Because environmental literacy helps districts reach their goals, we are working with a group of school districts around the state that include the full diversity of California’s students. The successful integration of the EP&Cs and environmental literacy into the frameworks has encouraged many districts to begin the process of formally integrating environmental literacy into their districtwide instructional strategies. These district-level pilots create and demonstrate successful and sustainable models of partnership which are relevant to local communities, and assure their success and sustainability.
Districts
School districts located throughout California are participating in pilot programs to develop district environmental literacy plans that can be replicated in other districts. These plans will infuse standards- and environment-based learning as a foundational component of their students’ K–12 educational experience in science, history–social science, health, and other subjects. The pilot districts include Alameda, Pajaro Valley, Petaluma, Evergreen, and San Francisco in the Bay Area; Montebello in Los Angeles County; Rialto and Fontana in San Bernardino County; and Anaheim in Orange County.
Partnerships
We are partnering with several highly experienced organizations in this work including the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley, the State Education and Environment Roundtable, Youth Outside, Inside the Outdoors, and Inverness Research.
We are engaging a wide array of community-based organizations, such as nonformal providers, local government agencies, and others with environmental and educational expertise in the district planning process. These organizations are an important component of our goal to create opportunities for classroom, campus, community and field based experiences that integrate with the districtwide environmental literacy plans currently under development.
Resources
Tools and resources are being developed that will be shared with school districts and county offices of education throughout the state. An example is the Local Control Accountability Plan Toolkit for Science and Environmental Literacy.
