Society faces a number of environmental challenges connected to the global and local issues of biodiversity, water, and carbon (e.g., greenhouse gases, climate change, energy development) that will require collective human action on an unprecedented scale. Responding to environmental issues will require greater participation in STEM careers and improvements in the environmental literacy of a diverse public to make informed decisions. Several factors highlight the nature of this challenge. 1) Standardized test scores for middle school and high school students indicate a need for improvement in basic environmental science and related mathematical content, 2) surveys of teachers and science educators indicate a desire for more content-based, focused, and locally relevant professional development and 3) the participation rates in environmental science fields do not reflect the demographics of society as a whole.  To address these challenges our Mathematics and Science Partnership focuses on the critical education juncture of middle school through high school (grades 6-12) with the theme of coupled human-ecosystem interactions in the context of socio-ecological systems as a framework to develop a culturally relevant ecology from both a scientific and educational perspective (ISSE 2007, LTER 2007). We developed a program of teacher professional development in science and mathematics driven by an environmental science literacy framework around the learning progressions of core science and mathematics concepts complemented with citizenship.  Our MSP connects the research prowess in the environmental sciences and education of our partner universities and sites within the NSF-funded Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network with K-12 teacher professional development in science and mathematics of our partner schools.  We start from the premise that preparation for careers in STEM and for responsible citizenship (including economic, lifestyle and political choices) are core goals of science and mathematics education.  Our MSP relies on a strong foundation of research in the environmental sciences and research in teaching and learning.  We address content in a way that resonates with teachers and their students, providing culturally responsive pedagogical approaches grounded in deep conceptual understanding of content.