CREEC-LA
Serving Los Angeles County

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has fundamentally changed the way that education is delivered in this country. It has defined the core content that all students in the United States must learn to be considered proficient at each grade level. As of 2007, this includes content standards in reading, math, and science. In many school districts, this has translated into teaching only those subjects and standards that are assessed. 

If Congress adopts our proposals, a substantially strengthened NCLB will include: 

• Funding to train teachers to deliver high quality Environmental Education and utilize the local environment as an extension of the classroom.
  
  
• Incentives for states to develop State Environmental Literacy Plans to insure that every student is prepared to understand the environmental challenges of the future.
  
  
• Encouragement for teachers, administrators, and school systems to make time and resources available for environmental education for all students.
  
  
• Environmental Education will be integrated across core subject areas.

Below is a summary of the amendments that will put NCLI in place:

*Please note that the following information is for the No Child Left Inside Act of 2008. Sponsors of this bill plan to reintroduce the legislation for the 2009 Congress and we will post the new information at that time.*

1. State Environmental Literacy Plans 
NCLB Title II

To qualify for environmental education grant monies under Title II and Title V, a state educational agency must develop and submit a K-12 plan to the United States Department of Education for peer review and approval that will ensure that elementary and secondary school students are environmentally literate. The plan will be submitted by the state educational agency in consultation with state natural resource and environmental agencies and with input from the public. A state educational agency may submit an existing state plan that has been developed by or in cooperation with state environmental organizations provided that the plan meets specified requirements. State plans must include: relevant content standards, content areas, and courses or subjects where instruction will take place; a description of the relationship of the plan to state graduation requirements; a description of programs for professional development of teachers to improve their environmental content knowledge, skill in teaching about environmental issues, and field-based pedagogical skills; a description of how the state educational agency will measure the environmental literacy of students; and a description of how the state educational agency will implement the plan, including securing funding and other necessary support. A state educational agency may use state funds for the development of the State Environmental Literacy Plan 1. 

2. Grants for Enhancing Education through Environmental Education 
NCLB Title II
Creates an environmental education grant program for teacher professional development and student programs (modeled on the Math/Science Partnership in Title II of NCLB). The purpose of this grant program is to ensure the academic achievement of students in environmental literacy through the professional development of teachers and educators and outdoor learning experiences for students. One hundred million dollars are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this grant program and the state environmental literacy plans (2) for fiscal year 2008 and each of the 4 succeeding fiscal years. The United States Department of Education awards grants to state educational agencies, to whom eligible partnerships apply for these grants. Eligible partnerships include a local educational agency and may include: a teacher training department of an institution of higher education; an environmental department of an institution of higher education; another local education agency, a public charter school, a public or private (3) elementary school or secondary school, or a consortium of such schools; a state environmental or natural resource management agency or a local environmental or natural resource management agency (4); a business (5); or a nonprofit or for-profit organization of demonstrated effectiveness in improving the quality of environmental education teachers, such as through outdoor environmental education experiences (6). 

3. Environmental Education Grant Program to Help Build National Capacity 
NCLB Title V
Creates an environmental education grant program to help build national capacity by providing funds for the development, improvement, and advancement of environmental education. This grant program also supports the dissemination of proven environmental educational models, studies of national significance, and the development of new state or national financing sources for environmental education. Eligible recipients of these grants from the United States Department of Education include nonprofit organizations, state educational agencies, local educational agencies, or institutions of higher education that have demonstrated expertise and experience in the development of the institutional, financial, intellectual, or policy resources needed to help the field of environmental education become more effective and widely practiced. 

1 Sentence not included in S.1981.
2 Phrase not included in H.R.3036.
3 Word not included in S.1981.
4 Phrase not included in H.R.3036.
5 Word not included in S.1981.
6 Phrase not included in H.R.3036