Diversifying the Environmental Workforce: Addressing an Early Environmental Justice Challenge

Abstract

The environmental workforce has yet to reflect the increasing racial diversity of the U.S. population. Part of the challenge is the inability of college-level environmental programs to recruit students of color. Our study examined multicultural eco-high schools and the high school Advanced Placement Environmental Science (APES) test in order to determine if a substantial population of potential college recruits remained untapped. The 184 multicultural eco-high schools in 29 states in this study graduate at least 32,000 students of color each year. In 2007 more than 4,200 students of color scored ≥ 3 on the APES test, the score often required to receive college credit for the high school APES class. That year 2,192 students of color received a college degree in agriculture- or natural resource-related disciplines. This study proposes that more targeted recruitment by colleges of high school students of color attending multicultural eco-high schools or performing well on the APES test could significantly increase the number of students of color being produced by college-level environmental programs and prepared to enter the environmental profession. This is the first study developing a national list of multicultural eco-high schools and examining performance trends by race during the first decade of the APES test.

Introduction

One of the initial challenges posed by the environmental justice movement to environmental organizations was to increase the racial diversity of the workforce (SWOP 1990). That challenge remains (Bonilla 2010, Taylor 2008). In 1976 about four percent of the students receiving natural resource or agricultural degrees were people of color (Durning 1981). As Table 1 illustrates, three decades later students of color constituted 11% (or 2,192) of such graduates each year (USDA Food and Agricultural Education Information System 2009). During the same interval, students of color increased from 14% to 28% of students enrolled in college. (Knapp et al. 2009).

Table 1.

Academic Degrees Awarded to U.S. Students in 2006/7 by Field of Study

	Agriculture and related sciences		Natural resources and conservation
Degree	White	People of Color	White	People of Color
AA or Associate	641	32	62	3
Baccalaureate	10,421	1289	3388	378
Masters	1557	272	776	95
Doctoral	481	99	171	24
Total	13,100	1692	4397	500

Piecemeal efforts by colleges to address this gap date to the 1970s (Bruneau 1975). With more than one thousand college-level environmental programs in the U.S. (Romero and Silveri 2006), the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors and its sponsoring organization, the National Council for Science and the Environment, have received numerous recommendations about how to increase enrollment of students of color (e.g., Hall et al. 2005, NCSE 2003). More effective identification and recruitment of well-qualified students of color is needed.

Lee and Luykx have examined the factors that help K–12 students of color succeed in science (Lee and Luykx 2006, Ferguson 2008). The high school factors that seem to predict success by students of color in college-level science include academic achievement in high school science classes (Cole and Espinoza 2008, Grandy 1998), enrollment in advanced high school science classes (Russell and Atwater 2005), and scoring ≥ 3 on an Advanced Placement science examination (Dougherty et al. 2006). We identified students who succeeded in a high school-level curriculum that emphasized environmental studies, or took an Advanced Placement Environmental Science (APES) class and scored ≥ 3 on the test, to determine if an untapped pool of students of color existed who could be targeted for recruitment by college-level environmental programs.

Multicultural Eco-High School

Well-qualified high school students of color may be recruited by college-level environmental programs by targeting for recruitment high schools with racially diverse student bodies and curricula that socialize students into environmental studies. We define a school as an “eco-high school” if multiple environment-related courses are taught by multiple instructors. The sole exception to the multiple instructor criteria are very small rural schools that serve indigenous students or students in correctional facilities. The environment-related courses include agriculture, agriscience, earth science, environmental science/studies, forestry, horticulture, marine biology/studies, natural resources, oceanography, and/or zoo studies. Schools that only offer an APES class do not meet the definition of an eco-high school. We define a “multicultural eco-high school” as an eco-high school that serves a student population composed of more than 50% students of color.

This is a first effort to develop a comprehensive list of multicultural eco-high schools in the United States. To identify such schools, we reviewed schools receiving organizational support through environment-related 1) vocational groups, 2) educational partnerships, or 3) career academies, to implement the multiple classes necessary for eco-high school designation. The racial composition of the eco-high schools were determined from data provided by the National Center for Education Statistics or, in a few cases, GreatSchools.net or the high school Web site. The study identified 184 multicultural eco-high schools in 29 states (see Appendix 1).

Career academies are small-learning communities within a high school that offer college-preparatory curriculum in a particular field. Students often have multiple classes with the same instructor and partnerships often exist between instructors, employer representatives, and the community. The largest groups of such career academies with a focus on environment-related disciplines exist in the Career Academy Support Network and the California Partnership Academies. Nine of the multicultural eco-high schools participate in, and receive support from, both of these career academy organizations.

Other high schools receive organizational support through environmental education partnerships with colleges that promote incorporating environmental themes throughout the teaching curriculum for all students. The New York University Wallerstein Collaborative for Environmental Education is the largest group of multicultural eco-high schools that foster such efforts.

Some multicultural eco-high schools receive support from organizations that seek to increase environment-related vocational training. The largest such group, The Corps Network (formerly Civilian Conservation Corps), includes 143 chapters with 29,000 students and young adults. Four of The Corps Network schools are multicultural eco-high schools.

Rural residential schools exist to assist at-risk youth and young offenders in the juvenile justice system. This approach appears to be at least as effective, and in some cases much more so, than institutionalization (Roberts 2004). The Associated Marine Institutes is the largest provider of such residential schools and includes six multicultural eco-high schools.

Many multicultural eco-high schools provide both vocational and college-preparatory environment-related instruction. More than thirty of the multicultural eco-high schools provide agricultural education as a chapter of the National FFA Organization (formerly Future Farmers of America).

Advanced Placement Environmental Science (APES)

In 2007 more than 2,600 Asian American, 1,200 Latino, 400 African American, and 60 American Indian public school students scored ≥ 3 on the APES test. Such numbers reflect a significant interest among high school students of color in environmental science as well as a challenge in ensuring such interest can be cultivated. To better understand that interest over the long term, we extracted and analyzed data from the annual Advanced Placement Program Annual Summary Reports about participation and performance of students of color on the APES and other Advanced Placement tests from 1998–2007 (College Board 2009).

The APES test was first administered by the College Board in 1998. Most students who take the APES test do so in their last two years of high school after taking a high school class on the topic. A student who scores a 3, 4, or 5 on the APES test may receive college credit for a one-semester college-level environmental science class. The cost to take an Advanced Placement test is $86, with the College Board offering a discounted price of $56 for students with financial need.

The number of (APES) test takers rapidly grew in the first decade (1998–2007) from about 5,000 students in 500 high schools to more than 50,000 students each year in approximately 2,000 high schools (College Board 2009). That is slightly less than half the number of students who take the Advanced Placement Biology examination. From 1998 to 2007, more than four-fifths of APES exams have been administered to public school students with the remainder given to private school students, college students, or students outside the U.S.

Some colleges recruit students who perform well on Advanced Placement exams. The College Board offers a Student Search Service (SSS) that enables colleges to target and communicate with students selected based on Advanced Placement test score, ethnicity, location, and/or intended college major at a cost of $0.34 per student. Given the significant costs of such targeting, and the limits on sharing EPS data imposed by the College Board, we evaluated the viability of using EPS to identify students of color who perform well on APES.

The racial makeup of the students taking the APES test has changed relatively little during the past decade. Approximately eleven percent are Asian American, ten percent are Latino, six percent are African American, one percent are Native American, and six percent are other or not stated. Such test taking levels indicates Asian American students take the APES test at a frequency more than three times greater than their total public high school population would predict, African American and American Indian students are proportionally less than half as likely to take the APES test as their public high school population number would suggest, and though not to the same degree, Latino public high school students also do not take the APES test in numbers proportional to their public high school population.

The performance on the test has also been relatively consistent. The average scores of students on the APES test is consistently at or near the bottom of the more than 30 different Advanced Placement subject tests offered by the College Board each year for the past decade. As Figure 1 illustrates, during that period the average score on the APES test among public school students has been approximately 2.6. Students who take the test who do not attend public school have a higher average score of about 2.8 on the APES test. More significant differences exist between racial groups in performance on the APES test.

FIG. 1.

Average score of public school students—Advanced Placement Environmental Science Examination from 1998 to 2007.

From 1998–2007, 14,001 out of 26,280 (i.e., 53%) Asian American public school students scored ≥ 3 points on the APES test. Asian American students in public schools have had an average score of 2.7–2.8 during the first decade of administering the APES test. Though more than half of the Asian American public school students who take the APES exam receive the score of ≥ 3 the average score is decreased because a large number of students score 1 point on the APES exam. White public school students constitute two thirds of the students who take the APES test (a level proportional to their public school population) and perform similarly to Asian American public school students.

From 1998–2007, 380 out of 1,005 (i.e., 38%) of American Indian public school students scored ≥ 3 points on the APES test. The relatively small number of American Indian students taking the APES test contributes to significant year-to-year variation in the score and is of concern since the number of American Indian students in public schools taking the APES test is increasing at a slower rate than for other racial groups.

To create data for Latino students, we incorporated College Board data for the Chicano/Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and Other Latino groups. Though Puerto Rican public school students scored slightly above their Chicano/Mexican American counterparts, as a group more than one-quarter of Latino students in public schools who take the APES exam receive the score of ≥ 3. From 1998–2007, 5,893 out of 20,994 (i.e., 28%) Latino public school students scored ≥ 3 points on the APES test.

From 1998–2007, 2,316 out of 12,954 (i.e., 18%) African American public school students scored ≥ 3 points on the APES test. From 2002 to 2007, the average score of African American public school students on the APES test was lower than on any of the other 35 Advanced Placement subject tests. African American public school students consistently scored an average of one point less than the average for all APES public school test takers (i.e., 1.6 vs. 2.6).

Public data on specific high schools with many students passing the APES test is very limited. The annual AP Report to the Nation in 2005 and 2006 identified South Gate Senior High School in California as having the largest number of Latino students passing the APES test in 2004 and 2005. The subsequent AP Report to the Nation identified Miami Palmetto Senior High School in Florida as having the largest number of Latino students passing the APES test in 2006. Diamond Bar High School in California has a student population that is almost two-thirds Asian American and was identified in 2003 as having 150 students enrolled in APES classes each year. These schools have a very high percentage of students of color. That is necessary, though not always adequate, for ensuring strong enrollment by students of color in Advanced Placement classes (Solorzano and Ornelas 2004).

Discussion

The average multicultural eco-high school has an enrollment in excess of 1,200 students and a student body composed of 80% students of color. The total enrollment of all of the multicultural eco-high schools in this study is approximately 220,000 students. The overall U.S. high school graduation rate is 70%. Since a large number of multicultural eco-high schools are located in urban areas where graduation rates are often lower, it may be that as few as 40,000 students (including 32,000 students of color). Career academies and vocational programs often increase rates of student retention which suggests the number of graduates may be significantly higher.

The characteristics of the multicultural eco-high schools vary dramatically. The high schools with agricultural emphases, such as the FFA schools or the agricultural high schools of Mississippi, date back to the 1920s. In contrast, most of the multicultural eco-high schools that do not have an agricultural curriculum developed their environmental focus within the past two decades.

Approximately one-third of the schools identified are located in California. This distribution is likely skewed by the relatively high level of racial diversity of the California school age population and the strong organizational support evidenced by the Career Academy Support Network and California Partnership Academies. Similar factors likely explain the large number of multicultural eco-high schools in New York.

Florida also hosts a large number of multicultural eco-high schools but they tend to be more narrowly focused on marine studies or as a means to provide vocational skills to at-risk youth. Relative to its small population, Hawaii hosts numerous multicultural eco-high schools and such schools emphasize indigenous knowledge and cultural norms as the foundation for much of the environment-related curricula.

Many multicultural eco-high schools likely remain to be identified. There is no public list of the school or schools that compose each FFA chapter, but with one-fifth of the FFA membership of 500,000 composed of students of color and 7000 FFA chapters, more multicultural eco-high schools remain to be identified among them. Similarly, since two-thirds of 80,000 Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC) students are students of color, and 600 schools have adopted the NJROTC curriculum that partially meets the eco-high school standard, a significant number of additional multicultural eco-high schools will likely be identified through further review of the environment-related curricula at NJROTC-affiliated high schools.

Additional research is needed to identify multicultural eco-high schools serving indigenous populations. In Alaska more than 100 schools serving Alaskan Native high school students are implementing the Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools by including environmental and subsistence agriculture education (Hill et al. 2006). Similar cultural standards are also applied, albeit in not as systemic a manner, in Bureau of Indian Affairs-funded schools in the Lower 48. Because information about individual small rural schools that predominantly serve Alaskan Native and Tribal populations is relatively scarce, we had difficulty determining whether such schools satisfied the multicultural eco-high school criteria.

The number of multicultural eco-high schools may be growing. In the course of performing this study (2005–2010), fifteen multicultural eco-high schools opened and five closed. The 184 multicultural eco-high schools identified represent less than one percent of the more than 25,000 high schools in the U.S. To the extent that additional environmental expertise will be required to deal with the challenges of the twenty-first century, a greater investment in preparing high school students will be necessary.

Regardless of race, students tend to have a positive attitude toward the APES test (Penwell 2004). One challenge will be to reconsider the racial performance gap on the APES test. The one-point disparity in performance is large but not atypical for Advanced Placement science exams (Anon 2009). For example, on the Advanced Placement Biology exam African American students have also scored an average of about 1 point less than the average for all Advanced Placement Biology public school students from 1998–2007 (i.e., 2.0 vs. 3.0). Because the overall APES test curve is lower than for the Advanced Placement tests in the biological and physical sciences, the impact is that a significantly smaller proportion of African American public school students score ≥ 3 on the APES test than the other Advanced Placement tests in the biological and physical sciences.

The impact of the one-point disparity in performance on the APES exam is rapidly growing. From 2003–2007 the number of students taking the APES test doubled from 25,000 to 50,000. During that time the APES exam had the lowest or second lowest point average among the 35 Advanced Placement tests given in each of those years. The impact is exacerbated because 1) the APES exam is administered more than twice as often as the combined number of times the other Advanced Placement exams with extremely low scoring averages (i.e., French Language, French Literature, Italian Language, Latin Literature, and Spanish Literature) are given and 2) the racial disparities in performance on the APES remained fairly consistent. The latter point is particularly critical and stands in contrast to other Advanced Placement science exams where the performance gap appears to be slowly closing (Brown and Campbell 2009). Such findings raise significant questions about Advanced Placement science exams (Tai 2008) and, in particular the APES test. Despite the relatively low scoring average of African American students during the rapid growth of the APES test from 1998–2007, more than 2,300 African American students scored ≥ 3 on the APES exam while during the same period fewer than 1,300 African American students received a college degree from an agricultural and related sciences or natural resource and conservation program in the U.S.

The overall low scoring curve of the APES test takers and the relatively small number of multicultural eco high schools suggests that the quality and availability of high school environmental instruction for students of color in the U.S. is inadequate. There is a dearth of curricula for such audiences. For example, a survey of 97 environmental education professors nationwide in 2000 allowed each to select four areas of special interest or research out of eighty choices for a possible total of 388 selections (Gint and Giles 2000). As Table 3 illustrates, thirteen professors selected environmental justice, multicultural environmental education, Native American oral tradition, nontraditional audiences, and/or urban environmental education. Two of the thirteen professors selected curriculum development as an area of special interest or research. One of the thirteen professors joined the plurality of all professors in the survey by selecting environmental education instruction as an area of special interest or research. None of the professors selected underserved populations as an area of special interest or research.

Table 2.

Advanced Placement Environmental Science Test Results for Public School Students by Score and Race from 1998–2007

Public School Students	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Number of American Indian Scoring ≥ 3	6	11	22	13	31	51	51	56	69	70
Number of American Indian Scoring <3	9	45	43	39	71	63	77	73	87	118
Number of African American Scoring ≥ 3	40	74	104	154	224	275	273	326	389	457
Number of African American Scoring <3	144	313	451	602	1000	1369	1373	1521	1708	2157
Number of Asian American Scoring ≥ 3	325	520	877	1075	1310	1552	1531	1785	2233	2793
Number of Asian American Scoring <3	124	380	583	943	1170	1583	1561	1677	2042	2216
Number of Latino Scoring ≥ 3	98	150	292	412	569	648	726	810	955	1234
Number of Latino Scoring <3	167	402	710	839	1392	1754	2083	2098	2539	3116
Number of White Scoring ≥ 3	1487	2626	4425	5882	7287	9096	10,052	10,562	11,681	14,905
Number of White Scoring <3	912	1919	2698	4036	5550	7287	8367	8286	9671	11,682

Table 3.

Interests of Environmental Education Professors (n = 97)

Topic of special interest or research	Number of professors selecting topic
Environmental justice	3
Multicultural environmental education	3
Native American oral tradition	3
Nontraditional audiences	1
Underserved population	0
Urban environmental education	3

Environmental education curricula has not adequately addressed issues relevant to students of color such as environmental justice (Kushmerick et.al. 2007), multiculturalism (Agyeman 2003, James 2003), or cultural values (Gibson and Puniwai 2006, Grass 2004, Lee and Buxton 2008, Mayeno 2000, Padgett 2001, Raffel 1996). Environmental education curricula has also not fully considered how outcomes are impacted by addressing such issues (Agyeman 2002, Anazagasty-Rodriguez 2006, Barr Foundation 2006, Cole 2007, Marouli 2002, Nordstrom 2008, Peloso 2007). By considering a broad range of approaches to multicultural environmental education, such as outdoor education (Floyd and Johnson 2002, United States Department of Agriculture 2007, Warren 2005), student responsiveness (Baumgartner and Zabin 2008, Esters 2004, Haensly and Lehmann 1996, Lim and Barton 2006, Quimby et.al. 2007, Sullivan 2007), impact of instructor race (Desjean-Perrotta et.al. 2008, Huss 2007, Lee 2006), and appropriate administrative support (Freitas 2007, Seever 1991), more effective curricula will be created.

The barriers to creating appropriate multicultural environmental education curricula are more than academic. A 2003 survey of the NAAEE state environmental education groups found that role models were identified as the most important factor for achieving diversity (Clavijo and Chandler 2003) yet has few people of color among the membership who can serve as such role models. NAAEE developed a diversity statement in 2002 in recognition of this weakness and has begun to consider how the standards for environmental education established in 38 states should consider multiracial audiences (NAAEE 2003).

Several options exist to build on theoretical frameworks for multicultural environmental education. Educators from racially diverse backgrounds developed a well researched and detailed, albeit often overlooked, model to help the Environmental Education and Training Partnership provide effective environmental education to diverse audiences (Spectrum Community Consulting Group 1997). The “Environment as an Integrated Context for Learning” (EIC) model implemented by the State Education and Environment Roundtable (SEER) is effective in enhancing standardized test performance, reducing discipline problems, and promoting critical thinking (SEER 2009, Strife and Downey 2009) but has yet to include a significant number of high schools serving predominantly students of color. The application of a critical race theory framework may bring into sharp relief means to strengthen environmental education (e.g., Harper et al. 2009, Yosso 2005).

Such research should supplement ongoing efforts to support the integration of equity, diversity, and inclusion throughout environmental organizations and movements. Expanding recruitment of people of color into the profession is but one piece of a complex array of synergistic work that must be done within the environmental field (Park 2007). Prior to expanding their recruitment efforts, organizations must clarify the mission-related reasons for increasing racial and other kinds of diversity. Changing demographics, alone, cannot be the end goal. Organizations must increase the knowledge and skills of existing staff and prepare themselves for the often-challenging work of shifting an organization's culture and managing differences successfully. For colleges, that means reviewing everything from the type and quality of support students of color are given (Chang et al. 2008, Cole and Espinoza 2008, Grandy 1998) to the type of environmental instruction that is provided. The organization must address the history of structural racism that has resulted in environmental harm to people of color and their lack of access to environmental benefits (e.g., Bullard et al. 2007, Hoerner and Robinson 2008, Gee and Payne Sturges 2004, Strife and Downey 2009). For the environmental field to expand its constituency, broaden its impact, and retain political influence in the twenty-first century, it must make equity a true priority and shift organizational cultures to be more inclusive, in addition to changing its racial demographics.

Conclusion

We evaluated two approaches to target high school students in order to increase the racial diversity of the environmental profession. Both approaches had significant strengths and weaknesses.

Targeting based on the APES test was limited by the relatively high failure rate among all students and the restrictions imposed by the College Board on the distribution of student performance records. Despite these limitations, each university could identify the students of color who passed the APES exam in 2007 for less than $2,000. Targeting based on high school curricula was limited by the relatively few high schools (<1%) that met the multicultural eco-high school criteria. The 184 multicultural eco-high schools identified graduate more than 32,000 students of color each year and it is likely more such schools remain to be identified.

Our hope is that universities will use both approaches to refine their student recruitment efforts and help develop an environmental workforce for the twenty-first century that better reflects the United States. By doing so, the environmental movement can address long-standing movement-building and political challenges it has faced due to its racial homogeneity. It can also tap into new assets and perspectives to create a more just, sustainable world for all.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

Thanks to M'lis Bartlett, Running Grass, Amiko Mayeno, Nina Roberts, Dorceta Taylor, and Cristina Valdez for their great ideas and support. Thanks to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reviewers. The outstanding Region 9 librarians identified and procured critical articles and reports. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Author Disclosure Statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest or financial ties to disclose.

Table A10.

Additional College Partnership Schools—Agricultural, Environmental, and Marine Programs

	State	School name	Location	Percent of students of color	Total number of students	Comments
1	AL	Selma Early College High School	3000 Earl Goodwin Pa, Selma, AL, 36703	99%	171	Agriscience Academy, Partnership with Wallace Community College-Selma and SECME, Inc
2	CA	Channel Islands High School	1400 Raiders Way Oxnard, CA 93033	95%	2562	Marine Science Academy, Partnership with Oxnard College
3	CA	Mt. Whitney High School	900 S. Conyer Visalia, CA 93277	61%	1642	Agribusiness Academy, Partnership with College of Sequoias
4	CA	Redwood High School	1968 Old County Rd. Redwood City, CA 94063	87%	289	Redwood Environmental Academy of Leadership, Partnership with Stanford University
5	FL	Jacksonville Early College High School	1200 Mcduff Ave S Jacksonville, FL 32205	77%	464	Marine Science Academy, Partnership Florida Community College in Jacksonville and SECME, Inc
6	HI	Hakipu U Learning Center	45-720 Keaahala Rd Bishop Bldg. Kaneohe, HI 96744	87%	>50	Environmental charter school, Partnership with Windward Community College
7	MD	WEB DuBois Senior High School for Environmental Science	2201 Pinewood Avenue Baltimore, Maryland 21214	98%	738	Partnership with the Maryland Sea Grant College high school Aquaculture in Action program
8	MS	Coahoma Agricultural High School	3240 Friars Point Rd. Clarksdale, MS 38614	100%	297	Agriscience Program, Partnership with Coahoma Community College
9	MS	Hinds County Agricultural High School	P. O. Box 1100 Raymond, MS 39154-1100	100%	307	Agriscience Program, Partnership with Hinds Community College
10	NY	Corcoran Agricultural High School	919 Glenwood Ave. Syracuse, NY 13207	77%	1448	Environmental Science and Forestry, Partnership with State University of New York-Syracuse
11	NY	Notingham High School	3100 E. Genesee St. Syracuse, NY 13224	75%	1314	Environmental Science and Forestry, Partnership with State University of New York-Syracuse

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