TY - JOUR
T1 - The status of geography education in Arizona
AU - Dorn, Ronald
AU - Ekiss, Gale B.
AU - Ostapuk, Michael
AU - Davis, Cathy
N1 - Funding Information:
In order to respond to teachers’ needs to cope with accountability pressures and demands for classroom-ready geography resources and lessons, the Alli- ance has initiated five strategies. First and foremost, TCs work within their schools and districts to hold the line against any scheduling shifts that would diminish, rather than enhance, the role of geography and other socialstudies disciplines. Faced withthe hard reality that math, reading and writing dominate time in the classroom, TCs are writing and disseminating reading, writing and math lessons that integrate geography in significant ways. Second, Arizona State University cartographer and scientific illustrator Barbara Trapido-Lurie developed a copyright-free map outline set adopted and distributed by the National Council for Geographic Education. This selection of maps continues to evolve to support new lessons widely used in Arizona class- rooms.2 Third, the Alliance sponsors a one-day GeoFest conference in October. Hundreds of teachers attend this event to gain geography knowledge, skills, and lesson plans. Sessions at the conference frequently stress strategies to integrate geography with tested subjects. Fourth, in response to the demand for higher language arts test scores, members of AzGA proposed the creation of lessons that would teach language arts skills through geography content. Funded by a grant from the National Geographic Society, with matching support from Arizona organisations, the GeoLiteracy projet brcings teams of K–3, 4–5, and 6–8 teachers from across Arizona to write, edit, pilot, and re-edit lessons completely on-line using ‘php’ programming. These lessons are ready for distribution in the Fall of 2002.
Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2002
Y1 - 2002
N2 - Within the United States, the state of Arizona ranks second in terms of growing population and close to last in per-pupil educational expenditures. Student population is dominated by middle income migrants from other states and low income migrants from Mexico. Local control of education dominates Arizona's educational politics, where curriculum decisions rest in 225 districts or 2300 schools. In this chaotic educational milieu, with support from National Geographic Education Foundation - Arizona's Department of Education - Arizona State University, the Arizona Geographic Alliance (AzGA) is the single focal point advocating K-12 geography education in the state. AzGA's accomplishments include: a membership of around 2700; training over 150 active teacher consultants (TCs) who now conduct more than 2600 lesson trainings a year; the adoption of new social studies standards with 1/4 being a geography strand; close working relationships with other social studies organisations in Arizona; hosting an annual GeoFest conference for hundreds of teachers; sponsoring a copyright free atlas of maps; and developing curriculum articulating geography standards with state-mandated testing in reading, writing, and mathematics. The key to AzGA's success rests in the hard work and vision of TCs and a central office supportive of TC professional development.
AB - Within the United States, the state of Arizona ranks second in terms of growing population and close to last in per-pupil educational expenditures. Student population is dominated by middle income migrants from other states and low income migrants from Mexico. Local control of education dominates Arizona's educational politics, where curriculum decisions rest in 225 districts or 2300 schools. In this chaotic educational milieu, with support from National Geographic Education Foundation - Arizona's Department of Education - Arizona State University, the Arizona Geographic Alliance (AzGA) is the single focal point advocating K-12 geography education in the state. AzGA's accomplishments include: a membership of around 2700; training over 150 active teacher consultants (TCs) who now conduct more than 2600 lesson trainings a year; the adoption of new social studies standards with 1/4 being a geography strand; close working relationships with other social studies organisations in Arizona; hosting an annual GeoFest conference for hundreds of teachers; sponsoring a copyright free atlas of maps; and developing curriculum articulating geography standards with state-mandated testing in reading, writing, and mathematics. The key to AzGA's success rests in the hard work and vision of TCs and a central office supportive of TC professional development.
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U2 - 10.1080/10382040208667478
DO - 10.1080/10382040208667478
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0036991453
SN - 1038-2046
VL - 11
SP - 171
EP - 176
JO - International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education
JF - International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education
IS - 2
ER -