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

拥有受过地理教育的人口将对美国在21世纪的经济稳定、物质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。认识到地理文盲对我国构成的风险，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委员会合作，提议开展一系列研究综合和传播活动，为下一个十年的评估、专业发展、教学材料、公共信息和教育研究的设计提供路线图。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及其合作伙伴提议参与社区范围的努力，综合来自广泛领域的文献，并利用研究结果创建框架，指导在未来十年改善地理教育的努力的规划、实施和扩大。这一努力的结果将是一套公开审查的协商一致的报告，这些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，并扩大对我国对地理扫盲和地理科学教育日益重要和迫切的需求的认识。该项目将创建三个深入的“路线图”报告，目标是从业者、采购者和政策制定者。由专家委员会编写的这三份报告将涉及：-系统监测和持续改进地理教育方案的评估框架。-教师和教材的专业发展，以支持各种背景下的大规模教育改进。-教育研究议程，以确定优先事项和确定适当的研究方法，以改善未来的地理教育。这三份报告将在为广大教育工作者、政策制定者和关心问题的公民撰写的执行摘要中进行总结。除了这些协商一致的报告外，该项目还将就公众对地理素养的性质和重要性的理解进行研究，特别关注主要受众--教育工作者、政策制定者和公民。除了形成该项目的报告外，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努力提供信息。

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.