Ensure that students are learning 21st century skills so they are prepared for tomorrow's work force. That's the educational top priority that K-12 educators want President-elect Barack Obama and his newly-named Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to address, according to a new survey conducted by ASQ (American Society for Quality), which provides resources and training to help K-12 educators implement continuous improvement in schools. 

More than half of educators surveyed (52%) ranked 21st century skills as the most important priority for the new administration. 21st century skills have been defined by the Partnership for the 21st Century Skills as the learning, innovation, technology and life and career skills that students will need to live and work in the new millennium.

Two items tied as a second place priority: retaining qualified teachers (42%) and helping all students meet achievement goals (42%). Surprisingly, transforming the No Child Left Behind policy to improve measurements was not listed as a top priority for this group with only 29 percent ranking this as a top area of focus.

ASQ conducted the survey of teachers and education administrators around the United States over the past several months. ASQ saw the opportunity to provide educators with an outlet to provide ideas on what needs to change most in American education and offer them the chance to help shape our nation's K-12 education agenda.  In early January, ASQ plans to work with its Public Policy Action Committee to deliver the list of priorities to President-elect Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Two areas in the survey that educators ranked as the lowest priorities include:

• Closing the achievement gap among whites and minorities (17%)
• Eliminating budget waste and inefficiency in K-12 schools (22%)

"While education may not be front and center due to the immediate economic crisis, educators want to remind President-elect Obama that K-12 students need to be a top priority so that our nation can produce a globally competitive work force for the future," said Maurice Ghysels, chair of ASQ's K-12 Education Advisory Committee.

"Ensuring 21st century skills will be a critical component to making this happen," added Ghysels

Subjects That Need More Attention
Not all school subjects are created equal, according to educators surveyed. Closely aligned with their priority to emphasize 21st century skills, educators ranked math and science as the top subjects that U.S. students need more focus on in their schools, followed by technology/computer training and foreign languages. Another recent ASQ study shows that parents and other adults agree with educators that schools are not making these skills a priority in the classroom.
  
"While No Child Left Behind has strived to improve test scores, it's clear that more needs to be done to improve problem-solving and critical thinking skills evident in these subjects," said Ghysels.

A number of educators also referenced the need for more attention to character building and life skills such as financial planning and budgeting, skills every student will need in the real world but many don't learn at home.

About the Survey
ASQ conducted the survey from August through November 2008, with a five-minute, three-question online survey available on the ASQ Web site, K-12 Priority Survey. In addition, a hard copy of the survey was provided to educators attending ASQ's National Quality in Education Conference (NQEC), Nov. 16-18 in Reno, Nev. Five hundred K-12 teachers and educational administrators (superintendents, principals) from across the United States participated in the survey.

About ASQ
ASQ sponsors the annual NQEC, the nation's leading conference where teachers, administrators and support personnel learn from schools and districts about improving student achievement and operational performance through the use of quality tools and concepts. Since 1991, ASQ has offered training and other quality tools to help educators implement continuous improvement initiatives in their districts.

The American Society for Quality, www.asq.org, has been the world's leading authority on quality for more than 60 years. With more than 90,000 individual and organizational members, the professional association advances learning, quality improvement and knowledge exchange to improve business results and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide. As champion of the quality movement, ASQ offers technologies, concepts, tools and training to quality professionals, quality practitioners and everyday consumers, encouraging all to Make Good Great®. ASQ has been the sole administrator of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award since 1991. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., ASQ is a founding partner of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a prominent quarterly economic indicator, and also produces the Quarterly Quality Report.