Who We Are / History
Who We Are
Creative Change Educational Solutions is a nonprofit organization focused making education for sustainability a focus of K20 policy and practice. We serve leading educators who understand the ethical need to educate for a greener economy, revitalized communities and a more equitable society. We are the bridge between educational institutions and sustainability leaders in business, government and academia.
Based in southeast Michigan, we work regionally and collaborate nationally with schools, universities, research institutions and sustainability leaders in multiple sectors. The organization’s staff and board include practicing teachers, university educators, and content experts from science, business, and public policy fields.
Our mission is to provide and promote innovative education that helps create a sustainable world: a healthy environment, a fair economy, and a just and equitable society for current and future generations. Check out our top-rated profile and reviews on Great Nonprofits.
Highlights of Our Work
Read our accomplishments by year (pdf versions): 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007.
Currently, we are
- Supporting educational leaders in “early adopter” districts and colleges to implement long-term change in curriculum and teacher preparation. (See summaries of K12 and college case studies.) Our systems approach provides these institutions with customized packages of strategic planning, professional development, curriculum licensing and evaluation. Learn about our approach to supporting change.
- Leading a multi-state initiative to integrate Education for Sustainability content and pedagogy into teacher education courses, ranging from social studies methods to social foundations.
- Developed graduate-level courses on sustainability education and teaching ecological economics.
- Working with Michigan State University to infuse experiential learning about sustainability into courses and programs.
- Consulting on the development of a children’s television program focused on sustainability for WBGH, Boston (public television producers).
Since our founding in 2002, we have also
- Developed and piloted a full range of K20 programs on multiple aspects of sustainability.
- Supported school- and district-level change to institutionalize sustainability in courses, programs and curriculum maps. Read case study summaries.
- Provided professional development to hundreds of K12 teachers, supporting them to integrate sustainability as a means to improve instructional practice and student achievement. See examples of how teachers in our professional development programs integrated our curriculum into their existing work to revise units.
- We partnered with Michigan State University to developed “Food, Farming and Community,” a curriculum on sustainable food systems for adult learners. (Program is disseminated through MSU.)
- In partnership wiith Purdue University College of Engineering, we developed a high school course on brownfields remediation that is now part of our Our Town program portfolio.
- We have presented at multiple national conferences, including the US Society of Ecological Economics, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, the National Association for Multicultural Education, and ASCD.
History: How We've Grown
Creative Change was founded in 1999 as an LLC by Susan Santone, a former teacher, to provide sustainability-based programming, and served schools and governmental agencies. As the organization’s vision grew, Santone convened a board and incorporated as a nonprofit in January 2002. The organization received its 501c3 status in July of that year. Since its founding, CCES has impacted more than 1500 educators in multiple states, and the thousands of students those educators have reached. The organization has developed an impressive list of clients and partners including public schools, Big Ten Universities, the United Nations, and public television producers WGBH.
CCES’ early programming focused on curriculum development followed by teacher training, classroom piloting and evaluation. This drove the development of our numerous curriculum modules while helping us establish relationships with key partners. Multiple evaluation studies of this work, involving dozens of teachers and hundreds of students, consistently demonstrated positive impacts on teacher knowledge and pedagogical practices, as well as on students’ content knowledge, civic engagement, and attitudes toward learning.
With this foundation, CCES adopted a new program model in 2009 focused on supporting long-term change by building the capacity of schools, colleges, and other educational organizations to institutionalize sustainability as a core reform strategy. To support this, CCES offers a rich portfolio of innovative curricula, staff development, and change models, with options for K12 schools and higher education.
To help bring curriculum dissemination to scale, CCES launched the subscription-based Curriculum and Resource Center in 2009. This on-line library of multimedia resources serves as a growing repository for CCES materials and a curated collection of links external resources. The CRC has subscribers from across the global.