ASCD, The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Resource Clearinghouse

Healthy | Safe | Engaged | Supported | Challenged

Research proves that students learn best when their academic, emotional, physical, and social needs are met. Click the links above to find reports, surveys, articles, and studies that demonstrate the power of educating the whole child, one who is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. For more general information, see below.

For a guide to the Resource Clearinghouse, please click here.

View current and past newsletters in the archives.

Overview of the Whole Child


Recent News

  • Trends in Infancy/Early Childhood and Middle Childhood Well-Being, 1994–2006. Foundation for Childhood Development, 2008. (PDF, 32 pgs.) A new study on American children's well-being—including measures on education, health and safety—shows improving conditions over the period 1994–2006.
  • Nine Powerful Practices. Educational Leadership, ASCD, 2008. (web article) In this article, Ruby Payne identifies nine strategies that help raise the achievement of students living in poverty including building relationships of respect, teaching the hidden rules of school, and building relationships with parents.
  • Whose Problem is Poverty? Educational Leadership, ASCD, 2008. (web article) Richard Rothstein, the author of Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap says, "It's no cop-out to acknowledge the effects of socioeconomic disparities on student learning. Rather, it's a vital step to closing the achievement gap."
  • Democracy at Risk: The Need for a New Federal Policy in Education. Forum for Education and Democracy, 2008. (PDF, 72 pgs.) Prepared by Linda Darling-Hammond and George Wood, this report calls on the federal government to payoff the "education debt," invest in a new "Marshall Plan" for teachers and school leaders, support educational research and innovation, and engage and educate local communities.
  • Engaged for Success: Service-Learning as a Tool for High School Dropout Prevention. Civic Enterprises, 2008. (PDF, 32 pgs.) This report posits that because service-learning brings meaning to classroom lessons and engages students in hands-on activities, students who participate are less likely to drop out.
  • Democracy for Some: The Civic Opportunity Gap in High School. Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), 2008. (PDF, 30 pgs.) This paper documents the "civic opportunity gap" that often denies lower-income students a quality civic education.
  • Organized Communities, Stronger Schools: A Preview of Research Findings. Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, 2008. (PDF, 33 pgs.) The Annenberg Institute for School Reform has released a preview of findings from a six-year study that show the positive impact of effective community organizing on education reform in seven urban communities. The study demonstrates that community organizing contributes to an improved learning environment and improved educational outcomes for students and stimulates important changes in policy, practices, and resource distribution that expand equity and capacity at the system level, especially in historically underserved communities.
  • Cities in Crisis: A Special Analytic Report on High School Graduation. Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, 2008. (PDF, 16 pgs.) This new report supported by America's Promise Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provides stark data on the gap in graduation rates between urban and suburban areas of major metropolitan centers.

Major Reports and Books

  • Quality Counts 2008: Tapping Into Teaching, Unlocking the Key to Student Success. Education Week with support from the Pew Center on the States, 2008. (web report) Examine strategies that states can use to unlock the full potential of the teaching profession, find out how various states are approaching pay for performance, learn how working conditions influence teacher retention, and more in this annual 50-state report.
  • Whole Child Community Conversations Project. ASCD, 2007. (free web guides) ASCD offers a framework to explore and discuss the best ways to support the whole child. Two versions of a facilitator's guide are available for local community and student engagement.
  • The 39th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools. Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) International and The Gallup Organization, 2007. (PDF, 16 pgs.) As Congress debates changes to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act with an eye to maximizing the achievement of all students, the findings from this PDK/Gallup Poll highlight potential improvements in our nation's education policy and identify the public's interests and concerns.
  • Framework for 21st Century Learning. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2007. (web report) The Framework for 21st Century Learning, a plan to help students and educators achieve 21st-century learning goals, addresses key concerns by developing a clear vision for student outcomes in the new global economy and defines how school systems can best support them.
  • KIDS COUNT 2007. Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2007. (web and free print publication) Each year, the KIDS COUNT Data Book provides information and statistical trends on the conditions of America's children and families. By providing policymakers and citizens with benchmarks of child well-being, KIDS COUNT seeks to enrich local, state, and national discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all children.
  • New Hampshire's Vision for Redesign: Moving from High Schools to Learning Communities. State of New Hampshire Department of Education, 2007. (PDF, 56 pgs.) A report bringing together state, regional, and national resources with the work of New Hampshire educators in a plan to support the improvement of our secondary schools.
  • Kids' Share 2007, Urban Institute, 2007. (web report) Over the next decade, children's programs are scheduled to decline both as a share of GDP and federal domestic spending, because they do not compete on a level playing field with rapidly growing entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
  • The Learning Compact Redefined: A Call to Action, ASCD, 2007 (PDF, 30 pages) ASCD's Commission on the Whole Child advances five major recommendations for ensuring that all children are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.
  • Success In the Middle: A Policymaker's Guide to Achieving Quality Middle Level Education. National Middle School Association, 2006. (PDF, 44 pgs.) NMSA describes the 14 characteristics of successful middle schools, and argues that government policy has a profound impact on educators' ability to be successful.
  • The Whole Child in a Fractured World. ASCD, 2006. (PDF, 35 pgs.) This report provides an overview of the complexities and challenges of U.S. education to inform those who seek to educate the whole child.
  • Breaking Ranks II: Strategies for Leading High School Reform. National Association of Secondary School Principals, 2004. (book, available for purchase, 220 pgs.) This report, a follow-up to Breaking Ranks (1996), outlines proven strategies for positive change that have proven successful in all types of high school settings.

Articles and Briefs

  • The Whole Child. ASCD Infobrief, 2007. (web article) This issue reviews the objectives of ASCD's whole child initiative, promising practices from around the world, and the immense work left to be done.
  • The Whole Child Meets No Child Left Behind. Is It Good For the Kids?, ASCD, 2007 (web column) Advocacy for the whole child is at the heart of the ASCD mission. Our position calls for comprehensive education of all children from preschool through college. This editorial discusses how the success of this endeavor depends on broad engagement of all stakeholders, including parents, communities, and policymakers at all levels.
  • Engaging the Whole Child. Educational Leadership, ASCD, 2007. (web publication) Which practices put the whole child at the center of the education enterprise? Learn about practices that challenge students academically, engage their interests and enthusiasm, and support them as learners and people.
  • From research to policy and practice: The School of the 21st Century. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 2007. (web article available for purchase) The School of the 21st Century provides an example of an effective early care and education system using the public schools.
  • Why Focus on the Whole Child?. Educational Leadership, ASCD, 2007. (web article) Editor in Chief Marge Scherer offers perspective on a whole child focus.
  • Closing the Gap: Keeping Students in School. ASCD Infobrief, ASCD, 2006. (web article) This article presents evidence that student engagement is a powerful tool in preventing dropouts and offers suggestions for increasing engagement.
  • What Does It Mean to Educate the Whole Child? Educational Leadership, ASCD, 2005. (web article) Nel Noddings argues that schools must go beyond academic learning to educate the whole child in a democratic society.
  • The Whole Child: A Framework for Education in the 21st-Century. ASCD Infobrief, ASCD, 2005. (web article) ASCD believes that meeting the needs of the whole child means providing a balanced curriculum, linking health needs with learning expectations, and ensuring fair and comprehensive assessments.

Websites

  • National Center for Children in Poverty. The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), a division of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, is a public policy center dedicated to promoting the economic security, health, and well-being of America's low-income families and children. This website includes state by state demographics, fact sheets, and research on a variety of issues related to poverty.