K-12 Environmental Education: Guidelines for Excellence

The NAAEE National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education developed a series of guidelines that set the standards for high-quality environmental education. Each of these publications was developed by a diverse team of professionals, and each has gone through a substantive review by thousands of professionals prior to its publication.

K–12 Environmental Education: Guidelines for Excellence and its companion piece, K-12 Environmental Education: Guidelines for Excellence Executive Summary provide students, parents, caregivers, educators and others a roadmap to achieving environmental literacy by setting expectations for fourth (age 10), eighth (age 14) and twelfth grade (age 18) students and outlining a framework for effective and comprehensive environmental education programs and curricula. These guidelines define the aims of environmental education. They set a standard for high quality education, based on what an environmentally literate person should know and be able to do by the time they graduate from high school. They draw on the best thinking in the field to outline the core ingredients of environmental education. Learn more about the project here.