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Understanding and Accelerating Environmental and Climate Action Across California's TK–12 Schools
The Data Initiative for Environmental and Climate Action in California's TK–12 Schools helps educators, policymakers, researchers, funders, and community partners better understand where environmental and climate action is occurring, where additional support is needed, and what conditions appear to accelerate progress. While the initiative includes an interactive statewide database, its broader purpose is to provide a framework for understanding California's environmental and climate education landscape through data, research, and systems analysis.
Initiative Overview and Methods
Initiative Purpose
California has become a national leader in the movement to integrate environmental and climate literacy and action into schools. As this movement has grown, however, there has been no shared way to understand statewide progress.
The initiative was created to help answer questions such as:
Where is environmental and climate action occurring in California's TK-12 schools?
Which communities face the greatest need?
What conditions appear to support sustained progress towards action?
How do we know environmental and climate action is becoming institutionalized?
How can investments and partnerships be targeted more strategically?
Our Data Focus Areas
This initiative integrates multiple dimensions to better understand environmental and climate action in California's TK-12 schools.
SCALE
Understanding the size and structure of California’s TK-12 education system at all different scales - state, region, county, district, school site, and classroom (teachers and students) - is critical for planning strategies and partnerships that will catalyze and accelerate environmental and climate action across school communities.
EQUITY AND NEED
Identifying school districts that face the highest levels of inequity in terms of both traditional formal education equity indicators (socioeconomics, English language learners, racial demographics, special education, etc.) and environmental justice indicators is crucial for targeting interventions effectively with an equity informed approach.
INDICATORS OF PROGRESS
Understanding the size and structure of California’s TK-12 education system at all different scales - state, region, county, district, school site, and classroom (teachers and students) - is critical for planning strategies and partnerships that will catalyze environmental and climate action across school communities.
BROADER CONTEXT
In this initiative, ‘broader context’ refers to county or municipal environmental actions—such as climate emergency declarations or sustainability plans—that may influence school districts' ability to advance climate efforts. It also includes the climate impacts that could increase a district's need for adaptation strategies.
Using Data to Catalyze Change
The Data Initiative is designed to do more than collect data. It uses data to increase awareness, deepen understanding, and empower action at the local, regional, and statewide levels.
The initiative brings together four interconnected focus areas — Scale, Need, Enabling Conditions, and Indicators of Action — to help answer important questions about environmental and climate action across California's TK–12 schools.
By collecting, analyzing, and communicating this information, the initiative helps educators, policymakers, researchers, funders, and community partners identify opportunities, strengthen partnerships, and make more informed decisions that accelerate environmental and climate action.
INITIATIVE LEADERS, PARTNERS, AND FUNDERS
History and Contributing Partners
The Data Initiative grew out of regional pilot projects in San Mateo and San Joaquin Counties that explored how data could help school systems better understand their readiness for and progress on environmental and climate action. In 2022, Ten Strands expanded these regional ideas into a statewide initiative. Since then, the methodology, data infrastructure, and analytical framework have continued to evolve through research, collaboration, and continuous refinement, creating a more rigorous and scalable framework for understanding—and accelerating—environmental and climate action across California's TK–12 schools.
Initiative Leader
Ten Strands has served as the lead partner for this initiative, and works with contributing parters who serve in a variety of roles and functions, such as data contributors, advisors, and research partners.
Contributing Partners
Thank you to our project funders!
The Data Initiative for Environmental and Climate Action in California's TK-12 Schools focuses mostly at the district and county scale; however, CalRecycle and Ten Strands have partnered (starting in Fall 2025) to explore how environmental literacy and climate action are being integrated at the school site level. See more information and findings from that project here.
Questions about this data initiative? Contact us at: Andra Yeghoian (ayeghoian@tenstrands.org)
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