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Dear Representative or
Senator___________,
In order to further Environmental
Education in Wisconsin, the EE Specialist position within the
Department of Public Instruction (DPI) must be reinstated and
Environmental Literacy questions must be infused into the statewide
assessment tests. The EE Specialist position is valuable to
teachers, school administrators, curriculum supervisors, teacher
education programs and the general public; it has been vacant since
1994. Environmental literacy assessment is needed to determine
the progress and quality of the EE in Wisconsin.
The legislatively created Wisconsin
Environmental Education Board (WEEB), a fifteen-member board
representing the public and private sectors and the legislature, is
charged with identifying the needs and establishing priorities
for EE in the state of Wisconsin. According to the WEEB's
strategic plan, reinstating the EE Specialist position within the
DPI is a high priority for providing quality EE in Wisconsin.
The reinstatement of the EE Specialist position is also a high
priority for the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education (WAEE),
the statewide professional organization of environmental educators.
WEEB also strongly supports the inclusion of Environmental Literacy
questions into state exams.
The EE Specialist position is crucial
to assist school districts in meeting the EE curriculum requirement
established by the legislature. This position is also needed
to monitor compliance with the pre-service EE teacher-training
requirement at Wisconsin's universities and colleges. many
teachers, curriculum supervisors and school districts require the
expertise of the specialist for assistance in the development an
implementation of Wisconsin's Academic Standards for EE and to
coordinate professional development opportunities in EE.
Reinstating the EE Specialist
position will benefit the children in Wisconsin's public schools and
the state's economic well-being. Wisconsin needs students who
will graduate and enter the workforce with the knowledge and skills
necessary to assess and respond to environmental issues.
Wisconsin teachers and school administrators need the EE Specialist
within the DPI to help develop and implement high-quality EE
curriculum in our public schools. To monitor the quality of EE
in Wisconsin, the data form statewide assessment in needed.
Please provide the Department of
Public Instruction with the resources necessary to reinstate the EE
Specialist position and encourage the DPI to incorporate EE
questions into the statewide assessments to ensure that we can
assess environmental literacy in our state's students.
Sincerely,
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