The State Board of Education Speaks…
Written by Katie Modic - Executive Director
The State Board of Education voted unanimously on January 13, 2022 to approve the final-form amendments to Chapter 4: Academic Standards and Assessments. The Board approved all the recommended changes that were presented to the Chapter 4 Committee on December 1, 2021 including the Environmental Literacy and Sustainability domain standards. The standards will take effect on July 1, 2025. The first year of mandated implementation will be school year 2025-26. The Biology Keystone and science Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) will be updated, and the new tests will also be implemented in school year 2025-26.
Two documents were approved: final form Annex A and final form Appendix B-1.
If you read these carefully, you’ll see that the words climate change, in that order, appear only ONCE and not until 12th grade. Our state's public education system graduates over 125,000 students a year and sends them out into secondary education or the workforce either prepared to advance an equitable, green economy, or to advance the status quo. I’m of the opinion that it is a key responsibility of the education sector to prepare its graduates to face and solve the challenges of the times. Six months prior to PA’s board of education vote, in August 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its 6th report, which UN Secretary-General António Guterres described as “a code red for humanity”. In the report, we learned that some of the climate change impacts that scientists have been warning about for decades have indeed become irreversible but also that hope is not lost if we treat this moment with the urgency it deserves. The U.N. report states that we can still avoid the worst consequences with “immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.”
Schools provide a critical space for not only teaching the basics behind the causes, consequences, and solutions of climate change but by ensuring that diverse student perspectives are elevated and guiding efforts to support the education sector in moving toward climate action. With nearly 100,000 public schools across the country, schools have a sizable environmental impact. Our public schools are among the largest energy consumers in the public sector, and energy costs are the second-highest cost for school districts behind salaries. With 480,000 school buses, schools operate the largest mass transit fleet in the country, and schools serve over seven billion meals annually. These spaces are ripe with opportunities for immersing our next generation in opportunities to practice being the change they will need to lead in the world.
If the state won’t commit to teaching students how to advocate for a more climate-friendly future, we have to take it into our own hands. According to Yale University's Climate Opinion Maps, 86% of adults in Allegheny County believe climate change causes, impacts and solutions should be taught in schools. As a go-to organization for providing transformative climate change education in the region, Communitopia takes its role in this work very seriously. We believe our education system provides a critical opportunity for action on three important fronts: climate change education, emission reductions, and student-driven advocacy, which is why we're working to formalize our K-12 Climate Action Project and partner with districts across the region to bring k-12 climate action to life. Whether you are a student, teacher, or district administrator, we have a program that can help you engage youth, build capacity, and cut emissions simultaneously.
It’s frustrating to raise children in a state whose education sector refuses to acknowledge by name climate change and the massive challenge it poses to our youth. The only option moving forward is to use our local expertise to design the missing links!
