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Environmental Literacy

Environmental Literacy and No Child Left Inside Act of 2011

New Mexico will launch an Environmental Literacy Planning event on January 5, 2012 at the Stewart Udall Conference Center at 725 Camino Lejo on Museum Hill in Santa Fe. This meeting will commence the 18 month planning process that will result in a plan to bring environmental education into NM schools.

State EE communities nationwide are working toward creating Environmental Literacy Plans for their states. The plans are developed for the preparation of our schoolchildren from kindergarten through high school graduation, with the hope and expectation that improved environmental education throughout our public school curricula will result in future adult citizens that become responsible stewards of our natural resources.

The Center on Education Policy’s 2008 report, Instructional Time in Elementary Schools: A Closer Look at Changes for Specific Subjects, demonstrated the narrowing of educational focus brought by the No Child Left Behind legislation, with a majority of school districts adding time to teach language arts and math, while reducing time spent teaching social studies and science. Students and society are shortchanged by the dramatic reduction in the breadth of education of our students, brought on by efforts to comply with the No Child Left behind Act. Further, a 2005 study by the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation, Environmental Literacy in America, found that 68% of Americans failed a basic quiz on awareness of environmental topics.

With problems such as climate change, childhood obesity, habitat destruction and other rampant environmental problems, we must respond by defining and formalizing environmental education. The No Child Left Inside Coalition has led this campaign, and there is a nationwide effort to create state environmental literacy plans, in part, to be ready for implementation funding that may result from currently proposed federal legislation, the No Child Left Inside Act. Co-sponsors of the bill include Senator Jeff Bingaman, Senator Tom Udall, Rep. Martin Heinrich, and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, all from New Mexico.

Key Provisions of the No Child Left Inside Act of 2011:

Incentives and support for states to develop and implement Environmental Literacy Plans to integrate environmental education and field experiences into the core academic program in public schools.
Partnership grants between school districts, colleges of education, parks, environmental organizations, and other community based organizations to develop and implement professional development for teachers on the use of field-based, service, and experiential learning to provide innovative and interdisciplinary instruction to students.
National capacity grants to scale up and disseminate effective practices in environmental education.
Authorization of such sums as may be necessary to support the No Child Left Inside activities for fiscal years 2012 - 2016

Those states that are pursuing Environmental Literacy Plans begin with gathering a stakeholder group including state and federal agencies; school superintendents and administrators; classroom teachers; non-formal EE providers; agricultural and ranching interests; and interested individuals. The planning often begins with correlation of the NAAEE Excellence in EE: Guidelines for Learning (PreK-12) to the State Curriculum Standards. This demonstrates where and when EE can be taught with current standards, and where gaps may occur. Those gaps my be addressed by changing or adding standards. The stakeholder group defines Environmental Literacy for their state and determines what educational courses, field experience, teacher training, and other educational inputs would result in environmentally literate high school graduates. To qualify for future funding from the No Child Left Inside Act, the plan must be adopted by the state’s public education department or a natural resource agency.

The Environmental Education Association, along with state agency partners and other nonprofits, are pursuing funding to begin an Environmental Literacy Planning process for New Mexico. For more information, contact Barbara Garrity, Executive Director of EEANM.

Contact EEANM

E-mail: info@eeanm.org
Phone: (505) 715-7021
Mail: EEANM
P.O. Box 36958
Albuquerque, NM 87176-6958

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EEANM publishes the EE Connections newsletter available online and by email.

Current newsletter: Winter 2011

Previous newsletters:

Summer 2011, Spring 2011, Winter 2010, Spring 2010, Summer 2010, Winter 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2009, Winter 2008, Fall 2008, Summer 2008, Spring 2008,Late Winter 2008, Fall 2007, Spring 2007, Summer 2006, Spring 2006, Summer 2005, Fall 2004, Spring 2004, Winter 2003, Fall 2002, Summer 2002, Spring 2002, More...