ABOUT CREEC-LA

The California Regional Environmental Education Community (CREEC) Network is an educational project supported by the California Department of Education, Environmental Education Program, in collaboration with state, regional and local partners. The CREEC Network is the best source for Environmental Education resources in California. CREEC Los Angeles is supported locally by TreePeople.

Our online, searchable Resource Directory includes environmental education providers, programs and resources available to educators in your area. The Calendar features environmental education activities, community events, exhibits, workshops, lectures, trainings, professional development opportunities for teachers, and community events from across Los Angeles County. Our monthly Newsletter highlights the latest environmental education news and resources.

In Los Angeles, CREEC works to link the education, community, business, and government sectors to environmental resources in Los Angeles County, as well as to one another.

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION NEWS

Education and Environment Initiative (EEI) Implementation Plan

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

California is currently poised to lead the nation in environmental literacy. The California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) and the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) are actively engaged in the implementation of the Education and the Environment Initiative (EEI) pursuant to AB 1548 (Pavley, Chapter 665, Statutes of 2003) and AB 1721 (Pavley, Chapter 581, Statutes of 2005). Heal the Bay, a non-profit environmental organization and the bill’s sponsor, has joined the state’s leadership team. These landmark environmental education laws mandate the development of a unified strategy to bring education about the environment into California's primary and secondary schools. Other current key partners include the Office of the Secretary for Education, State Board of Education, the Department of Education, and the California Resources Agency. Click on the link above to view the entire plan.

The Model Curriculum will be an interdisciplinary program that teaches the California State Standards to mastery, providing an alternate strategy to teach the standards using the environment as an integrating context for learning.

If you’d like more information on EEI you can visit the district website provided by Jerry Lieberman of the State Environmental Education Roundtable(SEER): http://www.seer.org/EEI/toolkit/EEI_District_Toolkit.html

You can also visit the Cal EPA website for more information http://www.calepa.ca.gov/education/eei

For a free presentation on EEI for you school or business, contact CREEC-LA coordinator, Candice Dickens-Russell at creecla@treepeople.org.

The No Child Left Inside Act of 2007 amends the NCLB law in the following ways:

§ Provides federal funding to states to train teachers in environmental education and to operate model environmental education programs, which include outdoor learning.

§ Provides funding to states that create environmental literacy plans to ensure that high school graduates are environmentally literate.

§ Provides funding through an environmental education grant program to build state and national capacity.

§ Re-establishes the Office of Environmental Education within the U.S. Department of Education.

On July 16, U.S. Rep. John P. Sarbanes (MD-3) introduced the No Child Left Inside Act of 2007 to the House Committee on Education and Labor (H.R. 3036) that would amend the No Child Left Behind law to provide new federal funding for environmental education and give states incentives to improve environmental instruction. According to the website of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), “The introduction of the No Child Left Inside Act is an opportunity to increase funding for EE that we haven’t had in decades!” The list of national EE organizations that are promoting this amendment as part of the No Child Left Inside Coalition is way too long to include here.

Southern AEOE Council Member Laura Vandezande recently participated in a conference call of NAAEE Affiliates (AEOE is the NAAEE California affiliate) regarding this legislation, and she writes: “NCLB is not going to go away, there is no doubt it will be reauthorized. This amendment does not stipulate more testing, it just allows funding for NCLB activities to be freed up to use for EE.”

For more information and to learn how the amendment could affect EE nationwide and in California, go to http://www.naaee.org/ee-advocacy/.

Last Updated 05-03-08

TreePeople
TreePeople's K-12 education programs such as Eco Tours, Natural Connections, and Generation Earth, raise environmental awareness and enrich academic lessons by teaching valuable life skills. Check out TreePeople's calendar for information on events in your area.

Los Angeles Department of Public Works
LADPW offers many youth environmental education programs such as Plan-It Earth and Environmental Defenders. LADPW has chosen to support the CREEC Network to maximize the education dollars it spends annually to educate the public about storm water pollution prevention. With this support, CREEC has upgraded its online searchable Resource Directory.

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