California Environmental Protection Agency

AB 1548 — A New Approach to Environmental Education in California

In October 2003, Governor Davis signed into law Assembly Bill (AB) 1548 (Pavley, Chapter 665, Statutes of 2003), which created a series of mandates related to environment-related education for the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA), California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB), Resources Agency (RA), California Department of Education (CDE), State Board of Education (SBE) and the Governor’s Secretary of Education (GSE).

The new legislation contains broad requirements to integrate the environment-related principles into standards-based education in the state’s K-12 classrooms as part of a Unified Education Strategy. The legislation calls for:

• Establishing an Office of Education and the Environment (OEE) in the CIWMB and Cal/EPA.
• Identifying environmental principles and concepts for 14 or more major environmental topics and aligning these principles and concepts to California’s academic content standards.
• Incorporating the environmental principles and concepts into new science textbook adoption criteria.
• Considering the environmental principles and concepts for inclusion into revised academic content standards.
• Developing a model curriculum that incorporates the environmental principles and concepts.
• Directing that State agencies include the environmental education components for elementary and secondary education in regulatory decisions or enforcement actions.
• Encouraging active pupil participation in environmental education activities especially involving environmental service-learning.
• Establishing an Environmental Education Account within the State Treasury that can receive money, from various sources, to support the activities described in the legislation.

The intent of this legislation is to enhance what teachers are already doing by making standards more engaging and relevant to students through connections to the environment. This legislation will not add new standards or textbooks to teachers' current responsibilities.

The full text of the legislation is available at the Legislative Counsel's site: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_1501-1550/ab_1548_bill_20031003_chaptered.html

Environmental Principles, Concepts and Standards Alignment

Over the next several months, the Cal/EPA-CIWMB will be working with six Technical Working Groups (organized by environmental topic groups) to develop initial drafts of the environmental principles and concepts. The Technical Working Groups will include well over 100 individuals invited from: universities, agencies, environmental education NGOs, environmental NGOs and K-12 educators.

The draft products resulting from the Technical Working Groups will be posted for on-line discussions and comments by stakeholders throughout California. The input from the stakeholders will then be incorporated into revised drafts which will be submitted to the oversight committee, the “Educational Partnership.”

When the environmental principles and concepts have been approved, they will be used as the basis for the work of several academic standards alignment teams. These teams will include at least 150 K-12 educators, university and agency representatives as well as environmental education specialists.

The draft products resulting from the academic standards alignment teams will be posted for on-line discussions and comments. The input from the stakeholders will be incorporated into revised drafts which will be submitted to the Educational Partnership for final approval.

Getting Involved

Interested individuals and organizations will have the opportunity to review and comment of draft documents throughout the process. This will be made possible through an on-line discussion systems that is being established by the Cal/EPA-CIWMB.

If you are interested in participating in this process, please visit the website, http://www.calepa.ca.gov/Education/AB1548/, where you will be able to register for the on-line discussion forum.

Registration for the on-line discussion forum should be available by the end of April. In the meantime, please visit the website http://www.calepa.ca.gov/Education/AB1548/ for updated information.

For Further Information Contact

Co-Program Managers:	Principal Consultant:
Andrea Lewis Assistant Secretary Cal/EPA alewis@calepa.ca.gov (916) 322-7179	Dr. Gerald Lieberman Cal/EPA-CIWMB Consultant for AB 1548 jlieberm@ciwmb.ca.gov (858) 676-0272 ext. 44
Bonnie Bruce Advisor to CIWMB Chair Linda Moulton Patterson BBruce@CIWMB.ca.gov (916) 341-6027

Last updated: March 21, 2004