Evaluate Impact

The Youth Outdoor Policy Partnership is a collaboration of leading national organizations working across sectors to ensure that all children have access to high-quality outdoor experiences and environmental education. Every year, we publish an Annual Trend Report that shares innovative policies to encourage legislators, advocates, communities and youth to replicate, rethink and collaborate to build equitable youth outdoor opportunities. Together, we'll explore the latest state-level policy updates from 2024, winning coalition-building strategies, and exciting advocacy strategies for 2025 with a panel of youth outdoor policy leaders.

Watch the October 4, 2024, recording of the National League of Cities and Children & Nature Network in-depth look at the new report “How Green Schoolyards Create Economic Value.” The conversation, moderated by NLC’s Dr. Robert Blaine, primarily featured report author Rob Grunewald, with additional insights and perspective from Jordan Twardy from the City of Dearborn and Priya Cook from C&NN.

This slide deck on the economic benefits of green schoolyards can be used to support your own case-making efforts. Kindly credit them to Rob Grunewald in your presentations.

This report, authored by former Federal Reserve economist Rob Grunewald, investigates the economic returns that can accompany investments in greening school grounds. Grunewald based much of his report on data from a study of a large-scale green schoolyard project in Denver, Colorado, that converted 99 traditional elementary schoolyards to green schoolyards over a 12-year period.

This Digest explores the community and environmental benefits of green schoolyards.

Roanoke school district’s innovative equity rating system to improve achievement for all students, including measures for consideration in selecting schools for green schoolyard programs.

This Placemaking Assessment Tool can help a community turn underused places into ones that attract people and activity, and support economic development in alignment with a community’s goals.

This simple one-page how-to guide provides fill-in charts to assess how many children and how much physical activity can be accommodated in an existing playground design.

The City of Madison’s inventory of green schoolyard features and outdoor educational infrastructure within the Madison Metropolitan School District guides use of existing infrastructure and priorities for improvements.

A comprehensive self-study to assess physical environment, interactions, programming, materials and teacher’s roles at early education sites.

This Grounds for Change project helps schools develop outdoor curriculum and shares seven key steps for successful experiential learning programs in urban settings.

A data collection tool to track how students travel to and from school and understand parents’ perceptions of safety.

Out Teach provides professional development, mentoring and modeling for schools with outdoor classrooms. Their program is highly successful and improves teacher and student motivation.

This survey was created to measure whether and how children have access to nature on early San Francisco education sites serving ages five and under.

This framework describes a set of potential outcomes with which green schoolyards can be evaluated across a city, county or school district. The short- and long-term outcomes may be considered at any stage of the development of green schoolyard programs, while also providing potential evaluative options for longitudinal, multi-city research.

The Urban Biodiversity Inventory Framework (UBIF) is a tool tthat help cities make appropriate management decisions to protect and enhance urban biodiversity.

An interactive tool and index that ranks America’s 100 largest cities and their park systems.

Austin’s Nature Equity Score is a data-based decision-making tool that helps city and community leaders determine where to pilot green schoolyard projects.

This tool was created to conduct an audit of attendance and amenities usage at a park and green schoolyard to help decision-makers plan for redevelopment.

Report highlights community and school gardens in Chicago reduced stormwater runoff, resulting in better water quality, reduced urban heat islands, enhanced learning environments and stronger communities.

The NAP Outdoor Play and Learning Assessment employs the latest research on how early care and education programs can help children age five and under develop healthy habits.

How-to guide for using the Bridging the Gap Park Observation Form for Understanding Community Obesity Measures.

The Bridging the Gap Community Obesity Measures Project aims to improve understanding of policies and environmental factors that likely determine healthy diet, physical activity, and obesity in youth.

This compendium of surveys helps organizations delivering nutrition education in California measure changes in fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity, food security and other related factors.