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SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell commended action taken today by the State Board of Education (SBE) that supports environmental education in California's classrooms.

The board approved the criteria and time line for the evaluation of the Education and the Environment Initiative (EEI) curriculum, a step toward making high-quality, standards-based environmental curricula available to teachers and schools.

"We are being very proactive in incorporating environmental-based instruction into K-12 schools," said O'Connell. "Environmental education is vital to empower children and teens to take responsibility and make informed decisions about the Earth and all living things."

"School children are naturally very interested in the environment and in the world around them," said SBE President Ken Noonan. "There is no better time to teach them what they can do now to make their community and the world a better place to live."

While California students already learn about the environment, these new principles and concepts will complement the state's academic content standards and will better align and coordinate the state's various environmental education programs and offices.

The EEI Initiative is the result of Assembly Bill 1548 by former Assemblywoman Fran Pavley and signed into law in 2003 directing the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) and the California Integrated Waste Management Board, in cooperation with the California Resources Agency, the California Department of Education, the SBE, and the Secretary of Education, to develop a set of Environmental Principles and Concepts for elementary and secondary schools.

The CDE's Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Commission is responsible for the review of the proposed materials and will submit its recommendation to the Secretaries of CalEPA and the California Resources Agency. The Secretaries will then advance the materials to the SBE for approval.

The proposed review process will be based on that used in the review of instructional materials for state adoption. The process will include a review based upon evaluation criteria that will be adopted by the SBE. The criteria document is based upon the evaluation criteria used in the recent history–social science and science adoptions.

Based on CalEPA time lines, the actual review will take place in 2009. A two-day training will be conducted in the Spring of 2009 for all reviewers. A three-day meeting for deliberations will be scheduled in July 2009 to review the submitted units.

For additional information on EEI, please visit the CalEPA's Web page [http://www.calepa.ca.gov/Education/EEI/] (Outside Source).