Data and the Whole Child
ASCD has recently released the report The Whole Child In a Fractured World by Harold “Bud” Hodgkinson, Director of the Center for Demographic Policy at the Institute for Educational Leadership. ASCD's Commission on the Whole Child is charged with recasting the definition of a successful learner from one whose achievement is measured solely by academic tests to one who is knowledgeable, healthy, civically engaged, prepared for self-sufficiency, and ready for the world beyond formal schooling.
The Hodgkinson paper, which looks at the U.S. education system as reflected in various U.S. Census Bureau statistics, will serve as a resource document for the Commission's work. The report raises such issues as equity, coordination among multiple education organizations, knowledge integration, the optimum sequence for learning, and wholeness. To read the full report, go towww.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/fracturedworld.pdf.
The EL Archive: A Click Away
The entire archive of Educational Leadership articles—from 1943 to the present—is now available to members on the ASCD Web site (www.ascd.org). A full archive of articles from the Journal of Curriculum and Supervision is also available online. To access these 400+ issues and 7,700+ articles, log in to myASCD.
Resources
A Commitment to Healthy Schools
- To promote the integration of health and learning through developing healthy school communities.
- To influence national, state, provincial, and local education policy and funding to reflect the research supporting the connection between health and learning.
- To use data to measure the impact of healthy school communities on students, to identify resource needs, and to influence policy and practice.
For more information about ASCD's health initiatives, go to www.ascd.org and click on Programs/Health in Education.
Guidelines for Schools on Sexual Orientation Issues
ASCD's new consensus guidelines help educators, students, and parents develop local policies and practices to address issues involving sexual orientation in public schools. Collaborating organizations include the First Amendment Center; BridgeBuilders; the American Association of School Administrators; the Christian Educators Association International; and the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network.
Recommended strategies include creating a “common ground” task force to advise school officials on such issues as safety in school, student expression, and curriculum; protecting First Amendment rights; avoiding “us versus them” political arguments; and educating all stakeholders about basic First Amendment principles of rights, responsibilities, and respect. To see the guidelines, go towww.firstamendmentcenter.org/about.aspx?id=16611.
