Aspen Institute Formed a Commission To Reevaluate What Successful K-12 Education Entails

The Aspen Institute launched the National Commission on Social, Emotional and Academic Development. The commission, with the help of students, parents and teachers nationwide, will explore how schools can completely incorporate academic, emotional and social skill-developing to support the entire students all over the nation.

Aspen Institute is a nonpartisan policy and educational association located in Washington, DC. Its duty is to promote leadership grounded on lasting values as well as to give an unbiased venue for handling critical problems. The institute's National Commission on Social, Emotional and Academic Development will start a two-year work in November.

The goal of the commission is to reexamine what a successful K-12 education really entails. It will involve policymakers, researchers, community leaders, families and teachers in its endeavor. And for the next two years, it will perform site visits, ask expert affirmation and employ field hearings.

The commission wants to start far-reaching changes. It sims to do so by incorporating emotional - social development into the education system of the nation, Tom Shriver, chairman of Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning Chicago and one of the co-chairs of the commission, said via EdSource.

Members of the commission include two governors, a Google executive, retired Air Force general, a university president and two prominent school officers. Overall the commission consists of leaders from private, government, science and education sector.

The co-chairpersons of the commission include well-known names in the social-emotional education field: Tim Shriver, head & co-founder of Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and chair of Special Olympics; John Engler, former governor of Michigan in three terms and president of the Business Roundtable; and Linda Darling-Hammond, professor at Stanford University and CEO and president of the Learning Policy Institute.

"This national commission represents the Aspen Institute at its best - convening leaders from different fields and philosophies to address one of America's most vexing challenges," Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, said in a statement reported in the Journal. "We know from human history and the latest learning science that success comes from the combination of academic knowledge and the ability to work with others," he added.