Introduction
Residential Outdoor Schools were surveyed in November and December 2000 to determine the pattern of programs and staffing offered. The survey was conducted by Dan Allison / Raincloud Publishing. The primary purpose of the survey was to answer the question: what portion of 5th or 6th grade students in California attend outdoor school?
All 64 known programs in California were surveyed. Of the 24 public programs (operated by local education agencies - school districts and offices of education), 9 responded. These were San Joaquin, San Mateo, Foothill Horizons, SCICON, Woodleaf, Kern, Los Angeles COE, San Diego, and Los Angeles USD. Of the 40 private programs (operated by nonprofits and other agencies), 16 responded. These were Alliance Redwoods, Camp Campbell, Clem Miller, Exploring New Horizons, Genesis Account/American Outdoor Schools, Mendocino Woodlands, Mission Springs, Pacific Environmental Education Center, Web of Life Field School, Point Bonita, Redwood NP, Earth Adventure, El Camino Pines, Pathfinder Ranch, Rancho Alegre, and Thousand Pines. Thanks to those programs which responded!
The overall response rate was only 39%. While it is impossible to guess how many participants are represented by those programs that did not respond, response from large programs and small was about proportional to their role in providing residential outdoor education. Therefore it will be assumed that the participant count gathered in question 2 is 39% of the actual participants numbers.
K-8 public school enrollment in California is 4,194,356 (1999-2000), so the number of students in sixth grade is about 466,000. Private school enrollment in California is about 50,000 at the sixth grade. So total enrollment at sixth grade is about 516,000. Residential outdoor schools serve a variety of grade levels, focusing on 5th and 6th grade, but since most students only attend at one grade level, the sixth grade enrollment is a reasonable number to use for determining what percentage of students attend outdoor school.
If the 115,545 participants in 5th/6th grade are divided by 39%, it may be assumed that total participants in 5th/6th are 296,269. Therefore, it may be guessed that 57% of the students in California attend residential outdoor school. Obviously this percentage should be taken with a large grain of salt, since the actual count is only 21%.
The Results
| Question 2: Number of Participants | total | max | min |
| 2. Total | 128462 | 13900 | 800 |
| 2a. K-4 | 3663 | 2200 | 0 |
| 2b. 5-6 | 115545 | 13000 | 600 |
| 2c. 7-12 | 7855 | 1533 | 0 |
| 2d. adult | 2640 | 641 | 0 |
| Notes: Some programs included their high school age cabin leaders in 7-12, some did not. | |||
| average | max | min | |
| Question 3: Days of Operation | 152 | 266 | 55 |
| Question 4: Contact Hours | 31 | 70 | 7 |
| Question 5: Percentage of Public Schools Served | 78 | 100 | 4 |
| Notes: The contact hours vary widely, probably due to different understanding, or misunderstanding, of what to count as contact hours. Future surveys will provide a clear criteria for contact hours. Programs running both four and five day programs are included in the average of 31 hours per week. | |||
| yes | no | |
| Question 6: Off-site Administrator | 13 | 14 |
| Question 7: On-site Administrator | 24 | 2 |
| Question 8: Staffing | average | max | min |
| 8a. total | 12.7 | 37 | 3 |
| 8b. credentialed | 1.8 | 7 | 0 |
| 8c. naturalist - high school level | 2.9 | 20 | 0 |
| 8c. naturalist - BS/BA level | 9.1 | 30 | 1 |
| 8c. naturalist - MS/MA level | 0.9 | 3 | 0 |
| 8d. university intern | 1.3 | 8 | 0 |
| 8e. visiting teachers | 34.7 | 279 | 0 |
| Notes: The use of visiting teachers as instructional staff was widely interpreted, so these number may be meaningless. Future surveys will provide a clearer criteria. | |||
| average | max | min | |
| Question 9: Student to Instructor Ratio | 15.8 | 26 | 6 |
| average | max | min | |
| Question 10: Days of Staff Training | 12.4 | 20 | 7 |
| Notes: Many programs offer a week of training each season plus weekly and special opportunity training including conferences. | |||
| Question 11: Minimum Safety Training - all except three programs had a minimum level of CPR/FA. | average percent | max percent | min percent | |
| 12a. CPR/FA | 86 | 100 | 10 | |
| 12b. WFA | 11 | 25 | 0 | |
| 12c. WFR | 12 | 80 | 0 | |
| 12d. WEMT | 3 | 20 | 0 | |
| Question 13: Medical Person On Staff | 9 yes; 18 no | |||
| Notes: These are percentages of staff. The highest level is shown, lower levels are assumed for these higher levels. | ||||
| average | max | min | ||
| Question 14: Scholarship Program? | 19 yes; 8 no | |||
| Scholarhip Amount | $11750 | $45000 | $0 | |
| Notes: Several programs said they had started scholarship programs but had not yet disbursed any money. | ||||
| Question 15: Other Programs | total | max | min |
| 15a. Experiential/Adventure | 3103 | 2880 | 0 |
| 15b. Day | 42829 | 30000 | 0 |
| 15c. Summer | 4140 | 1250 | 0 |
| 15d. Adult or Family | 12209 | 3200 | 0 |
| average | max | min | |
| Question 16: Number of Sites | 1.9 | 10 | 1 |
| Question 17: Acres | 8499 | 110000 | 2 |
| Question 18: Ecosystems | 4.81 | 8 | 1 |
| Notes: Ahh, the wonders of being in or immediately adjacent to protected public lands. | |||
What's Next?
The survey will probably redone and expanded in the fall of 2001. Questions will be designed so that the criteria is clear to all responding. Questions will be added about staff salaries and operating budgets. As with this survey, no data will ever be released which identifies specific programs.
If you wish to make comments about the questions, the criteria, or future surveys, please contact Dan Allison,
.
Text of the Survey
This survey is intended to gather and share information about the state of residential outdoor education in California. The information will be shared only in aggregate form, as statistics and summaries, never as information about specific programs. For example, the information reported might be: the average days of operation was 160, the range being from 90 to 210. The information will be shared by email with the same people who are receiving this email, with the public by publication in the newsletter and/or website of the Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education, and with the California Department of Education - Office of Environmental Education.
The survey results will be most valuable if there is a response rate approaching 100%, so in addition to answering the questions yourself, please encourage other programs to do so. COSA members will note that some of this same information has been previously gathered by COSA for its members, however, I wish to have up-to-date information for all programs in the state.
The survey does not address some areas: curriculum, salaries and benefits, and operating budget. I hope to address these in the future after some experience and trust are gained.
The survey questions are followed by notes and definitions which may explain how to best answer the questions and why they are being asked. These are flagged by (note).
The overriding question I am interested in answering is: what percentage of students in California receive a residential outdoor education experience in 5th or 6th grade? If you are unable to answer all of the questions, please do answer at least questions 1, 2c, and 5.
The deadline for returning the survey is December 15, 2000.
1. Public or private program? (note)
Attendance
2. Number of participants served per year
a) total:
b) K - 4th grade:
c) 5th - 6th grade:
d) 7th - 12th grade:
e) adult:
3. Days of operation per year with students:
4. Hours of instructional contact time with students per week (note):
5. Ratio of participants from public schools/private schools:
Staff
6. Off-site administrator? YES NO
7. On-site administrator or director? YES NO
8. Number of teaching staff/FTE teaching staff
a) total:
b) credentialed:
c) naturalist:
HS:
BS/BA:
MS/MA:
d) university intern:
e) visiting teacher (note):
9. Teaching staff to student ratio:
10. Days of staff training per year (note):
11. Minimum safety training required for teaching staff employment:
CPR/FA LOWER HIGHER
12. Staff certified, as percentage:
a) CPR/FA:
b) Wilderness First Aid (WFA):
c) Wilderness First Responder (WFR):
d) Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician (WEMT):
13. Do you have an on-site nurse or medical person? YES NO
Scholarship
14. Do you have a scholarship program or subsidy for low income or under-represented students? YES NO $ amount per year:
Other Programs
15. Do you offer other non-ROS programs?
a) experiential/adventure education YES NO # participants:
b) day programs YES NO # participants:
c) summer camp YES NO # participants:
d) adult and family programs? YES NO # participants:
Sites
16. Number of sites:
17. About how many acres of land do you own or have access to for operation of your program (note):
18. Number of distinct ecosystems on your site or available for your use (note):
The definition of Residential Outdoor School for this survey is that established by the California Department of Education: programs which offer environmental education and natural science as the primary program components in an outdoor setting, and where students stay at the site at least three nights. I realize that many sites offer valuable programs which have a smaller component of environmental education, but please answer all the questions based on the portion of your program which is primarily environmental education.
For all questions which ask for a numerical answer, I understand that programs may vary throughout the year, so please offer an average number that you feel fairly represents your program. Questions about staffing refer to your entire program, not on a per site basis, if you have multiple sites.
Notes
Question 1: For this survey, a public program is one offered by a Local Education Agency as defined by the California Department of Education, and private is all others, even though some programs are operated by public agencies.
Question 4: You may define instructional contact time as appropriate for your program, but think in terms of a school where lunch and recess are not counted as instructional time though there is obviously a social and skill learning aspect of these times.
Question 8e: If your program requires visiting teachers to teach curriculum for a significant amount of time beyond a brief teacher time/student check in, then count them as teaching staff.
Question 10: Include both beginning of season training sessions and professional development that occurs during the year.
Question 17: Provide an average acreage per site, if you have multiple sites.
Question 18: You may define distinct ecosystems in your own way, but what I am looking for is a rough estimate of the diversity available to programs. If you regularly take field trips off your site, please include the ecosystems you visit. Provide an average ecosystems per site, if you have multiple sites.