A globe attached to a homemade car toy sitting on a table with plants

Boston Public Schools Celebrates Earth Day and Efforts to Build a More Sustainable School District

As we celebrate Earth Day, Boston Public Schools acknowledges the critical role that the district plays in combating the climate crisis, which we know disproportionately impacts underserved communities.

Boston Public Schools Celebrates Earth Day and Efforts to Build a More Sustainable School District

As we celebrate Earth Day, Boston Public Schools (BPS) acknowledges the critical role that the district plays in combating the climate crisis, which we know disproportionately impacts underserved communities. BPS has been working for years to ensure our sustainability efforts help us reduce this impact on the students and families we serve.

Most recently, BPS received the 2024 Best of Green Schools Awards - District Award and 2023 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School District Sustainability Award. However, the work is not done.

“We know that we must support our students and help them become the climate action leaders that our communities need,” said Superintendent Mary Skipper. “I am committed to ensuring that our district is a model for how we teach our students about the importance of sustainability and climate. Our operational decisions and investments make Boston a national leader in many areas including facilities management, transportation, food and nutrition services, and teaching and learning.”

District Investments in Air and Water Quality

The district’s work includes the installation of 4,400 Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Sensors, which allows Facilities Management to monitor air quality and temperature inside and outside school buildings and share results on a public dashboard. The BPS IAQ Management Plan is being used as a model by other K-12 districts across the U.S., and our adopted standards are influencing state and federal policy and funding for IAQ in K-12 schools.

The district has also invested in the installation of filtered bottle refill stations in schools across the city to improve access to safe drinking water and move schools from single use water bottles. To date, nearly 750 filtered bottle refill stations have been installed in 84 schools through the BPS Drinking Water Access Initiative saving the district $485,000 annually in bottled water costs. The district is working to expand access, with more schools expected to have water stations installed in the coming years.

District Food Waste Collection Programs

Last school year, BPS Food and Nutrition Services partnered with the Facilities Department to expand the BPS Food Waste Collection Program and diverted approximately 250,000 pounds of food waste from landfills. This school year, the program will expand to include 10 additional school kitchens, bringing the total to 32 participating schools.

“BPS sustainability and climate action are rooted in our commitment to health and safety, equity, and community collaboration. Our work in academics and operations prioritizes a commitment to creating healthier, greener environments,” said BPS Assistant Director of Planning, Engineering, Sustainability, & Environment Katherine Walsh. “Our work also reflects the student voice - students rightfully demand investments in environmental education, green jobs, and sustainable environments, and are leading climate justice efforts.”

Outdoor Teaching and Learning

Our schoolyards are just as important as our indoor environments. BPS continues to invest in outdoor teaching and learning. Facilities Management partners with the Science, Technology, and Engineering Department to provide a Teaching and Learning Outdoors Champions Program for BPS teachers, with about 40 teachers enrolled, receiving support through Professional Development, materials budgets, and stipends. Many of the champions are also supported by our BPS garden partners.

Since the 2022-2023 school year, Facilities Management has invested $840,000 to install school garden programs at 60 schools. Over the three year period, these schools have received more than $2.6 million in raised bed garden programming and services from the garden partners, accounting for 180 teaching and learning hours weekly. Facilities Management also supports 38 outdoor classrooms and five school hydroponics programs.

“Sustainability and climate are intentionally integrated throughout our core science curriculum, helping all students connect their learning to the world around them,” said BPS K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering Program Director Nicole Guttenberg, PhD. “Our vision is to inspire students to understand, care about, and take action on the ways our lives and choices shape the climate and our shared future.”

School Climate and Sustainability Curriculums

Our sustainability and climate work is also taking shape at the school level, with schools like Boston Green Academy empowering students to be a key part of the transition to a greener, more just world by embedding sustainability into many aspects of the school experience, from the classroom curriculum, as well as beyond the school campus into the community. BGA aspires to make their sustainability and climate curriculum a whole school endeavor, not just something that students learn about in science or math classrooms. A winner of the 2019 U.S Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools Award, BGA continued to be a model green school in Boston and beyond.

"We know our students can be the next generation of green leaders, whether solving local issues or contributing to national solutions," said Boston Green Academy Head of School Matt Holzer. “The climate crisis impacts everyone, especially in urban areas like Boston, and we want our kids to have the skills and knowledge to make a difference.”

Additionally, BGA works to build key student skills through their Career and Technical Education (CTE) Program, which is the district’s only Environmental Science and Technology CTE program. The BGA CTE program annually sees about 25% of Grades 9-12 students participate in the program, which allows students to partner with industry leaders for internships and explore the career possibilities in this growing and important field. Upon completion of the BGA CTE program, students will also receive valuable industry-wide certifications that can open doors to employment and strengthen college applications.

"I never really cared about sustainability, even after all the sustainability this school has tried to push on me, one of my classes about Engineering and Green Physics kind of made me open up my eyes,” said Jaden Dominique, a Boston Green Academy Grade 12 Student. “When we were learning about the Upcycling project and although I didn't do well on it, it still showed me what's happening in the real world, and now, even though I'm hesitant, I'm even doing a sustainability internship that I never thought I would do."

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Haitian Creole-English Two-Way Immersion

Mattapan Early Elementary School/Haitian Creole Dual Language Program

Haitian Creole Dual Language Mattapan Early Elementary

Haitian Creole Program

Mattahunt Elementary School

In September 2017, Boston Public Schools launched the Toussaint L’Ouverture Academy at the Mattahunt Elementary School, the first Two-Way Immersion Haitian Creole Dual-Language Preschool Program in the country. The Toussaint L’Ouverture Academy is a Haitian Creole Dual Language program that serves students in grades K1-6. We provide an opportunity for students to achieve high levels of bilingual and biliterate proficiency and sociocultural competency through rigorous Haitian Creole and English dual-language instruction. The team at the Toussaint L'Ouverture Academy believes in the potential of every student and fosters a love of learning and a sense of responsibility in students to position them to realize their immense potential. We do this by providing rigorous and meaningful learning experiences - experiences that are grounded in students’ interests, contexts, and cultures and in the environment and community that surrounds and girds the school.
Learn more about the Mattahunt Elementary School.

Curriculum

The Mattapan Early Elementary School (MEES) will be offering what is likely the first Two Way Immersion Haitian Creole Dual Language Preschool Program in the country beginning in SY17-18. Instruction is provided in two languages (Haitian Creole and English) across subjects. The goals of a dual language program are biliteracy and biculturalism. At the Mattapan Early Elementary School, the Haitian Creole Language Arts curriculum is aligned with the ‘Focus on K1’ Language Arts curriculum which is currently utilized in most preschool classrooms across the district. This centers-based curriculum promotes inquiry in the classroom supported by rich text.

Research

In a study by Virginia Collier and Wayne Thomas of over 37 districts, covering six states, (compared with students in English-only classrooms) they found that dual language students have higher test scores and also seem to be happier in school. Attendance is better, behavioral problems are fewer and parent involvement is higher. ^[1] Because bilingual children have to follow social cues in order to determine which language to use within their settings, children as young as three have demonstrated strong skills in perspective-taking and theory of mind.^[2] In a four year study of Portland Public Schools (Oregon), lead by Dr. Jennifer Steele, students in dual language programs outperformed their peers in English-reading skills by a full year’s worth of learning by the end of middle school.^[3] In addition, brain research, such as that of Dr. Gigi Luk at Harvard, found that bilinguals demonstrate better executive control; a set of cognitive skills based upon limited resources for such functions such as inhibition, switching attention and working memory. ^[4]

^[1]http://cmmr.usc.edu//CollierThomasComplete.pdf

^[2] http://www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/JP/JP-01-0-000-10-Web/JP-01-1-000-10-PDF/JP-01-1-039-10-010-Farhadian-M/JP-01-1-039-10-010-Farhadian-M-Tt.pdf

^[3] https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=1294

^[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3322418/

Community

The Haitian Parents Association have been instrumental in supporting with parent communications and community involvement. With supports from Pastor Fleurissant, the Office of English Language Learners has had an opportunity to engage with parents and community stakeholders at events, town hall meetings and various media outlets. In collaboration with the Office of Engagement, OIIT and Communications, OELL has distributed content on the benefits of dual language programs, held meetings with Community Based Organizations and posted content on the BPS website inviting families to register for the Haitian Creole Dual Language Program at Welcome Centers.

Professional Development

The Office of English Language Learners has also partnered with Dr. Michel DeGraff, Professor of Linguistics, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in order to provide a five cohort session on Kreyòl Studies to BPS teachers in support of this endeavor. Dr. DeGraff has agreed to partner on this project and will be providing support to the MEES for the effective implementation of this program. In addition, this project will receive professional development from the Center for Applied Linguistics, the Massachusetts Association for Bilingual Education and Dual Language New Mexico to support with the implementation of this program. Professional Development on aligned Focus on K1 curriculum will be developed and provided in collaboration with the Office of Early Childhood and the Office of English Language Learners.

Dr. Michel DeGraff, MIT-Haiti Initiative

Dr. DeGraff is Professor of Linguistics at MIT and director of the MIT-Haiti Initiative (http://haiti.mit.edu) funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. He’s also a founding member of Haiti’s Haitian Creole Academy. Prof. DeGraff’s research has deepened our understanding of the history and structures of Creole languages, especially his native Haitian Creole (“Kreyòl”). These languages have often been, mistakenly, described as “exceptional,” “lesser” or “deficient,” and they have been, by and large, excluded from the education of Creole speakers—to the detriment of these disenfranchised communities, in Haiti and beyond. DeGraff’s linguistic analyses and his projects on Kreyòl-based STEM education have now shown that Creole languages, such as Kreyòl, are fundamentally on a par with non-Creole languages in terms of historical development, grammatical structures and expressive capacity. Michel DeGraff’s research projects bear on social justice as well, on a global scale. In Prof. DeGraff’s vision, Creole languages and other so-called “local” languages constitute a necessary ingredient for universally accessible quality education, sustainable development, equal opportunity and dignified citizenship for their speakers.