Nationwide perceptions of US green school practices: implications for reform and research

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study explored educators’ perceptions of green school practices in the USA using an online survey to address the larger issue of what it means to be “green” in an educational context. A total of 93 green schools from 27 states in the USA returned a completed survey. SPSS was used to analyze educators’ perceptions of green school practices based on the following variables: public school governance (regular/charter schools), setting (urban/suburban/rural), experience (number of years operating as a green school), and survey scores (educators’ perceptions implementing a set of green school core practices). We found a positive relationship between survey score and experience. There was also a significant difference in survey scores between regular and charter schools. However, there were no significant differences between survey scores from urban, suburban, or rural schools. Implications for education reform in the USA and future research directions are discussed.