Lisa K. Weinstein

Strategies for Aligning Outdoor Education Programs to State Learning Standards

Schools across the nation are facing increasing challenges in addressing and meeting requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, standardized testing schedules, and increasingly stringent state curriculum standards. These challenges, coupled with traditionally-restrictive school district budgets and a mind-set that field trips are “vacations from school,” result in outdoor education programs being considered superfluous activities. Aligning outdoor education programs to state curriculum standards can be used to promote these programs as a tool in curriculum adherence as...