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Frequently Asked Questions

Please check here frequently for updated questions and answers about the Education and the Environment Initiative (AB 1548). If you have a question regarding the initiative which is not addressed below please submit to AB1548@calepa.ca.gov.

Background | Why EEI? | EEI Curriculum | Who is involved?

Background

Q: What is the Education and the Environment Initiative?
A: The Education and the Environment Initiative (EEI) was signed into law in 2003 Assembly Bill 1548 (Pavley, Statues of 2003) and more recently AB 1721 (Pavley, Statutes of 2005)). It mandates a broad-ranging strategy to bring education about the environment into California’s K-12 schools. Specifically, this law requires the State to:

• Develop Environmental Principles and Concepts (EP&C) to complement the State’s academic content standards;
• Incorporate the EP&C into the State Board of Education's criteria for adopted instructional materials in science, history/social science, English/language arts and mathematics;
• Design, develop and disseminate a K-12 standards-based curriculum to teach these EP&C to California’s K-12 students;
• Align state agency programs with the EP&C; and,
• Establish an interagency partnership to implement the EEI.

Q: How will the Education and the Environment Initiative help students achieve mastery of academic content standards?
A: The EEI Curriculum will provide teachers with an alternative strategy for using their adopted instructional materials in a way that engages students by using the environment as a context for standards-based instruction. EEI units are being designed to teach standards to mastery through instructional strategies that many students may find more engaging than traditional materials.
The law states that the Environmental Principles and Concepts developed under the EEI “shall be aligned to the applicable academic content standards adopted by the State Board of Education and shall not duplicate or conflict with any academic content standards.” This alignment will then serve as the basis for developing a “model curriculum” (EEI Curriculum) that is aligned with the State Board of Education’s adopted academic content standards in science, mathematics, English Language arts, and history/social science.

Q: Will the Environmental Principles and Concepts (EP&C) be incorporated into textbooks?
A: The law calls for incorporating the EP&C into criteria for textbook adoption in science, mathematics, English/language arts, and history/social science. The textbook adoption process operates on a multiyear cycle so it is not possible to immediately incorporate the Environmental Principles and Concepts into all textbooks. The criteria for the next English/language arts textbook adoption were recently approved by the State Board of Education; these criteria state “When appropriate, informational texts in grades 4-8 will include content that incorporates education principles and concepts for the environment that is consistent with grade-level Standards and the unit/ theme design and as required in Public Resources Code Section 71301(d)(1).” Similar criteria will be included in the adoption criteria for history/social science and science during the next adoption cycle.

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Why EEI?

Q: What makes the Education and the Environment Initiative important?
A: This landmark legislation provides a significant opportunity to increase environmental literacy by making learning of the Environmental Principles and Concepts an integral part of the K-12 curriculum.

Everyone and everything is linked to the environment. California’s economic prosperity, the health of its citizens, in fact, our whole future depends on the health of the environment in which we live. Integrating education about the environment into our K-12 school system will make learning relevant to today’s world and prepare students to be knowledgeable citizens who can make informed decisions about California’s future.

Q: What difference does it make if students learn about the environment?
A: There are many important benefits to incorporating environment-based instruction into K-12 schools:

• Evidence from a growing body of national studies indicates that achievement increases when students learn the academic content standards in an environmental context.
• Environmental content can be connected to many subject areas including science, history/social science, English/language arts and mathematics. These connections help students understand how learning can be relevant to their daily lives and their communities, a significant motivating factor in the learning process.
• The EEI Curriculum is being structured so that it takes advantage of the instructional materials that are adopted by the State Board of Education as well as the educational resources that are offered by the providers of California’s diverse environmental curricula and education programs. This approach should provide students and teachers with the opportunity to make the most appropriate use of all of the rich instructional resources that are available to them.
• Students can learn about how their individual actions affect the environment, thus allowing and encouraging them to participate in identifying and helping resolve environmental issues that may have an impact on their quality of life.

Q: Isn’t there already a great deal of environmental education going on in our schools?
A: Currently, most environmental education programs are considered supplemental because they are not focused on achieving mastery of California’s academic content standards. Although the materials from a few of these programs have been approved for “legal and social compliance” none of the existing programs have been reviewed and approved by the State Board of Education for use in the State’s classrooms.

This means that the vast majority of teachers have great difficulty incorporating typical environmental education programs into their already busy teaching schedules. It also means that agencies promoting supplemental materials face difficulty trying to convince districts and teachers to use their products in the classroom.

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EEI Curriculum

Q: Where can I see the plan for developing the EEI curriculum?
A: The plan for the EEI Curriculum is available for download at: http://www.calepa.ca.gov/Education/EEI/documents/ModelPlan.pdf

Q: What legislative provisions cover the EEI curriculum?
A: The law provides specific directives regarding the development and dissemination of a “model curriculum” (EEI Curriculum) for the EP&C's, which are being developed as part of the EEI. The key provisions are as follows:

• For the purposes of the EEI, the term “model curriculum” (EEI Curriculum) means a comprehensive educational plan, for kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, for teaching the  Environmental Principles and Concepts;
• The EEI Curriculum is being developed by the California Environmental Protection Agency and the California Integrated Waste Management Board, in cooperation with the Resources Agency, State Department of Education and State Board of Education;
• The EEI Curriculum has been aligned, where applicable, with adopted academic content standards in science, mathematics, English/language arts, and history/social sciences;
• The EEI Curriculum will be reviewed by the Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Commission, Secretary for Environmental Protection and Secretary of the Resources Agency and submitted to the State Board of Education for its approval; and,
• The California Integrated Waste Management Board will pay costs associated with the printing of the approved EEI Curriculum and the State Department of Education is to post and maintain the EEI Curriculum on its Internet site.

Q: What is the purpose of the EEI Curriculum?
A: The EEI Curriculum will be designed to function as a scope and sequence for teaching the Environmental Principles and Concepts. It will provide a learning continuum from kindergarten through twelfth grade with clearly defined learning outcomes that are aligned to California’s academic content standards and targeted at helping students achieve mastery of those standards at each grade level.

Q: When will the EEI Curriculum be developed and who was involved in the planning process?
A: The development of the plan for the EEI Curriculum was completed June 2005. The development team made extensive efforts to take into account the numerous environmental curricula and education programs across the state. Input was solicited from diverse providers and stakeholders (state and local agencies, non-governmental organizations and K-12 educators). These stakeholders participated in developing the plan for the EEI Curriculum. In addition to participating in planning, this process allowed the providers and stakeholders to explore the role that their existing programs may play in achieving the overall goals of the EEI.

Q: What steps were taken during the development of the plan for the EEI Curriculum?
A: The development of the plan for the Model Curriculum took place from January—April 2005.

The major steps in the process of developing the plan were:

1. Established an Interagency Model Curriculum Planning Committee to guide the development of the model curriculum plan—participants included representatives of Cal/EPA, CIWMB, State Department of Education, State Board of Education, Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Commission, Office of the Secretary of Education and the Resources Agency;
2. Defined the goals and scope for the EEI Curriculum;
3. Gathered input on the draft design—from the Standards Alignment Maps, statewide Educator Needs Assessment, and County Office of Education Focus Group Meetings;
4. Developed instructional design for the EEI Curriculum—including initial grade level coverage, initial discipline coverage and breadth of content standards coverage;
5. Developed grade-level and discipline-specific learning objectives—based on alignment to standards and the identified grade-level sequence of instruction that will achieve mastery of the standards and EP&C in a sequence based on the Standards Alignment Maps;
6. Assembled the Model Curriculum Plan; and,
7. Reviewed the draft plan with the Interagency Model Curriculum Planning Committee.

Q: How will the EEI Curriculum relate to adopted instructional materials and other environmental curricula and education programs?
A: The EEI Curriculum will provide teachers with an alternative strategy for using their adopted instructional materials in a way that engages students by using the environment as a context for standards-based instruction. EEI units are being designed to teach standards to mastery through instructional strategies that many students may find more engaging than traditional materials.
At the same time, the EEI Curriculum is being designed to take advantage of the instructional materials that are adopted by the State Board of Education as well as the educational resources that are offered by the providers of California’s diverse environmental curricula and education programs. This approach should provide students and teachers with the opportunity to make the most appropriate use of all of the rich instructional resources that are available to them.

Q: What is the timeline for developing and disseminating the EEI Curriculum?
A: The development of the EEI Curriculum is scheduled to take place between Summer 2006 and Spring 2008. The process will involve the following steps:

1. Engage writers to develop standards-based instructional units.
2. Develop draft EEI instructional materials.
3. Field test draft instructional units.
4. Revise draft units based on teachers’ input during field testing.
5. Pilot test grade-level instructional packages.
6. Revise draft grade-level instructional packages based on teachers’ input during field testing.
7. Submit draft EEI Curriculum to Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Commission for review and comment.
8. Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Commission submits comments on draft EEI Curriculum to Secretaries of Cal/EPA and Resources Agency.
9. Revise draft EEI Curriculum.
10. Secretaries of Cal/EPA and Resources Agency submit EEI Curriculum to State Board of Education for approval.
11. Production and dissemination of EEI Curriculum and related professional development for teachers and educational leaders.

Q: How will teachers ever get the time to teach about the Environmental Principles and Concepts, when they have such limited time to teach what is already required?
A: The intention is that teachers will be able to teach the academic content standards through the EP&C and, likewise, teach the Environmental Principles and Concepts through the standards. The EP&C are intended to serve as part of the teaching framework to help students achieve mastery of content standards in science, history/social science, English/language arts, and mathematics. The relevance of the environment to students’ lives and communities should help to increase their comprehension of the academic content standards.

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Who is involved?

Q: Which state agencies are responsible for implementing the Education and the Environment Initiative?
A: The partners leading this groundbreaking effort include the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) and California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB). They are working in cooperation with the California Department of Education, State Board of Education, Office of the Secretary for Education and the California Resources Agency.

Q: Are only state agencies involved in implementing the Education and the Environment Initiative?
A: No, a broad-based Education Partnership comprised of representatives of government, business and industry, non-government organizations, and education institutions provides guidance to the effort, promotes outreach to various constituencies, and is working to secure funding for the implementation of the EEI. List of members

Q: How will the Education and the Environment Initiative work with environmental education programs in state agencies?
A: The law states that the EP&C developed under the EEI “shall be used to” do all of the following:

1. “To direct (the programs of) state agencies that include environmental education components for elementary and secondary education in regulatory decisions or enforcement actions.
2. “To (serve as the basis for aligning the) state agency environmental education programs and materials that are developed for elementary and secondary education.”

Q: How will the Education and the Environment Initiative work with environmental education programs in non-governmental organizations?
A: The law does not directly affect non-governmental organizations with environmental education programs. The EP&C and standards alignment maps are available to non-governmental organizations and other interested parties should they choose to align their environmental education programs to the state’s program.

Q: Did the Education and the Environment Initiative provide funding for environmental education programs?
A: No funds were allocated, at the time when the law was initially passed, for the implementation of the Education and the Environment Initiative. To date the CIWMB has provided most of the funds for implementing the EEI. The California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) and the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) have provided staff to manage the EEI.

The law also directed the establishment of an “Environmental Education Account” within the State Treasury. The California Environmental Protection Agency may accept and receive federal, state, and local funds and contributions of funds from a public or private organization or individual specifically designated for use for environmental education purposes.

Moneys in the account may, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be expended by the Cal/EPA, in consultation with the CIWMB, for the purposes of this part. The CIWMB shall provide recommendations regarding expenditures to the Secretary of the Cal/EPA who serves as the administrator of this account.

Q: Will additional funding be sought to implement the Education and the Environment Initiative?
A: Yes, the EEI Management Team is seeking funds from governmental, business and philanthropic sources.

Q: Will the Education and the Environment Initiative provide funding for environmental education programs conducted by other agencies or non-governmental organizations?
A: No, the law does not provide for a grant making function as part of the Education and the Environment Initiative.

Q: How does the Education and the Environment Initiative relate to the state plan (Education and the Environment—Strategic Initiatives for Enhancing Education in California) that was developed in 2002?
A: The principal authors of the state plan are directly involved in the implementation of the Education and the Environment Initiative. The EEI is putting four of the six strategic initiatives identified in the state plan into practice.

Q: Can other organizations and individuals get involved in implementing the Education and the Environment Initiative?
A: Yes, contact: Andrea Lewis (alewis@calepa.ca.gov) or EEI@calepa.ca.gov to learn how you can get involved.

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