March 2009
ASCD's 2009 Legislative Agenda: Next Steps for a New Day
By Gene R. Carter, Executive Director, ASCD
Every March, ASCD unveils its new legislative agenda for the year. We design the agenda to help educators influence the policy discussions and decisions that ultimately shape federal education policy and complementary education reforms at the state and local levels.
This year, in particular, we have a momentous opportunity to make our voices heard on behalf of children. President Barack Obama and the 111th Congress are poised to transform the nation's education system through a variety of policy initiatives, most notably the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Educators have a responsibility, indeed an obligation, to help the Obama administration and education policymakers take the next great step forward in cultivating our nation's individual and collective potential so that all children become productive, engaged citizens.
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and its system of assessment and accountability was a useful start, but it is now outdated. Our country, and especially our children, deserve a more comprehensive and nuanced education system that ensures fairness, accurately measures results, invests in people, and is marked by innovation. ASCD's 2009 Legislative Agenda, shaped by successful school leaders and effective educators, proposes a more coordinated system that serves the whole child, families, educators, and communities. We think the following core principles will help us meet this goal:
- Equitable Educational Opportunities. NCLB highlighted the achievement gaps that exist in too many of our schools and districts. It's time to use that data to expand educational opportunities for all learners, regardless of their backgrounds. All students must have access to highly effective teachers; engaging and rigorous coursework; appropriate educational technology and career and technical programs; and resources for strengthening schools, families, and communities.
- Multiple Indicators of School Success. Current indicators for evaluating student learning are too limited to provide a complete assessment of student skills or overall school quality. Students and schools should be measured by a comprehensive assessment system that incorporates multiple and varied indicators and analyzes student growth over time. Similarly, our accountability system should become more fine-grained, distinguishing among schools and districts with varying levels of performance and targeting improvement assistance where it is needed most.
- Highly Effective Educators. NCLB's highly qualified teacher provision ensures all students have teachers who have met the most basic qualifications to enter the classroom. Now we need to guarantee that each student has highly effective teachers who elicit growth in student achievement and receive comprehensive support at all stages of their careers, from preparation and induction to ongoing professional development.
- Innovative Educational Redesign. Our current education model too often attempts to improve student outcomes in a piecemeal fashion that expects schools to work in isolation and fails to consider the full continuum of education, from prekindergarten to postsecondary. We need to support innovative, research-based approaches that ensure young children are well-prepared for school, students successfully transition from the elementary to secondary grades, and high school graduates are ready for success in a global society.
ASCD needs the help of educators nationwide to advocate on behalf of these principles. Our legislative agenda is only as good as the ASCD members and educators who give it voice.
During his inaugural address, President Obama said, "What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility—a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task."
We must now seize the opportunity to take bold steps toward ensuring what is best for our children and our nation. The 2009 ASCD Legislative Agenda reflects the responsibility and duty educators share in raising their voices beyond their classrooms and schools to improve the education of all children. ASCD relies on and is ready to help educators draw on their perspectives and experiences as we promote this crucial agenda with policymakers.
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