Maine ASCD

The following Position Statements were adopted by the Board of Directors on
September 30, 2005:

The Whole Child

The current direction in educational practice and policy focuses overwhelmingly on academic achievement. However, academic achievement is but one element of student learning and development and only a part of any complete system of educational accountability. Maine ASCD believes a comprehensive approach to learning recognizes that successful young people are knowledgeable, emotionally and physically healthy, motivated, civically inspired, engaged in the arts, prepared for work and economic self-sufficiency, and ready for the world beyond their own borders.

Together, these elements support the development of a child who is healthy, knowledgeable, motivated, and engaged. To develop the whole child requires the following contributions:

Communities provide

• Family support and involvement.
• Government, civic, and business support and resources.
• Volunteers and advocates.
• Support for their districts' coordinated school health councils or other collaborative structures.

Schools provide

• Challenging and engaging curriculum.
• Adequate professional development with collaborative planning time embedded within the school day.
• A safe, healthy, orderly, and trusting environment.
• High-quality teachers and administrators.
• A climate that supports strong relationships between adults and students.
• Support for coordinated school health councils or other collaborative structures that are active in the school.

Teachers provide

• Evidence-based assessment and instructional practices.
• Rich content and an engaging learning climate.
• Student and family connectedness.
• Effective classroom management.
• Modeling of healthy behaviors.

Health and Learning

Successful learners are not only knowledgeable and productive but also emotionally and physically healthy, motivated, civically engaged, prepared for work and economic self-sufficiency, and ready for the world beyond their own borders.

Because emotional and physical health are critical to the development of the whole child, Maine ASCD believes that health should be fully embedded into the educational environment for all students. Health and learning

• Is a multifaceted concept that includes the intellectual, physical, civic, and mental health of students.
• Provides coordinated and comprehensive health efforts that give students and staff effective teacher, school, family, community, and policy resources.
• Supports the development of a child who is healthy, knowledgeable, motivated, engaged, and connected.
• Is the reciprocal responsibility of communities, families, schools, teachers, and policymakers.

High-Stakes Testing

Decision makers in education—students, parents, educators, community members, and policymakers—all need timely access to information from many sources. Judgments about student learning and education program success need to be informed by multiple measures. Using a single achievement test to sanction students, educators, schools, districts, states/provinces, or countries is an inappropriate use of assessment. Maine ASCD supports the use of multiple measures in assessment systems that are

• Fair, balanced, and grounded in the art and science of learning and teaching;
• Reflective of curricular and developmental goals and representative of content that students have had an opportunity to learn;
• Used to inform and improve instruction;
• Designed to accommodate nonnative speakers and special needs students; and
• Valid, reliable, and supported by professional, scientific, and ethical standards designed to fairly assess the unique and diverse abilities and knowledge base of all students.

The Achievement Gap

For all students to excel academically and thrive as individuals, we must raise the bar and close the achievement gap. Educators, policymakers, and the public must understand the grave consequences of persistent gaps in student achievement and demand that addressing these gaps becomes a policy and funding priority. Maine ASCD believes that all underserved populations—high-poverty students, students with special learning needs, students of different cultural backgrounds, nonnative speakers, and urban and rural students—must have access to

• Innovative, engaging, and challenging coursework (with academic support) that builds on the strengths of each learner and enables students to develop to their full potential;
• High-quality teachers supported by ongoing professional development; and
• Additional resources for strengthening schools, families, and communities.