Establishing a Roadmap for Large-Scale Improvement of K-12 Education in the Geographical Sciences

拥有地理知识的人口对美国世纪的经济稳定、人身安全和环境可持续性至关重要。然而，美国在地理科学教育方面仍然远远落后于其他发达国家。认识到地理文盲给我国带来的风险，国家地理学会（NGS）与美国地理学家协会、美国地理学会和国家地理教育理事会合作，提议开展一系列研究综合和传播活动，为评估、专业发展、教材、公共信息的设计提供路线图，和教育研究。 这项工作将由来自K-12机构以及地理科学和教育研究界的广泛专家完成。在25年合作的基础上，NGS及其合作伙伴建议参与整个社区的努力，综合来自广泛领域的文献，并利用研究结果创建框架，指导规划，实施，并在今后十年内加大努力，改善地理教育。 这一努力的结果将是一套公开审查的共识报告，将指导项目合作伙伴和更大的地理教育界的合作努力，以及扩大对我国地理科学中日益重要和迫切的地理素养和教育的认识。 该项目将创建三个深入的“路线图”报告，针对从业者，takeholders和决策者。 由专家委员会开发，这三份报告将是：-评估框架，系统监测和不断改进地理教育计划。 - 教师和教学材料的专业发展，以支持在不同背景下大规模的教育改进。 - 教育研究议程，以确定优先事项，并确定适当的研究方法，将改善地理教育的未来。 这三份报告将总结成一份执行摘要，供广大教育工作者、决策者和有关公民阅读。除了这些共识报告外，该项目还将研究公众对地理素养的性质和重要性的理解，特别关注教育工作者、政策制定者和公民等关键受众。 除了形成项目报告外，这项研究还将为该项目及其合作伙伴更广泛的沟通和传播工作提供信息。

Having a geographically literate population will be critical to the economic stability, physical security, and environmental sustainability of the United States in the 21st century. Yet the U.S. still lags far behind the other developed nations in education in the geographical sciences. Recognizing the risk that geographic illiteracy poses for our country, the National Geographic Society (NGS), in collaboration with the Association of American Geographers, American Geographical Society, and National Council for Geographic Education, proposes to engage in a set of research synthesis and dissemination activities that will provide road maps for the design of assessment, professional development, instructional materials, public information, and educational research for the next decade. The work will be done by a broad range of experts from K-12 institutions as well as the geographical science and educational research communitiesBuilding on a 25 year collaboration, NGS and its partners propose to engage in a community-wide effort to synthesize the literature from a broad range of fields and to use the findings to create frameworks that will guide the planning, implementation, and scale-up of efforts to improve geographic education over the next decade. The result of this effort will be a set of publicly reviewed, consensus reports that will guide the collaborative efforts of the project partners and the larger geographic education community, as well as broaden awareness of the increasingly significant and acute need for geographic literacy and education in the geographical sciences in our country. This project will create three in-depth "roadmap" reports targeted at practitioners, takeholders, and policymakers. Developed by expert committees, these three reports will be on:- Assessment frameworks for systematic monitoring and continuous improvement of geographic education programs. - Professional development for teachers and instructional materials to support large-scale educational improvement across diverse contexts. - Educational research agenda to set priorities and identify appropriate methodologies for research that will improve geographic education into the future. These three reports will be summarized in an executive summary written for a broad audience of educators, policymakers, and concerned citizens. In addition to these consensus reports, the project will also conduct research on public understanding of the nature and importance of geographic literacy, with particular attention to the key audiences of educators, policymakers, and citizens. In addition to shaping the project's reports, this research will inform the broader communications and dissemination efforts of this project and its partners.