Clean Energy Fellows Action Plans

Overview

Action Plan Development and Strategic Priorities: The Clean Energy Fellows program is intended to allow for deep, thoughtful, locally relevant, and culturally specific plans around energy career pathways be developed in a way that ensures 10-year longevity for new programming. To accomplish this, Fellows will develop comprehensive action plans that select specific methodologies for deliver new opportunities for young people to engage in this work in their region. Each Fellow’s or region’s Action Plan will look different, selecting unique engagements and strategies that align to pre-existing efforts and realities. To facilitate the development of these plans, CE will ask that Fellows align their plans to the following strategic priorities:

  1. (Mission-Oriented): The Action Plan broadens access to student participation in the clean energy economy.
  2. (Equity-Driven): The Action Plan is culturally relevant for the region served and addresses the realities of local equity needs.
  3. (Self-Sustaining): The Action Plan has structures in place that target a longevity of at least 10 years for their programming.
  4. (Change-Multiplying): The Action Plan amplifies the impact of local educator leaders within the Fellow’s region.
  5. (Partner-Informed): The Action Plan involves continuous inroads for collaboration between teacher Fellow and critical regional partners (industry, educational, and community groups and organizations).

Details and Example Outcomes

CE has worked with thousands of teachers over the years to implement high-impact renewable energy educational programming in their regions. Below, each action plan has been aligned with examples of potential outcomes for teachers to pursue to achieve the mission of the program. Note: these are not the only routes that Fellows can take, and they may combine varying targets or take an entirely unique approach to achieving these objectives as long as the alignment remains strong.

  1. The Action Plan broadens access to student participation in the clean energy economy.

Description: A key component of the Clean Energy Fellows program is to make energy careers more visible and expand how regional consumers engage with their energy resources. An Action Plan developed in this program should be geared toward expanding topic engagement, building regional student/consumer capacity to influence their local energy economy, and ensuring that there are established systems for upholding Pre-K-to-career pipelines into energy-linked careers.

Short-Term Outcomes Could Look Like…

  • All districts in teacher region begin including renewable energy engineering challenges.
  • A single K-12 storyline involving clean energy and power grid concepts is built for regional districts.
  • Student internship opportunities are formalized with industry partners in energy-linked fields.
  • Fellow delivers plans to district to support cross-curricular collaboration between regional teachers.
  • Consistent regional teacher professional development is established to support content expertise.

Intermediate/Long-term Outcomes could look like…

  • Increasing numbers of students from Fellow region enter local energy-linked industries.
  • Students in the region are able to make well-informed decisions around grid modernization and energy resources for their local grid.
  • There is a clear and consistent pathway available for students hoping to enter careers in all sectors of the clean energy economy (trades, utility staff, advanced manufacturing, computer science) visible in the local community.
  • Regional utilities see broadened participation by customers in progressive, resiliency-focused energy initiatives and programs.

 

2. The Action Plan is culturally relevant for the region served and addresses the realities of local equity needs.

Description: Core to CE’s mission is the involvement of ALL students and communities in the transformation of the energy economy. This means that regardless of socioeconomic status, ethnic background, gender, home language, geographic placement, and other critical factors, every student in the targeted population and/or region must have inroads to access the value of a Fellow’s Action Plan equitably. That does not simply mean that the same opportunity is provided to everyone, rather, the opportunities provided are critically responsive to the unique situation that every student faces and structures are shifted where needed to customize a Plan for these unique needs.

Short-Term Outcomes Could Look Like…

  • Partnerships between school districts and equity-focused organizations are developed.
  • Translators are used to generate critical curricular or other documents into relevant languages other than English.
  • Fellows and their PLC incorporate scaffolds and ELD strategies to ensure that valuable student differentiation is possible where needed.
  • Phenomena used to engage students in inquiry and engineering is not only localized and relevant but connected to critical regional issues addressing regional development and/or social justice.
  • Diverse representation of professionals in energy careers is used wherever possible.

Intermediate/Long-term Outcomes could look like…

  • Community-based organizations and other equity-focused groups see permanent integration into the planning and implementation of regional STEM events.
  • Increasing participation in regional STEM K-12 offerings by underrepresented communities.
  • Regional industries linked to this initiative see increases in roles being filled by traditionally underrepresented communities.
  • There is a diversification of stakeholder groups at the table in discussions around energy resource development.

 

  1. The Action Plan has structures in place that target a longevity of at least 10 years for their programming.

Description: It is critical that the structures built by Fellows involved in this program are long-standing and self-sustaining. This requires incredibly thoughtful integration by the Fellow through buy-in of critical partners involved in implementation. It also necessitates that systems are in place that do not leave the initial Fellow as the main gatekeeper or implementer of this work, but that it is open source and readily available for a growing and changing participant base.

Short-Term Outcomes Could Look Like…

  • Receiving letters of support, “sponsorships,” and other robust buy-in from both educational as well as industry partners for the development of new structures.
  • Thoughtful alignment to long term educational initiatives in the region, such as NGSS curriculum sourcing, CTE programming, guidance counseling, and vertical structuring along K-12 progressions.
  • Establishing regional leaders throughout the professional learning community to act as the voice and curator of site or district-specific rollouts of new initiatives.
  • Identifying ongoing, long term challenges and issues that students working through the Action Plan initiatives could address and engage with.

Intermediate/Long-term Outcomes could look like…

  • Partnership buy-in is recurring and ever evolving with the program long after CE’s involvement ends.
  • Curriculum and programming remains relevant throughout the duration of regional development and remains adaptive to new needs.
  • Systems are built to identify and fill gaps to adjust for long term shuffling of roles due to teacher turnover.
  • Those impacted by the Action Plan’s programming can move on to take valuable roles in the region in addressing critical challenges.

 

  1. The Action Plan amplifies the impact of local educator leaders within the Fellow’s region.

Description: As a coordinator of deep regional change, Fellows will act as liaisons to additional change agents in their networks, building their own capacity to spread the impact of their long-term Action Plan goals. Fellows are expected to identify critical needs amongst their peers, providing them with support and professional development where necessary. CE will work with the Fellows not only to bolster their understanding of energy and grid modernization topics, but additionally best practices in delivering training both in-person and remotely.

Short-Term Outcomes Could Look Like…

  • Establishing regular meetings amongst school-site STEM coordinators to align student engagement with common goals.
  • Coordinating professional development for district grade-bands to train them in the usage of newly developed scope-and-sequence curriculum.
  • Building a webinar that instructs regional teachers in the usage of hands-on tools delivered to a district tool library.

Intermediate/Long-term Outcomes could look like…

  • Systems are in place to confirm that new regional STEM coordinators are brought up to speed and maintain the delivery of Action Plan curriculum.
  • Teachers and schools are able to continuously refine and update curriculum as they see fit moving forward to best meet the needs of their specific students.
  • Common libraries of resources are established and used amongst regional teachers in need to geographically-specific activities.

 

  1.  The Action Plan involves continuous inroads for collaboration between teacher Fellow and critical regional partners (industry, educational, and community groups and organizations).

Description: The other three objectives would not be achievable at all without the consistent incorporation of partner insights and expertise into work conducted on the ground. Longstanding partnerships must be fostered from before the outset of an Action Plan and involve diverse voices from the community and region. There must additionally be space within this action plan for partnerships to adhere to sustained programming and evolve according to changes in needs.

Short-Term Outcomes Could Look Like…

  • Fellows work with local utilities to formalize regular classroom visit and field trip opportunities.
  • Fellows work with community-based organizations to help vet new curriculum and ensure that it is locally informed, culturally relevant, and employs strategies addressing equity.
  • Fellows collaborate with regional Trades Allies to develop tools to enhance opportunities for students to enter their career pathways through energy engagement.

Intermediate/Long-term Outcomes could look like…

  • Long-term mentorship opportunities are established for industry leaders to engage with students.
  • Students have increased access to new curriculum that instills urgency around community issues.
  • Pathways into careers with all partners are clear to students and consistently communicated throughout their educational career, not just the end.