ASCO's Mission and Bylaws Committee is charged with examining the basic scope and purpose of the Association. This committee will examine ways for the Association to represent the entire optometric education enterprise. ASCO shall coordinate and facilitate the efforts of its member institutions to define such outcomes as they relate to clinical education. Schools and colleges have a significant and growing role in providing educational opportunities to practicing optometrists throughout their professional lives. Schools and colleges of optometry should become centers of life-long learning for the practitioner.
Optometric education requires a flexible, dynamic and evolving curricula.
The recognition of the importance of diversity within the optometric curricula is critical to the overall health of academia. With these concepts in mind and with the exponential growth of the body of knowledge, the Association should serve to define, initiate and promote curriculum development. With major changes facing public support of health professions education and with the advent of national health care reform and its potential impact on the training of health care professionals, including optometrists, the active involvement of ASCO in partnership with AOA is essential. The demands upon faculty, administrators and health care educators are constantly changing and ASCO will serve as a resource to develop the skills and knowledge base needed to meet these demands. There is an ongoing need for current and historical information on optometric education.