By Vanessa Bullwinkle

The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is up for reauthorization.  Whatever you may think about this extremely controversial law, we hope you’ll agree it’s critical that environmental education be included in what is, by far, the most significant piece of education legislation this Congress will consider.

NCLB is the name given to the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (first enacted in 1965) when it was reauthorized in 2001.  NCLB dictates how schools will be held accountable for students’ learning and is perhaps best known for the testing it mandates.

As teachers are well aware, devoting so much time to prepare students for the high-stakes tests in math and reading has greatly reduced time spent learning about the environment, especially in the outdoors.  However, learning through environmental education is not incompatible with math and reading instruction.  In fact, some studies have shown that students who learn science, math, reading, social studies, and other subjects using environment-based curricula such as Project Learning Tree (PLT) are more engaged in and excited about their learning.  In some cases, students’ test scores improved dramatically.  If you haven’t already, you might want to read the April 2007 Science & Children magazine article published by the National Science Teachers’ Association.

Many people feel that fixing NCLB’s high-stakes testing and teacher certification requirements would be a good thing.  Others would argue that these provisions should be eliminated.  No matter the merits of NCLB, it is the major legislative vehicle for a wide array of education funding, and some version of the law must be passed to guarantee that federal education funding continues.

Project Learning Tree believes that if NCLB remains the driving force for the content of K-12 curricula, teachers and school systems should be given greater authority, flexibility, and incentive to incorporate environmental education into core subjects, and help reconnect children with nature by taking them outdoors to learn.

Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Congressman John Sarbanes of Maryland agree and have introduced legislation, the No Child Left Inside Act of 2007, to include environmental education in the final version of NCLB. Their legislation, which would amend the NCLB Act, would:
• Provide federal funding to states to train teachers in environmental education and to operate model environmental education programs, which include outdoor learning.
• Provide funding to states that create environmental literacy plans to ensure that high school graduates are environmentally literate.
• Provide funding through an environmental education grant program to build state and national capacity.

The No Child Left Inside bill concentrates on funding and incentives for states to improve environmental education – and does not add any new mandates or testing requirements.  To learn more about the No Child Left Inside Act, visit www.eeNCLB.org.

Support for the No Child Left Inside Act is strong -- and growing.  PLT has been working with a No Child Left Inside^SM Coalition of (currently) 110 organizations, representing 15 million people, to urge other members of Congress to support this legislation.  To date, 20 members of Congress (2 Republicans and 18 Democrats) have signed on as co-sponsors to the bipartisan No Child Left Inside Act in the House (H.R.3036), but we need to keep up the pressure for more support and seek sponsors for the bill in the Senate (S.1981).

The time for action is now!  Currently the NCLB reauthorization bills are being written in the education committees of the House and Senate.  These committees are expected to begin marking up the bills in the next few weeks, which is a key part of the process.

Grassroots efforts are vital to making sure environmental education is included in NCLB.  You have the opportunity NOW to influence this far-reaching education legislation that impacts schools nationwide!  All members of Congress, especially the members of the House Committee on Education and Labor and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, need to know their constituents value environmental education and expect to see it included in the NCLB bill.

The best way to communicate this is to ask your senators and representative in Congress to co-sponsor and support the No Child Left Inside Act which contains the environmental education language we hope to see in NCLB.  For information on contacting your federal legislators, please go to www.eeNCLB.org. For other ways in which you can help, read our Action Alert.

If the language of the No Child Left Inside Act is included in the reauthorized No Child Left Behind law, teachers will have increased flexibility to use environmental education methods to teach their students the basic subjects while exciting them about the real-world environment.  Teachers who are not already comfortable with environmental education methods will receive training in using environmental education techniques such as teaching across disciplines and using the outdoors as a classroom.

Please act now to make environmental education part of the curriculum in our schools.  For more information go to www.eeNCLB.org or contact me at vbullwinkle@plt.org.

Vanessa Bullwinkle is Director of Operations and Marketing for the national office of Project Learning Tree located in Washington, DC.