American attitudes toward the need for teaching twenty-first century skills appear as strong as the socioeconomic research being done that shows how critical these skills are for students' future access to the middle class and the country's economic competitiveness. In 2003, the AOL Time Warner Foundation (now the Time Warner Foundation) set out to measure public attitudes toward twenty-first century skills. It commissioned national research firms Lake, Snell, Perry and Associates and Market Strategies to conduct a telephone survey with 1,000 adults, including 100 African Americans, 100 Latinos, 150 teachers, and 150 business executives. In June 2003, the findings from the survey were published in "Twenty-First Century Literacy: A Vital Component in Learning". The survey shows that Americans believe that students today need a "basics-plus" education: not only competency in the basics of reading, writing, and mathematics but also a package of skills different from those needed ten to twenty years ago to succeed in school and in life. The survey also showed that Americans view after-school programming as a vehicle for teaching and learning these skills. (Contains 5 figures and 1 note.)