Overview - Professional Environmental Educator Certification for Texas

Professional Environmental Educator Certification developed by Texas Education Partnership

Towards accomplishing the TEEP Research & Development Subcommittee’s mission of “improving environmental education training and materials and increasing their use in the formal and informal education arenas,” a group of dedicated educators has created a voluntary, statewide certification program for professional environmental educators. 

 Why a voluntary certification program for environmental educators in Texas?

• Most professions have a certification program.
• There is no environmental education degree program in Texas.
• Environmental education is interdisciplinary. Educators need solid training in science, social studies, economics, education, etc.
• Environmental educators come from a variety of backgrounds.  Few have training in both the content areas (science, social studies) and process areas (education, communication).
• The environmental education profession is often criticized for being unprofessional (i.e. promoting advocacy, not being scientifically accurate, not being educationally sound).
• TEEP’s participating stakeholders expressed a desire that the profession be respected as a profession.
• High quality ee supports education reform goals and can positively impact school performance as seen by State Environment and Education Roundtable’s (SEER) “Environment as an Integrating Context” research and other studies.

A variety of approaches may be taken by a state to implement an EE certification program.  Texas has chosen to create a competency-based program, one where the applicant will demonstrate what they know and can do.  The competencies selected as critical to a professional environmental educator are modified from the North American Association for Environmental Education’s Guidelines for the Initial Preparation of Environmental Educators.  The Guidelines and, therefore, the Professional Environmental Educator Certification program for Texas , are organized around six themes.

Theme 1:  Environmental Literacy

Theme 2:  Foundations of Environmental Education

Theme 3:  Professional Responsibilities

Theme 4:  Planning and Implementing Environmental Education

Theme 5:  Fostering Learning

Theme 6:  Assessment and Evaluation

National Environmental Educator Certification Program, sponsored by North American Association for Environmental Education