Bill Brandau has lived more than 30 years and raised his family on his ranch along the Gila River in southeastern Arizona. He is working with the Gila Watershed Partnership, and RiversEdge West to restore the river's riparian ecosystem and remove invasive species.
"I come to work every day because I feel like I am really making a positive impact," says Emily Kasyon. As watershed program coordinator for the Southwest Conservation Corps, Emily is helping protect the Dolores River from invasive species, such as tamarisk, that are crowding out native plants and damaging riparian habitat throughout the Colorado River basin.
We found that millennial parents are open to a wide range of methods to hold schools accountable for making sure students are learning properly. We were interested in who millennial parents believe should be held accountable when a school is not living up to that responsibility. We asked our focus groups, “What should happen if a school is consistently failing?”
We know millennial parents use a variety of ways to measure their kids’ success in school. Next, we wanted to know how millennial parents evaluate the schools themselves. School culture? Test scores? Extra-curriculars? We asked our focus groups to sketch out what criteria they use to judge a school.
Millennial parents use many different criteria to judge if their kids are getting the skills they need. We wanted to learn how millennial parents are evaluating if their kids are being properly prepared for the future. Grades? Conversations with teachers? Test scores? A combination? We asked our focus groups, “What are the important things you look at to measure how much your kid is learning?”
Millennial parents care not only about their kids’ academic skills but career and life skills. We asked our focus groups, “What is the purpose of a public education?” and “What skills do you expect your kids to have upon graduation?”
Millennial parents expect a lot out of their kids’ schools. We wanted to know how education has changed since millennial parents themselves were in school. We asked our focus groups, “Is millennial parenting different than the way you were raised?”
We're proud to showcase the special regions we’re trying to protect through our Environment Program and feature the voices of the people whose commitment to conservation demonstrates the power of individuals to make a difference.
