Excellence in Environmental Education Guidelines for Learning (K-12)

Excellence in Environmental Education Guidelines for Learning (K-12) (revised 2010) provides students, parents, educators, home schoolers, policy makers, and the public a set of common, voluntary guidelines for environmental education. The guidelines support state and local environmental education efforts by:

• Setting expectations for performance and achievement in fourth, eighth, and twelfth grades;
• Suggesting a framework for effective and comprehensive environmental education programs and curricula;
• Demonstrating how environmental education can be used to meet standards set by the traditional disciplines and to give students opportunities to synthesize knowledge and experience across disciplines; and
• Defining the aims of environmental education.

These guidelines, organized into four strands, set a standard for high-quality environmental education in schools across the country, based on what an environmentally literate person should know and be able to do. They draw on the best thinking in the field to outline the core ingredients for environmental education.

The Guidelines for Learning (K-12) Executive Summary and Self Assessment Tool is also available for use as an easy reference. As in the full document, the Executive Summary is organized into four strands, each of which is further delineated by a set of guidelines that describe a level of skill or knowledge appropriate for each of three grade levels - fourth, eighth, and twelfth. In the Executive Summary, guidelines for a particular strand are arranged on two page layouts, so that the user can quickly understand the flow of guidelines at a grade level or compare how guidelines progress across the grade levels. It should be remembered that the Executive Summary is designed to provide only an overview.

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Excellence in Environmental Education Guidelines for Learning (K-12)