American Honda Foundation Awards Grant to ECHS

AMERICAN HONDA FOUNDATION AWARDS GRANT TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR ITS INNOVATIVE “GREEN MATH” PROGRAM

Los Angeles High School Takes Novel Approach To Making Math Interesting

October 15, 2009 – Lawndale, CA, Environmental Charter High School (ECHS), an award-winning Los Angeles public charter school, received a grant from the American Honda Foundation (AHF) that will help ECHS create a “Green Math Program” which aims to improve high school students’ math skills and standardized test scores by teaching math in a new way.

Using the $54,811 grant, ECHS will design model lesson plans, teacher guidelines and materials that integrate “Green” topics such as water conservation, food production, composting, and green energy applications into high school math lessons, from algebra to calculus. The “Green” topics appeal to students’ interests and directly relate to other class subjects and project-based learning programs in the school’s curriculum.

Allison Suffet-Diaz, Founder and Executive Director of Environmental Charter Schools said of the award, “We are extremely grateful to the American Honda Foundation for its generous funding. This Green Math Program will help teachers make math more interesting and relevant to students by using environmental sustainability-related problems in math classes.”

“The American Honda Foundation is proud to support such an innovative approach to math instruction as ECHS’s Green Math program,” said Alexandra Warnier, manager of the AHF.  “This program has the potential to not only make math learning more interesting for students, but to also improve math achievement.”

Following its implementation at ECHS, the Green Math program is expected to reach thousands of other students when it is incorporated into ECHS’ Green Curriculum project. The State of California has selected ECHS for its innovative model Green Curriculum to disseminate its Green Curriculum to other school across the state of California.   

“Most efforts to improve achievement in math in U.S. schools have focused solely on teacher-directed math instruction, using repetition, memorization, and rote problem solving,” added Suffett-Diaz. “Although it is not a new concept, in today’s standardized testing-crazed school culture, we see a huge need for making classes more relevant to students’ lives through techniques like our Green Math program.”

About American Honda Foundation: Established in 1984, the American Honda Foundation makes grants to non-profit organizations that benefit the people of the United States in the areas of youth and scientific education, with a specific focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects in addition to the environment. AHF engages in grantmaking that reflects the basic tenets, beliefs and philosophies of Honda companies, which are characterized by the following qualities: imaginative, creative, youthful, forward-thinking, scientific, humanistic and innovative. Since its inception, more than $25 million has been awarded to organizations serving approximately 114 million people in virtually every state in the U.S.  For more information please visit http://www.foundation.honda.com.

Environmental Charter High School: (http://www.echsonline.org) is a public charter high school serving Lawndale and surrounding communities in south Los Angles.   ECHS offers a rigorous college prep program that is made relevant by guiding students to critically examine and take action to solve environmental challenges in their local communities.  U.S. News & World Report ranked ECHS in the top 3% of high schools in the nation for its ability to deliver college-ready graduates from its community. The award-winning high school has outperformed 80% of comparable high schools in its state API ranking – a key performance indicator.