Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Maryland becomes first state with environmental literacy requirement

Forty other states are planning environmental literacy initiatives, according to a Maryland state official.

Maryland has become the first state to mandate an environmental literacy requirement for all graduating students.

A new policy adopted by the state board of education requires public schools to work lessons about conservation, sustainable growth, and studies about the natural world into a variety of subjects.

“The language in the bylaw says that the environmental education has to be in place preK-12 and has to be multidisciplinary and reside within current curriculum offerings,” said Gary Hedges, the science specialist with the Maryland state board of education. “It’s infused into science, social studies, health, fine arts—the new Common Core mathematics and language arts [standards] even have connections to environmental literacy.”…Read More

1 2 3

Maryland to require environmental literacy for graduation

On June 21, Maryland became the first state to require high school students to learn about the environment in order to graduate, U.S. News report. Now, U.S. senators are trying to get a similar measure passed nationally. The bill has the support of more than 1,900 organizations, including businesses, nonprofits, and environmental groups. The No Child Left Inside Coalition says environmental education “promotes higher order thinking skills” and is correlated with higher test scores…

Click here for the full story

…Read More