NCSE's Josh Rosenau contributed a column about the NCSE/Penn State survey (PDF) of climate change education in the United States to TES (September 19, 2016).
Observing that "scientists, policymakers, and the global community recognize climate change as an urgent threat that citizens — especially students, the citizens of tomorrow — must understand and confront," Rosenau added that nevertheless, "While many teachers cover climate change, they tend to downplay the confidence of the science and the urgency of the issue."
The reasons for the neglect of climate change, he explained, include pressure from the local community and unfamiliarity of teachers with the scientific consensus on climate change, as well as "slow deployment of state standards emphasizing climate change, political efforts to suppress such standards, outdated and misleading textbooks, and insufficient in-service training."
Despite these obstacles, Rosenau concluded, "[S]tudents need and deserve climate education to be presented uncontroversially across the curriculum in their schools."