I just returned from a wonderful 10-day trip traveling around Costa Rica with a group of students, faculty chaperones, and some other moms of students from my daughter's high school. We traversed that remarkably bio-diverse Central American country, marveling at the beautiful examples of natural features (e.g., tropical rainforest, waterfalls, cloud forest, Arenal Volcano, Caribbean Sea, Pacific Ocean), flora (e.g., orchids, bromeliads), fauna (e.g., toucans, parrots, frogs, crocodiles, various types of monkeys), and lush fruit crops (e.g., pineapples, bananas, mangos).

I returned to work on Monday, April 22, just in time for Earth Day, which is now celebrated annually in 150 countries around the globe. At its inception back in 1970, Earth Day was observed only in the U.S., but for the first time groups who had previously tackled only their own concerns (e.g., pollution, toxic dumps, pesticides, traffic, encroachment on wilderness, freeways) were brought together for massive coast-to-coast rallies in support of their common concern for a healthy and sustainable environment.

The phrase Pura Vida (which literally means Pure Life), is used in Costa Rican culture to signify "this is living," "excellent," "life is wonderful," or "things are going great," as well as being used for greetings of hello, goodbye, or thank you. The expression reflects their approach to life, enjoyment of their country's natural splendor, and their eco-tourism hospitality. Yet, there - as in other countries across the globe - climate change is wreaking havoc. Our tour guide mentioned that scientific models predict extreme weather changes that will affect water supply, sea level rise, volcanic activity, and extinction of some species of animals, just to name a few outcomes.

This year's Earth Day theme is The Face of Climate Change. It's a topic area in which GRG has become quite involved in recent years, with evaluations of a number of climate change education projects. I had just traveled thousands of miles but was still close to the concept of how connected are all parts of our fragile planet.

Momentary time sampling has been used as a data collection tool for many years, allowing the observer to collect precise data through repeated quick snapshots. There are many benefits to using a well-developed time sampling protocol. It forces observers to focus on capturing what they see and hear, rather than interpreting what they see and hear. Thus, observer accuracy is increased, leading to high inter-rater reliability when multiple observers are used. In addition, by using a tablet or smartphone, these data can be gathered efficiently and, more importantly, without the distraction of tracking the time interval; plus further data entry is eliminated, thus reducing the likelihood of data entry errors.

Classroom observations are a much needed method to accurately evaluate implementation of K-12 educational programs. Yet they are cost prohibitive for many evaluations because they are time consuming and because of the high cost of training teams of evaluators to reach acceptable levels of inter-rater reliability. Therefore, we have borrowed from the instructional leadership arena to approach observations through a different lens. Instead of conducting full-length classroom observations, we're using the learning walk structure as another data collection tool. Learning walks are brief, nonjudgmental, focused visits to classrooms. Because they are frequently followed by feedback and reflection, they are used by school leaders as a tool to create a reflective culture and improve instructional practice.

We've conducted learning walks as a formal data collection method in our evaluations. Instead of observing an entire class period, we have focused on smaller chunks of time (e.g., 15 minutes) as the sampling unit. By limiting the time in each classroom, we were able to visit every classroom within a single day. By gathering snapshots from a large number of classrooms, we are already starting to identify patterns in domains such as student engagement, instructional practices, and classroom environment across entire schools.

One of our clients, The HistoryMakers, has created the nation's largest African American Video Oral History History Collection. Their website includes oral histories of both well-known and lesser known African Americans in 15 categories, including ArtMakers, ScienceMakers, BusinessMakers, MediaMakers, MilitaryMakers, and Political Makers, all with the intent to share with the public a more inclusive record of American history.