{"id":780,"date":"2015-10-20T14:06:43","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T18:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/?p=780"},"modified":"2025-06-20T13:06:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T17:06:21","slug":"maryland-environmental-literacy-standards-gain-international-acclaim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/maryland-environmental-literacy-standards-gain-international-acclaim\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Environmental Literacy Standards Gain International Acclaim"},"content":{"rendered":"

Honors from World Future Council, Inter-Parliamentary Union and UNICEF<\/em><\/h3>\n

For Immediate Release \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Contact: Bill Reinhard, 410-767-0486<\/p>\n

Baltimore, MD<\/p>\n

Maryland\u2019s environmental literacy standards today received a Silver 2015 Future Policy Award from the World Future Council, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UNICEF.<\/p>\n

Maryland was recognized for becoming the first in the nation to require that students be environmentally literate prior to graduation.\u00a0The award jury found that Maryland\u2019s standards led to positive school-wide impacts in knowledge, behavior and local action, as well as broad improvement in student learning across a range of subjects.\u00a0Other states, such as Kentucky and Utah, have used Maryland\u2019s standards as a template for their education plans.<\/p>\n

The award was presented in Geneva, Switzerland at the 133rd IPU Assembly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful for the recognition of Maryland\u2019s innovative work,\u201d said Guffrie Smith, president of the Maryland State Board of Education, who noted that the State has been a leader in environmental education for 25 years.\u00a0\u201cTo this day we work hard to ensure teachers and students have the resources and support they need.\u00a0We pledge to continue our efforts to support global environmental standards and help all students become capable stewards of our planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The State Board was asked to accept the award in person, but no member was available to attend.\u00a0President Smith sent a video to the IPU<\/a>, expressing appreciation for the honor.<\/p>\n

The Maryland State Board of Education established an Environmental Education By-Law in 1990, which initiated environmental education standards for the State\u2019s public school students.\u00a0The State Board in 2011 approved a regulation requiring that all Maryland students complete a comprehensive multi-disciplinary program in environmental literacy prior to graduation.\u00a0The first group of students covered in that regulation graduated last Spring.<\/p>\n

The Gold Future Policy Award was presented to Zanzibar\u2019s Children\u2019s Act, a response to child abuse and violence in that nation.\u00a0The law is designed to promote and protect child rights, and has led to a marked societal change in attitudes toward children in Zanzibar.\u00a0A second Silver Policy Award was bestowed on Finland\u2019s Basic Education Act, which guarantees children\u2019s equal access to high-quality education and training irrespective of ethnic origin, age, wealth, language or location.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis prize celebrates policies that help us to do the right thing by creating the right rules,\u201d said Jakob von Uexkull, founder and chair of the World Future Council.\u00a0\u201cChildren are among the most vulnerable group facing a host of the world\u2019s emerging challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Future Policy Awards honors policies rather than people on an international level.\u00a0The World Future Council plans to work globally to raise awareness of the winning model policies and assist policymakers to develop and implement similar initiatives.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Honors from World Future Council, Inter-Parliamentary Union and UNICEF
\nFor Immediate Release \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0   …Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements","category-news","category-newsreleases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88242,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780\/revisions\/88242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}