世界纷繁复杂，经济、环境、政治、社会和文化上相互依存日益紧密。在人类历史上，个人的地理知识从来没有像现在这样重要过。地理优势和地理教育的重要性显而易见。地理教育为21世纪公民生活和职业生涯提供重要的准备，为对现代社会深远影响的决定做好准备。但令人不安的现实是许多教师和大多数学生还不具备地理素养。研究发现美国目前的地理教育状况不利于社会、政治和经济福祉。国家科学基金会提议和外部有地理教育经验的组织合作来提高美国国内学校的地理教学、培训和研究。2010年国家地理协会利用机会，回应了这项提议，和另外三个协会合作，致力于创建一个路线图来提高地理教育，即“21世纪地理教育路线图”。他们提议开展路线图项目来制定行动计划，线路图项目的目标将会是从原有的提高地理教育和其他科目的努力中汲取经验，来提出指南，为新的提议设定优先事项。

“21世纪地理教育路线图”项目是由美国国家科学基金会提供资助，由美国地理学会(AGS)、美国地理学家协会(AAG)、国家地理教育委员会（NCGE），和国家地理学会(NGS)四个国家机构共同合作的一个项目。该项目于2010年启动，主要目的是提高美国地理教育质量。路线图项目被分为四个平行的小项目，其中三个分项目分别由地理教材和专业发展委员会、评估委员会、地理教育研究委员会主导，撰写报告来审查他们专业领域的现状并为未来提出建议。第四个分项目——研究公众理解和价值——开展了一项调查，实施调查，并分析了调查结果。

“21世纪地理教育路线图”报告是“21世纪地理教育路线图”的一个成果。“21世纪地理教育路线图”报告是一组报告，由“地理教材和专业发展报告”、“评估报告”、“地理教育研究报告”三份报告构成。该报告的重点放在改进教育的关键问题上：给学生提供的教学材料，教师的教育，地理的评估，以及地理教育研究议程。该报告是给二十一世纪地理教育提供的一个详细说明，一份指导方针和准则。

本论文在于通过对“21世纪地理教育线路线图”报告的学习与分析，了解美国基础地理教育在评估、教学材料与专业发展和地理教育研究三方面存在的问题，以及路线图项目对解决所存在问题的建议和对美国基础地理教育未来发展的指导意见，并从中获得对个人地理教学实践、当前中国地理教育有益的启示，以指导今后在中学地理教育的实践，为提高一线地理教师教学教育水平提供参考，为进一步提高学生地理素养培养更合格的21世纪接班人提供指导性意见。

The world is complex and it is increasingly interdependent economically, environmentally, politically, socially and culturally. Never before in human history has the geography literacy been so important to a person. The advantages of geography and the importance of geography education are obvious. Geography education provides important preparation for 21st century civic life and careers and for the far-reaching decisions of modern society. But the unsettling reality is that many teachers and most students are not yet geographically literate. A study found that the current state of geography education in the United States is detrimental to social, political and economic well-being. The National Science Foundation proposed partnering with outside organizations with experience in geography education to improve geography teaching, training, and research in U.S. schools at home. In 2010, the National Geographic Society took the opportunity to respond to this proposal, working with three other associations to create a road map for improving geography education, A Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education. They proposed a road map project to develop action plans. The goal of the road map project would be to draw lessons from previous efforts to improve geography education and other subjects to develop guidelines and set priorities for new initiatives.

The Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education is a collaboration of four national organizations, the American Geographical Society (AGS), the Association of American Geographers (AAG), the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE), and the National Geographic Society (NGS), with funding from the National Science Foundation. The project was launched in 2010 with the goal of improving the quality of geography education in the United States. The Road Map project was divided into four parallel efforts, three of which were led by the Instructional Materials and Professional Development Committee, the Assessment Committee, and the Geography Educational Research Committee to develop reports to review the current state of their areas of expertise and make recommendations for the future. The fourth effort, studying public understanding and values, conducted a survey, carried out the survey and analyzed the results. The Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education Report is a product of the Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education. The Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education Report is composed of three reports: the Instructional Materials and Professional Development Report, Assessment Report and Geography Education Research Report. This report focuses on key issues of educational improvement: teaching materials provided to students, teacher education, assessment of geography, and the geography education research agenda. The report is a detailed description, providing a set of recommendations and guidelines for geography education in the 21st century.

This paper aims to learn about the state of K-12 geography education in the United States discussed in the report from three aspects, namely instructional materials and professional development, assessment, and geography education research, through the study and analysis of the Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education Report, as well as to learn about how the Road Map Project may help to solve the existing problems and provide guidance for the future development of K-12 geography education in the United States. The paper also aims to learn from the Road Map Report to get some insight on both personal geography teaching experiences and the geography education state in China，so as to better guide the practices of geography instruction in middle schools in the future, to offer pertinent references that can help with professional improvement of geography teachers, and to further improve the geography literacy of students to be better prepared for the 21st century.