1 / 23

California A Path Connecting Education and the Environment

California A Path Connecting Education and the Environment. California’s K-12 Education System. A few things about California’s education system. California’s K-12 Education System. Is extremely large: 1059 School Districts 9,200 Schools 306,500 Teachers 6,300,000 K-12 Students.

toan
Télécharger la présentation

California A Path Connecting Education and the Environment

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. CaliforniaA Path ConnectingEducation and the Environment

  2. California’s K-12 Education System A few things about California’s education system

  3. California’s K-12 Education System Is extremely large: • 1059 School Districts • 9,200 Schools • 306,500 Teachers • 6,300,000 K-12 Students

  4. California’s K-12 Education System Faces a wide array of instructional challenges: • Overcrowded classrooms • Students with capabilities that range from special needs to gifted • Classroom populations with over 25% English language learners, representing 92 languages • Extensive academic content standards • Numerous standardized student assessments

  5. California’s K-12 Education System Is based on a system of interconnected: • Academic content standards • Curriculum frameworks • Adopted instructional materials • Standardized student assessments Changing one element affects all others.

  6. California’s K-12 Education System Focuses on academic content standards for: • English-Language Arts • Mathematics • Science • History-Social Science Adopted in 1997 and 1998, with no mechanism or timeframe in place for revision of these standards.

  7. Where are the Oceans? • In early 2003, Heal the Bay began to explore California’s science standards in search of ocean-related content. • They discovered that, like in almost all other states, there were not any substantial content standards related to either the environment or oceans.

  8. Creating OpportunityAmid the Challenges • In October 2003, after extensive negotiations, California Assembly Bill 1548 was signed into law, establishing what is now called the Education and the Environment Initiative (EEI). • This law is not a panacea for education about the environment and oceans. • It is a broad-ranging endeavor that connects education about the environment with California's complex standards-based instructional system.

  9. EEI Mandates • Establish an interagency partnership to implement the EEI. • Develop EnvironmentalPrinciples and Concepts (EP&Cs) that align with, but do not duplicate or conflict with, existing content standards. • Incorporation of the EP&Cs into adoption criteria for instructional materials in the core subject-matter areas. • Create a “model curriculum” to teach the EP&C to California’s K-12 students. • Align state agency programs with the EP&C.

  10. Unique Interagency Partnership Environment and Natural Resources Agencies • Environmental Protection Agency • Integrated Waste Management Board • Resources Agency Education Agencies • State Board of Education • Department of Education • Governor’s Secretary for Education

  11. Environmental Principles and Concepts These agency partners worked with representatives of business, non-profit environmental organizations and universities to develop California’s first ever approved Environmental Principles and Concepts.

  12. interactions and interdependence Human Social Systems Natural Systems Interactions Environmental Principles and Concepts The law specified that the EP&C not duplicate existing content standards, such as those in the sciences and history/social science realms therefore, they are focused the interactions and interdependence of human societies and natural systems.

  13. Environmental Principles and Concepts • People depend on natural systems – food, forest products and the water purification that occurs in wetlands. • People influence natural systems – dams that control water flow. • Natural systems change in ways that people benefit from and can influence – nutrients deposited on farmlands by rivers during flooding. • There are no permanent or impermeable boundaries that prevent matter from flowing between systems – fertilizers and pesticides used on lawns that enter the groundwater and affect drinking water. • Decisions affecting resources and natural systems are complex and involve many factors – numerous stakeholders as well as economic, legal and political factors that are considered in making decisions.

  14. Environmental Principles and Concepts Principle I — People depend on natural systems The continuation and health of individual human lives and of human communities and societies depend on the health of the natural systems that provide essential goods and ecosystem services. As a basis for understanding this principle: Concept a. Students need to know that the goods produced by natural systems are essential to human life and to the functioning of our economies and cultures. Concept b. Students need to know that the ecosystem services provided by natural systems are essential to human life and to the functioning of our economies and cultures. Concept c. Students need to know that the quality, quantity and reliability of the goods and services provided by natural systems are directly affected by the health of those systems.

  15. Adopted Instructional Materials • The Environmental Principles and Concepts are being included into the adoption criteria by the State Board of Education. • In April, as the result of a unanimous landmark decision, the EP&C were incorporated into the criteria for instructional materials in English/Language Arts.

  16. ã Harcourt School Publishers 2006 Adopted Instructional Materials Already some publishers have submitted instructional materials that refer to the EP&C for the science adoption that is currently underway, even though this is not be required until 2012.

  17. EEI MODEL CURRICULUM

  18. Goals The EEI Model Curriculum will provide a K-12th grade instructional continuum that helps students simultaneously master: • California’s academic content standards • California’s Environmental Principles and Concepts.

  19. Instructional Strategy The EEI Model Curriculum has been designed to incorporate standards-specific learning objectives that are organized in a scope and sequence that will teach the California’s academic content standards mastery while they provide sequential exposure of students to California’s Environmental Principles and Concepts.

  20. The EEI Model CurriculumA Unique Strategy

  21. Key Elements of the EEI’sSuccess to this Point • Unified goals that recognize the challenges and responsibilities of California’s schools and teachers • A diverse partnership involving: • government agencies • businesses • non-profit environmental organizations • universities • An integrated strategy that brings together the State’s goals of students mastering the academic content standards with students learning and understanding California’s approved Environmental Principles and Concepts

  22. Ultimately, we expect that this approach will bring an understanding of California's Environmental Principles and Concepts to every student in the state.

  23. For Further Informationwww.calepa.ca.gov/Education/EEI

More Related