IEL is providing technical expertise and project management for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) Commission on the Whole Child. The ASCD has assembled this Commission of leading thinkers, researchers, and practitioners from a variety of sectors to address successful student learning and recast the current focus on schools. This effort acknowledges the need for an expanded definition of education that fosters academic, social, and civic competence, as well as healthy development.

The impetus for the Commission’s focus on the whole child emerged from earlier work and positions adopted by the ASCD Leadership Council:

“ASCD advocates a balanced curriculum that acknowledges the multiple dimensions that comprise a well-educated citizen. We believe that we need to expand the definition of education – and of what gets measured in education – to include more than academic competence. We need to identify the shared responsibilities of health, the arts, social welfare and other systems on young adults’ potential.”

The Commission, which is scheduled to convene in January 2006 and operate for one year, will issue policy and practice recommendations to improve educational excellence and equity and advance the goal of student success for each learner.