Starting in the 2026–27 school year, Illinois public schools must teach high school students about the environmental and ecological effects of climate change. Under House Bill 4895, the State Board of Education must begin developing instructional materials and teacher training by July 1. The bill expands existing environmental education to focus on climate change causes and solutions. Implementation depends on lawmakers approving funding for curriculum and professional development.
Amy Leman, an assistant professor of agricultural leadership education at Illinois, explains challenges to implementation and how curriculum can best serve Illinois students.
How do you believe this climate curriculum mandate will benefit Illinois public school students, given your background in positive youth development and education?
I’m most interested in how this curriculum will be taught to students. This curriculum mandate is targeted to 9th through 12th grade students, specifically for their classes in science, social science, social studies, and career and technical education. Currently, Illinois science standards use Next Generation science standards and 6th grade is the only time that kids receive climate change content.
While the bill promises curriculum for teachers, it lacks details on what that includes. Will educators get slide decks or hands-on experiments to engage students in climate change? To truly benefit Illinois public schools, the curriculum must go beyond surface-level tasks and foster meaningful learning.
What challenges do you see in aligning a new climate curriculum mandate with Illinois’ existing education standards and requirements?
Aligning a new climate curriculum with Illinois’ existing standards presents several challenges. The bill proposes integrating climate change across all science subjects, regardless of current learning standards. This essentially calls for creating new, Illinois-specific standards, which is a complex and often contentious process.
Additionally, the curriculum must be both hands-on and tailored to diverse classroom settings. Passive learning through videos or slides won’t be effective. Teachers, especially those in fields like agricultural education who teach multiple subjects daily, will need adaptable materials. That raises key questions: How will the climate content vary across classes? And who will develop the resources to support teachers in delivering it effectively?
From a teacher training perspective, what kinds of professional development would best support educators in implementing this curriculum without adding unnecessary burden or redundancy?
Teachers already juggle many requirements and standards, so professional development must be both practical to implement and meaningful for student learning. The goal should be to make materials easy for teachers to use while encouraging inquiry-based learning, meaning helping students analyze information, ask questions, and draw their own conclusions. Striking this balance will be key if the curriculum moves forward with funding.
How can implementation account for the wide variation in local contexts across Illinois (such as urban districts versus agricultural communities) while still meeting statewide requirements?
Local context can be addressed by using place-based examples. Whether it’s Lake Michigan in the north or farmland in the south, every community has seen environmental change. Tapping into familiar, local experiences helps engage students meaningfully.
At the same time, statewide learning should encourage cross-regional understanding. Not everyone lives in Chicago or rural Illinois. Learning from each other helps reduce misinformation and broadens perspective on climate issues across the state and beyond.
What role can agricultural education play in ensuring that this curriculum both aligns with existing standards and provides students with practical, locally relevant applications of climate concepts?
Agriculture, in general, is very based on the environment. Changes in weather directly affect production agriculture, so when we’re talking about feeding the world, it’s important to discuss how we are going to feed the world as our environment is changing.
For people who do not come from a farming background, taking agriculture education classes helps them understand the significance of weather and environmental changes for those that grow our food. If we don’t have people growing our food, we have no food to eat. I think it all goes back to how are we educating our society about having enough food to feed ourselves in the future. This impacts all of us, we need food to live.
