Abstract
In this research, I surveyed the United States' educational reform and its effect on environmental education and also the response of environmental education to reform. I tried to obtain suggestions for Japan. The score of achievement tests is valued highly in the No Child Left Behind Act. Therefore, environmental education is disregarded. Environmental education deals with this crisis by two means: first, making of standards, and second, insitence that environmental education is useful as a tool of educational reform. Through several research projects, it has been clarified that environmental education is useful for improving scholastic attainments and reducing discipline problems. This is because environmental education gives meaning to the study of subjects and develops a sense of belonging and self-efficacy for students. Schools that succeed in the improvement of scholastic attainments and the reduction of discipline problems through environmental education have common features. Such a feature is, for instance, development of an interdisciplinary curriculum by an interdisciplinary team. Finally, proposals are given for improvement of environmental education in Japan.
