As ASCD members know, our Association does more than provide tangible member benefits, such as Educational Leadership magazine, and offer professional development opportunities, such as conferences. We also influence the education profession through advocacy.
One important way we exert our influence is by taking official positions on the education issues that matter most to our members. Every year at the ASCD Annual Conference, our governing body adopts official positions on two or three issues identified by our members as having a direct impact on teaching and learning. Then, during the year that follows, the Association focuses on these positions in its advocacy efforts.
What We've Committed To
At the 1999 Annual Conference held last March in San Francisco, ASCD's Board of Directors recommended adoption of three new positions, which were then approved by the Executive Council. The three positions address
- Educator quality and responsibility. This position states that "ASCD supports policies and practices that hold educators responsible for providing a quality education to all students and for continuously improving the education profession and all public schools. These responsibilities require a systemic approach in which the entire education community works together to promote the highest-quality classroom teaching and learning."
- Standards and accountability. This position states that "public policymakers, families, schools, and communities bear the responsibility for creating the conditions and providing opportunities and resources necessary for the success of all learners. Student success in standards-based programs requires that all educational stakeholders contribute to setting standards and creating conditions for meeting them. School systems must be held publicly accountable for all students' meeting standards. Educators must use multiple approaches to teaching and learning and varied methods to assess student achievement."
- Equal access to excellence. This position states that "ASCD supports policies that provide adequate funding for all learners and recognizes that the different abilities, backgrounds, and needs of students require diverse resources and multiple approaches to high-quality teaching."
The first two positions listed above were designated for special attention in the year ahead.
In adopting these new positions, ASCD's Board of Directors and Executive Council were guided, in part, by a survey of ASCD members conducted last fall. The ASCD leadership also reviewed the results of a survey of Annual Conference attendees, who were presented with several potential positions drafted by ASCD's Issues Committee. Of the more than 1,300 educators who responded to the survey, 43 percent identified "educator quality and responsibility," and 30 percent identified "standards and accountability," as a top issue that should receive high priority by ASCD.
Planning for Action
As part of our advocacy efforts, our next step will be to develop a series of action plans focusing on the two new ASCD positions designated for special attention. If you have suggestions for how ASCD can best pursue these new positions, please share them with us. Send your ideas or comments to Barbara Gleason, Director of Public Information at bgleason@ascd.org or Don Ernst, Director of Government Relations at dernst@ascd.org.
Working together, we can take a stand on these important issues and wield our collective influence to make these positions come alive in schools and communities around the world.