EE National and State Structure – As it relates to Texas
(Includes a partial acronym list and descriptions)

The National Environmental Education Act of 1990 is the source for much of the organized effort to promote and develop environmental education infrastructure nationally. Funds allocated to EPA under the Act are separate from EPA’s operating budget. See http://www.epa.gov/enviroed/ for more information on the EPA’s Office of Environmental Education.

Some of the funds that EPA receives under the Act support the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). See www.naaee.org Established in 1971, NAAEE is a network of professionals, students, and volunteers working in the field of environmental education throughout North America and in over 55 countries around the world. NAAEE uniquely combines and integrates perspectives from a wide variety of members, and takes a cooperative, nonconfrontational, scientifically balanced approach to promoting education about environmental issues.

NAAEE has state affiliate organizations under its membership structure. In Texas, the affiliate is the Texas Association for Environmental Education (TAEE). For more information contact:

Texas Assn. for EE
Route 2, Box 25H
Trinity, Texas 75862, USA
Phone/Fax: H 409/594 5554
Affiliate Liaison: Carol Miserlian

With funding provided by the EPA in 1995, the NAAEE formed the Environmental Education and Training Partnership (EETAP), a large consortium of leading EE organizations and educational institutions. (See http://www.eetap.org/) EETAP's member organizations work together to improve and expand existing quality EE training efforts. Over the five year span of the project, EETAP has trained 75,000 professionals from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and other territories.

One of EETAP’s partners is the National Environmental Education Advancement Project (NEEAP). See http://neeap.uwsp.edu/ NEEAP created a capacity building program for selected states called EE2000. Texas was enrolled in EE2000 in 1997, the second year of the program. The Texas EE2000 program became what is now known as the Texas Environmental Education Partnership.

NEEAP’s directors, Rick Wilke and Abby Ruskey, have written a book called Promoting EE which describes the “Components of a State-level EE Program.” They divide a model statewide EE Program in terms of 3 components: Structure, Funding and Program.

In Texas, here is what the model looks like. Left hand margin descriptions are the models, and indents under the model items are the specific organizations or programs in Texas that fit the model.

Structure

Texas EE Partnership (TEEP) - a voluntary statewide partnership of individuals committed to improving the delivery of environmental education in the state. TEEP can be viewed as the hub that ties all the programs in the model together.

State EE Advisory Board/Council
Texas EE Advisory Committee (TEEAC) - this advisory committee was originally created by legislation. When the Texas Education Code was rewritten by the Legislature a few years ago, TEEAC was eliminated but then recreated by the Commissioner of Education, one of only a few advisory committees to be continued at TEA. The role of the committee is to advise the commissioner of education about how to incorporate EE into the state K-12 curriculum standards (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills).

Texas Education Agency (TEA) - the state government education bureaucracy, led by the Commissioner of Education who is appointed by the governor

EE Interagency Committee
Texas Environmental Awareness Network (TEAN) - a voluntary group led by a core of state agency employees involved in doing EE programs at the staff level. TEAN created the Eye on Earth television show on TEA’s satellite television network. The show provided background information and teaching aids available through state agencies and their partners, to teachers at all grade levels K-12 for 16 years.

State EE Coordinator & Staff
Texas does not have an EE coordinator and staff at this time. However, the TEEP Fund Board has created a nonprofit organization and plans to hire an executive director and other staff to provide administrative support for the Board. It remains to be seen whether this will evolve into a position that is the equivalent of an “EE coordinator” for the state.

State & Regional EE Centers
The state of Texas does not have a designated state EE center or network of regional EE centers. However, several universities, school districts, and local governments have established locations called EE centers, which operate independently of each other. Some of these are:
Environmental Institute of Houston, University of Houston Clear Lake
University of North Texas Elm Fork Education Center, Denton
Houston ISD Outdoor Education Center, Trinity
Dallas ISD EE Center, Seagoville

Grassroots EE Associations
Texas Association for Environmental Education (TAEE) - the state NAAEE affiliate. The TAEE is an organization of teachers, administrators, college and university faculty, natural resource managers, public agency employees, and private citizens who share a common interest in promoting environmental education in Texas. TAEE's goals are to develop integrated environmental education programs, to exchange ideas, to increase awareness of environmental education developments, to recognize individuals who make outstanding contributions to environmental education in Texas, and to support the training of teachers in environmental fields.

Informal Science Education Association (ISEA) - ISEA represents museums, zoos, state parks, aquariums, nature centers, and other science rich institutions around Texas. ISEA Texas defines informal science education as providing unique learning environments that increase appreciation and understanding of science, mathematics, and technology and their applications through voluntary and often self directed experiences for individuals of all ages and backgrounds.

Texas Outdoor Educators Association (TOEA) - The Texas Outdoor Education Association is composed of teachers, administrators, camp directors, environmentalists, parks and wildlife specialists, conservationists, recreational leaders, scout leaders and other interested individuals. Their goal is to find ways that nature and outdoor activities can be integrated into all parts of the school curriculum.

Funding

Texas Environmental Education Partnership Fund Board (TEEP Fund Board) - established by the Texas Legislature in 1999, with 12 members appointed by the governor, to raise funds for environmental education programs and projects.

Program

K-12 Curriculum & Instruction Requirements
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) - the state curriculum standards officially adopted in the rules of the Texas Education Agency. Environmental education topics and principles are not contained in any one specific subject area but are integrated throughout the TEKS in areas such as science, social studies and health. Many other subject areas also lend themselves to teaching the principles of balance and fact-based reasoning supported by environmental educators.

EE Frameworks and Assessment
TEEP Guidelines - guidelines to help users in determining whether materials and programs being used to teach EE are balanced, fact based, and incorporate recognized scientific principles. The Guidelines, being developed by the TEEP Steering Committee’s Guidelines Subcommittee and will be based on NAAEE Guidelines for Excellence in Environmental Education.

Informal Science Education Association Guidelines - In 1996-1997, the ISEA precursor organization, the Texas Statewide Systemic Initiative, explored and processed information on current national, state and local models of informal formal linkages, studied ongoing reform efforts within the formal education community, identified focus areas that represented the strongest opportunities for bridging the gap between schools and informal science resources, investigated existing and potential roles for informal institutions throughout the state and studied issues related to increasing institutional capacity and systemic infrastructure to develop successful mechanisms for accessing key resources. In 1997 98, the SSI translated its findings into recommended guidelines and a collection of model programs to be disseminated statewide at the first Informal Science Education Conference at which the ISEA was formed.

EE Resource Guides & Systems
A wide variety of materials are available from businesses, NGOs, agencies, and for-profit publishers.

Teacher Training
Preservice - training about EE principles for college students enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs in preparation for becoming classroom teachers

Inservice - training for teachers after they have graduated and obtained a teaching certificate and classroom experience. The State Board for Educator Certification now requires new teachers to take continuing education hours to maintain their teaching certificates. See www.sbec.state.tx.us

State EE Master Plan
The Texas Environmental Education Partnership is drafting a state EE Master Plan which will be published for public comment in 2003. The Master Plan will describe a series of goals and objectives for EE capacity building in the state to meet TEEP’s vision of Texas as an environmental education (EE) leader with citizens who are individually and collectively knowledgeable environmental stewards.

EE Grants Program
TEEP Fund Board - The purpose of the TEEP Fund is to: raise money from a diversity of resources to pay for the development, implementation, and continued operation of environmental education projects, activities, and programs proposed by a participating partner, including: (A) scholarships for educators (formal and informal) for professional development in the area of environmental education; (B) environmental education projects, activities, or programs approved by the board: (C) support of efforts to ensure that textbooks treat environmental issues with a balanced approach and explain the underlying scientific principles; (D) ensuring system wide assessment of essential knowledge and skills identified by the State Board of Education as required by Subsections (c) and (d), Section 28.002, Education Code, as related to environmental education; and (E) environmental education materials.