ASCD's 2010 Legislative Agenda: Prioritizing Whole Child Education
By Gene R. Carter, Executive Director, ASCD
Each March, ASCD reveals its new legislative agenda for the year. The purpose of the agenda is to help educators shape federal education policy and corresponding education reforms at the state and local levels.
The 2010 Legislative Agenda couldn’t come at a more crucial time. President Obama and the 111th Congress are on the brink of changing the nation’s education system through a variety of policy improvements, particularly the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). This provides an opportunity for educators to speak out for what they know is best for kids and "start telling our own stories," according to Josh Garcia, an ASCD Emerging Leader and executive director of Teaching for Learning at Federal Way Public Schools in Washington State.
Since 2007, ASCD has advocated for a more comprehensive and coordinated approach to education that promotes the development of the whole child. The education leaders from across the country who developed ASCD's 2010 Legislative Agenda believe that it’s time for federal education policy to support this whole child approach, helping to ensure that all children are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. We think the following principles from the 2010 Legislative Agenda will help meet this objective for each child:
- Healthy. At the most fundamental level, all children should have affordable access to medical care and nutritious meals. Meals served by schools should meet research-based nutrition standards for children. In addition, schools should establish coordinated health advisory councils and provide routine health screenings. At the state level, report cards should measure and publicly report on the health of children and families, offering a comprehensive look at the factors that influence student success.
- Safe. Feeling safe at school translates into higher academic achievement, increased student well-being, and greater engagement. But feeling safe goes far beyond basic physical security. Thus, the definition of and measures for persistently dangerous schools under the No Child Left Behind Act are inadequate and outdated. The reauthorized ESEA should include a comprehensive set of indicators that more fully capture information about a student’s overall sense of well-being in school.
- Engaged. Congress needs to support systemic reforms that promote a rich and rigorous curriculum and meaningful and relevant learning experiences. Incentives should go to businesses and community services that provide students with innovative expanded learning opportunities and programs for earning credit. To help measure student engagement and foster promising initiatives, schools, districts, and states should collect and publish indicators like teacher attendance rates, dropout and graduation rates, and the number of students involved in extracurricular activities and internships.
- Supported. Teachers, counselors, administrators, and other caring adults who take a personal interest in the success of each student are central to supportive schools. That’s why we need to promote reform strategies and structures that empower adults to provide students with individualized learning opportunities that take into account the range of student needs—physical, social, and emotional—that can affect academic performance. We also need to support systemic approaches to the career development of educators, from preparation and induction to ongoing professional development and evaluation, so that they’re able to address the evolving needs of students.
- Challenged. ASCD calls on Congress to support the efforts of states and local education agencies to improve educational outcomes by using research-based approaches that ensure young children are well-prepared for school, students successfully transition from elementary to the secondary grades, and high school graduates become productive and engaged citizens prepared for success in a global society. We also need an accountability framework that evaluates students and schools using multiple indicators of performance, including student academic growth.
ASCD needs the help of educators nationwide to advocate on behalf of this agenda. Together, we need to ensure that federal policymakers put actions behind their words—crafting national education policy that helps states and districts translate this national priority into an ongoing reality in schools across the country.
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