% of students are from low-income families and 63% are first-generation college students.
This project aims to evaluate and measure the effectiveness of the high school’s current curriculum. To do so, we will focus on Intersession, during which students spend one month apart from their usual academic schedule to explore real-world, environmental issues and demonstrate their newfound knowledge via presentations in a community forum at the end of the month. The objective of Intersession is for students to demonstrate environmental leadership and to prepare students both for college and as community leaders. By surveying students about their Intersession experience, we will be able to assess the curriculum and produce an improved metric system of evaluation for both students and teachers that in turn will be used in further development of ECS as a whole.
Team: Melonie Fong, Audrie Francis, Meleeneh Hairapetian, Madelen Hem, Julia Park, Sarah Paset
Advisor: Magali Delmas
Client: Environmental Charter Schools
ECS is comprised of three public schools: one high school and two middle schools, located in Lawndale, Inglewood, and Gardena, respectively. ECS’ mission is to “create and deliver vibrant, innovative, interdisciplinary learning opportunities using the environment to engage students and connect them to the wider world.”