More than 3,000 ASCD members responded to this year's Issues Survey, which will guide ASCD's Issues Committee as it develops the proposed positions to be considered for adoption by the Board of Directors at ASCD's Annual Conference. This year, members could respond to the survey by fax, online, or by mail. A six-point scale was used, with 1 meaning "not important" and 6 meaning "extremely important." These issues were ranked highest in importance:
- Maintaining professional standards in the face of the growing educator shortage (mean score of 5.1).
- High-stakes testing (mean score of 4.9).
- Serving increasingly diverse students (mean score of 4.9).
- Professional development for improving the use of technology in schools (mean score of 4.6).
Issues that received slightly lower mean scores were zero tolerance for certain student behaviors (4.4), national reading policy (4.3), positive youth development (4.3), public school choice (4.2), and state and local control over federal resources (4.2).
Issues receiving the lowest mean scores were social promotion (4.1), pay for performance (4.0), the educational implications of globalization (4.0), and charter schools (3.9).