| How One City Helped Pave the Way for Afterschool Systems Across the Country | 2618 | GP0|#b804f37e-c5dd-4433-a644-37b51bb2e211;L0|#0b804f37e-c5dd-4433-a644-37b51bb2e211|Afterschool;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 | “If it weren’t for Hillary Salmons’s foresight, brilliance, and leadership, the out-of-school-time field would not be what it is today,” says Jessica Donner.
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<br>Donner should know. She heads Every Hour Counts, a coalition of citywide organizations working to increase access to high-quality learning opportunities for underserved students. </p><p>And who, exactly, is Hillary Salmons, apart from being one of the founders of Every Hour Counts? She is the now-retired founding executive director of the Providence After School Alliance (PASA), which since its inception in 2004 has provided Rhode Island’s capital city with a model system of afterschool programming–and inspired similar efforts in some 30 cities nationwide, according to one estimate.  </p><p>PASA is an “out-of-school-time intermediary,” which means it coordinates the many moving parts and players (schools, program providers, nonprofits, and municipal agencies for starters) of a system to provide young people, whatever their family’s income, with plenty of opportunities after school and during the summer. Programs to stretch the mind and muscle range from coding to basketball, ceramics to horticulture, dance to volleyball.</p><p>PASA’s approach emphasizes high-quality programming, attention to the needs and wants of particular age groups, and collaboration among the various system partners.    </p><p>PASA has historical ties to Wallace. In 2004, the foundation, as part of a major initiative to encourage the development of the then-novel idea of an afterschool system, awarded a $5 million grant to help establish PASA. This followed an earlier planning grant–and preceded additional support from the foundation over the years. </p><p>In Providence, youth faced significant economic and educational challenges. Then-Mayor David Cicilline, along with a team of local organizations and experts including Salmons, put their heads together to plan an afterschool enterprise that would meet the needs and interests of the young people in the city. What emerged with PASA was the
<a href="/knowledge-center/pages/afterzone-outcomes-for-youthparticipating-in-providences-citywide-after-school-system.aspx">AfterZone</a>, designed specifically for Providence’s middle school students. Today, it serves 1,500 young people each year, giving them access to almost 100 programs in STEM, the arts, and sports, provided by 70 Providence organizations, teachers, and community-based educators. PASA has also expanded its efforts to include high school students.
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<br> Salmons retired in 2021 after 17 years heading PASA. It’s a measure of her impact that for an event several months ago to mark the milestone, every member of Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation–its two senators and two house members—prepared videos to thank her.  Among them was Cicilline, who, after the early PASA years, went on to serve seven terms in Congress. (He recently stepped down.) Some 17,000 children have been served by PASA since it was founded, Cicilline remarked, praising  Salmons’ “vision and fortitude” in helping to make that possible.  Salmons, he added, had been “part of one of the things I’m most proud of from my days as mayor.”<br></p><p> We chatted with Salmons over Zoom recently to gain insights from her experiences working in afterschool, learn
<a href="/knowledge-center/pages/hours-of-opportunity-volumes-i-ii-iii.aspx">why systems are important</a>, and find out more. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.</p><p>
<strong>Wallace Foundation: PASA is one of the earliest afterschool systems. Can you talk about how it got started and how it grew?</strong></p><p>
<strong>Hillary Salmons:</strong> Credit is due to The Wallace Foundation for inviting our city to develop a plan, but I think the way they conceived of planning was very smart. It had to be a very broad-based, public-private collaborative effort. They hired a local group, Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, and they facilitated the planning process, which involved Mayor Cicilline, now head of the Rhode Island Foundation. He was critical to the planning process.<br><br> At the time, Wallace felt that public-private systems really needed to have a leader, and our mayor was 200 percent behind a youth development mindset and strategy. He was an education-minded leader. He totally embraced the planning process and participated in a great deal of it, which I think motivated community nonprofit organizations that were serving youth and the child policy community. It was really an all-inclusive effort. Hundreds of people came to planning meetings, and we divided up into all sorts of groups to work on determining what age group to work with and determine where our assets were. What could we build off of? What did we have in the nonprofit sector, in the public sector that could be better linked together, and what does it mean to build a system? Then also, what does quality mean? </p><p>There were a lot of young people involved in the planning process as well from the high school age group, and they were really saying that they would walk across the city for a really high-quality program, but they wouldn't cross the street for crap. Kids were really our customers. They were discerning about what was stimulating and what was not. The young people in middle school and high school were vociferous about that being an important element and agreed that high quality was the essential part of the systems-building effort. It took about six to nine months to plan. </p><p class="wf-Element-Callout">Middle school was where the greatest deficits are. I think that that's often the case nationally.<br></p><p>When looking at the gaps of where the need was the greatest, we felt as if middle school was where the greatest deficits are. I think that that's often the case nationally.  High school groups tend to be in arts organizations and sports organizations. There seems to be more in communities around high school because high school youth require it and demand it, but middle school in our city had a deficit. We didn't even have intramural sports. Other than 15 or 20 kids playing basketball, very few middle school students were engaged in afterschool learning and hands-on experiences. That was an area to start, and that's where we decided to focus.<br></p><p>That pre-planning, I think, is always key. There's no question, having a major financial investment from the private sector was huge. It immediately attracted a local private investor in Bank of America and soon to follow the Rhode Island Foundation.</p><p>
<strong>WF: </strong>Can you talk a bit about why systems are important?<br></p><p>
<strong>HS:</strong> It's mostly scale. The reality is the field is often a patchwork quilt of smaller projects, and it's easier for a little nonprofit to serve 150 kids, but to go to scale in a city requires systems. That is, I think, the biggest motivation. Also, systems force communities to think about: What are we doing for elementary, middle, and high school right up through the ladder versus assigning afterschool to just the childcare route.<br></p><p>When you're thinking with a youth development lens, you're thinking about: What does it take for a healthy development of young people, and where are the opportunity gaps for low-income kids? Oftentimes, middle class and upper middle-class kids have access because their parents can pay to play . If you're thinking systemically, you're thinking across age groups. You're thinking across resources and maximizing them. You're thinking about interfaces with the public systems, and then you're thinking about the class divide and the opportunity gap. Who's getting it and who's not?<br></p><p>I think when you're thinking systemically, you start thinking holistically about child development. What do young people need to thrive? The point of systems is to get you out of the patchwork like, "Well, we're doing a little apprenticeship program for high school age kids, and well, we got the childcare covered," versus what does the healthy development of our young people in the non-school hours look like?</p><p>
<strong>WF: </strong>Were there a couple of key obstacles the organization needed to overcome, and, if so, how did you do that?</p><p class="wf-Element-Callout">What do we do with $1 million in a town that doesn't have that much money? How do we maximize the investment?<br></p><p>
<strong>HS:</strong> The biggest factor in a deficit-oriented economy is distrust because all the nonprofits are competing with each other [for funding]. Their first thought was: Who's going to get all this money when it comes to town? So, we had to think about how to build trust. You've got to really have everybody be involved in the planning process. I was a big believer in being transparent about budgets. We had to show people that we wanted to collectively invest the money as opposed to it being a competition where some nonprofits get money and some don’t. What do we do with $1 million in a town that doesn't have that much money? How do we maximize the investment , and how do you trust that this collective effort will leverage more money?</p><p>In the first few years, we helped groups that didn't get 21st Century Community Learning Centers money become partners on getting 21st CCLC money with us, and we helped scaffold them in managing a federal grant. The word got out that we were real allies and to be trusted.</p><p>
<strong>WF: </strong>What advice might you give other cities that are considering building systems? What advice would you give to those that already have systems underway?</p><p>
<strong>HS: </strong>What do you want to do if you want to replicate a PASA or a Boston After School & Beyond? I think the advice the Every Hour Counts community gives to cities is to try to get a major local philanthropy. I really do think a capital infusion is absolutely essential. If it isn't coming from a national foundation, it should come from a local corporation. Right away, whoever the intermediary is needs to start raising local dollars. Really thinking about mapping out what's the potential for collective public-private investment makes a lot of sense. Then who are the key players? It's important to get the nonprofit sector to really collectively advocate for it, to work with the state afterschool alliance, so there's an advocacy agenda. </p><p class="wf-Element-Callout">I also think getting youth involved is absolutely key because they're the customer.<br></p><p>I also think getting youth involved is absolutely key because they’re the customer, and the customer can really speak their power to say what they want.  I think youth leadership and youth voice are really important. The best place to really start in designing a system is to design it with some of the youth advocacy or youth development organizations because I think when investors–public or private–see their customer constituencies actively involved, it changes the political dynamic.</p><p>
<strong>WF: </strong>Are there any other thoughts that you want to share about afterschool systems in the year 2023 and beyond? </p><p class="wf-Element-Callout">The mayor of Providence became very connected to the mayor of Nashville. And then the Nashville mayor wanted to replicate what Providence was doing.<br></p><p>
<strong>HS:</strong> I think how we got PASA where it is now was by working with our colleagues in the field. Early on, The Wallace Foundation was great at helping build an afterschool systems network through their grantees, and we planned together, and learned, and shared. Then when Every Hour Counts was created by us, we could share strategies, and we could really share secrets with each other and support each other. That became huge. The mayor of Providence became very connected to the mayor of Nashville. And then the Nashville mayor wanted to replicate what Providence was doing.  Having these cities collegially working together is absolutely key. </p><p>The good thing about 2023 is that there's a group of cities through Every Hour Counts that are all seeing the academic and mental health crisis that COVID created. They can stand together to say, "What are we seeing? What do we think we should do? How do we react to this?" Because if you're going in alone as a little city, you don't have the big picture. How do we stay strong, and balanced and find the research and data that backs us up?  Again, having a collective that's using data, and is rooted in quality, assessment, and accountability around youth development and child development metrics is extremely helpful to cities who are trying to make a case that this is what they should be doing. I think staying on top of the customers’ (youth) priorities is what the field can do because it's close to the ground. The whole field is close to the ground. </p><p class="wf-Element-ImageCaption">
<img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Preparing%20to%20head%20north_HS.jpg" alt="Preparing to head north_HS.jpg" style="margin:5px;" />Hillary holds a “lookalike puppet” awarded to her by PASA for her years of leadership as she prepares to head north to NewFoundland, where she spends her summers in retirement.<br></p><p>
<strong>WF: </strong>You've devoted so much of your life to PASA. What does the next chapter look like for you?<br></p><p class="wf-Element-Callout">
<span style="color:#2b92be;font-size:24px;">I'm going to play, and I'm going to be a kid.</span><br></p><p>
<strong>HS: </strong>I've retired, and I've decided to be a kid. I just worked my butt off for 40-something years. I'm going to play, and I'm going to be a kid. I have a house in Newfoundland where I live two and a half months of the year. I try to kayak, hike, camp, enjoy my grandchildren, and get out in nature. I'm playing, doing arts and crafts. I'm doing all the things you're supposed to do in the afterschool world. I play volleyball, and I ski in the winter. I am on a few boards. I'm on the board of my Unitarian church and am helping with a campaign for the Congress seat. I am on the board of a charter school. I'm doing a little bit of volunteering. That's like joining a club. That's like my student council club. My life is like the PASA menu of programs, and I'm trying it all.<br></p><p>I think one of the greatest rewards is knowing that PASA is alive and well and is thriving , and that it is a systemic and institutional sustainable idea. All new staff, great leader. They're all trucking along, doing amazing things in the city, and serving so many youth really well.<br></p><p><em>Top photo: Hillary Salmons tells us she has been able to enjoy many hobbies during retirement, including picking blueberries, enjoying nature, kayaking, camping, playing volleyball, and spending time with her grandchildren. </em><br></p> | Jenna Doleh | 91 | | 2023-09-19T04:00:00Z | Your source for research and ideas to expand high quality learning and enrichment opportunities. Supporting: School Leadership, After School, Summer and Extended Learning Time, Arts Education and Building Audiences for the Arts. | | 9/19/2023 5:53:24 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / How One City Helped Pave the Way for Afterschool Systems Across the Country it weren’t for Hillary Salmons’s foresight | 498 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| How Equity-Minded School Districts Run Afterschool and Summer Programs | 2581 | GP0|#b804f37e-c5dd-4433-a644-37b51bb2e211;L0|#0b804f37e-c5dd-4433-a644-37b51bb2e211|Afterschool;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61;GP0|#ff9563e3-b973-45a7-8ac3-c9f4122f9a13;L0|#0ff9563e3-b973-45a7-8ac3-c9f4122f9a13|Summer Learning;GP0|#02d6f4ae-88a2-4236-b1a9-1f37b2599002;L0|#002d6f4ae-88a2-4236-b1a9-1f37b2599002|District Policy and Practice;GPP|#330c9173-9d0f-423a-b58d-f88b8fb02708 | <p>Wallace has some 50 active research studies across the foundation’s areas of arts, education leadership, and youth development. This blog is the second in an occasional series of conversations that Bronwyn Bevan, vice president of research, has been having with researchers Wallace has commissioned or awarded grants to. She recently talked with professors Valerie Adams-Bass, from Rutgers University, and Nancy Deutsch, from the University of Virginia, about a study they led for Wallace to understand how school districts that were taking strong steps to address equity during the school day were thinking about equity with respect to their afterschool and summer programs. Wallace has posted
<a href="/knowledge-center/pages/expanding-equity-afterschool-summer-learning-lessons-from-school-districts.aspx">a brief</a> describing key points from their study. </p><p>The interview has been edited for length and clarity.</p><p>
<strong>Bronwyn:</strong> Before you talk about what your study found, can you please share how you defined equity in your research?<br><br></p><p>
<strong><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-equity-minded-school-districts-run-afterschool-and-summer-programs/Valerie%20Adams-Bass.jpg" alt="Valerie Adams-Bass.jpg" class="wf-Image-Right" style="margin:5px;width:190px;height:253px;" />Valerie:</strong> We define equity as ensuring that every person has access to what they need to thrive. This is different from ensuring that every person has equal access to resources. Instead, it means that when making decisions about resources, you need to consider how existing disparities affect people's needs differentially. For example, designing programs for “all students” without attending to who has access to transportation to the programs and who doesn’t would not be an equitable approach. This way of thinking about recognizing and responding to disparities formed the backbone for
<a href="/knowledge-center/pages/expanding-equity-afterschool-summer-learning-lessons-from-school-districts.aspx">the set of equity indicators</a> we developed that then guided the selection of districts in our study.<br></p><p>
<strong><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-equity-minded-school-districts-run-afterschool-and-summer-programs/Bronwyn%20Bevan%20-15.jpg" alt="Bronwyn Bevan -15.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;color:#555555;font-size:14px;width:200px;height:301px;" />Bronwyn:</strong> That's a great concrete example. I could also imagine, on a social dimension, it might involve recognizing, for example, who might feel “welcomed” in a space, and who might not.  Addressing that disparity might require more than a handshake to make a person who perhaps has felt excluded from a space, perhaps excluded across generations, to truly feel not only welcomed but as if they have what researchers Angie Calabrese Barton and Edna Tan call “a rightful presence” to be in and to make up that space. Equity would mean taking extra steps, providing meaningful social supports to ensure that a person truly experiences a sense of belonging.</p><p>
<strong><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-equity-minded-school-districts-run-afterschool-and-summer-programs/NancyDeutsch.jpg" alt="NancyDeutsch.jpg" class="wf-Image-Right" style="margin:5px;width:227px;height:227px;" />Nancy:</strong> We undertook this study because how districts operationalize equity in out-of-school-time spaces—logistically as well as socially—is so important. How do they ensure that all young people have an opportunity to thrive in and through the out-of-school-time space? Afterschool and summer programs clearly have the potential to increase equity and opportunity for young people, but unless districts are intentional about it, their out-of-school-time programs can end up replicating structures of inequity. </p><p class="wf-Element-Callout">“What was exciting about this study was documenting concrete actions that administrators and teachers could take to advance equity.”<br></p><p>
<strong>Bronwyn:</strong> Could you say more about that?<br></p><p>
<strong>Valerie:</strong> Particularly for young people who are not thriving in school, what happens in afterschool and summer may need to be different. What was exciting about this study was the opportunity to document concrete actions that administrators as well as teachers could take to advance equity—how they recognize disparities and provide resources and supports that address those disparities for full and meaningful student participation.</p><p>
<strong>Bronwyn:</strong> What are the kinds of things you look for when you are looking for equity in the district’s out-of-school-time space?  </p><p>
<strong>Valerie:</strong> I want to see a notable number of the afterschool staff members reflecting and knowing the community they're serving. Sometimes you see programs build pipelines by hiring students who have come through the district. Those districts are intentional and purposeful about who they hire. This can help young people feel welcome, recognized, and supported.</p><p>
<strong>Nancy:</strong> I want to see programs that celebrate and amplify students’ cultures. This can mean drawing on the strengths of the young people's families and community members. This can help young people feel that who they are and where they come from makes a contribution. </p><p class="wf-Element-Callout"> “You look to see how programs listen to the community and to young people themselves and use what they hear to develop their programs.” </p><p>
<strong>Valerie: </strong>You look to see how programs listen to the community and to young people themselves and use what they hear to develop their programs. That can look like creating spaces to engage with families outside of the normal school day hours. Parents are working during those hours.  That can look like children’s circles, where students are invited to speak up about what they want more of.  </p><p>
<strong>Nancy:</strong> Equity also looks like opportunity. Do districts have positive, fun, and meaningful options in the summer? Some kids have parents who can afford to pay for summer camps and other enrichment activities. They're not sitting around doing remedial math. It’s by definition inequitable when some students get to choose how they spend their summers, and therefore how they grow and develop when school is out, while other students have no choice. We saw a mix in the districts we studied. Some were very focused on equalizing summer opportunities for particular sub-populations of students.  </p><p>
<strong>Bronwyn:</strong> So I am hearing you define equity practices in two ways.  One is where districts are identifying sub-populations of youth to provide them with enriching growth experiences like those their more affluent peers might be getting through their family and neighborhood resources.  The other is attention to the program experience so that they are affirming of young people’s identity—through staffing, through listening and program offerings.  It reminds me of education scholar Rochelle Gutierrez’s dominant and critical axes of equity—one axis is about access and achievement and the other about identity and power, and you need both. Were there differences in how districts thought about these two opportunity axes?  </p><p>
<strong>Valerie:</strong> It really varied by district; but I believe equity-rich districts that were doing the work did a little bit of both.  The key thing is that they were very aware of who needed what in their communities.  We had one large district that was focused on psychological and social services for all young people. We had another district that was offering the services, and they were providing multiple kinds of programs and thinking about how to make sure that young people were coming, and that the parents were okay with the program menu. </p><p>
<strong>Nancy:</strong> There was a lot of focus on access, including transportation issues and figuring out which schools should be providing [programming] and how to get kids there. There was a universal sense of “Okay, we can't be doing equity if we're not having equity of access.” </p><p>
<strong>Bronwyn:</strong> I hear you saying that you might have to start with access, which Gutiérrez would call part of the dominant axis of equity (“welcome to our space”), but the other axis, the critical one, would focus on providing meaningful experiences, where issues of power and identity may be salient (“this space is yours”).  In other words there may be logistical barriers, but what about social ones, the cultural ones? There’s a bus to the program, why is it that some students choose not to get on it? </p><p>
<strong>Valerie:</strong> We saw that it was important to know the community.  One district leader described how she tapped a staff person who deeply knew what the community wanted and excelled at the cultural translation.  She leaned on that person.  I would say bilingual or multilingualism also came up a lot in terms of communicating with the parents about the programming, especially when it was new. </p><p>
<strong>Nancy:</strong> In some districts, schools thought about what is missing in their standard offerings.  So, for example, in schools where arts programs had been cut, they offered them in afterschool or summer.  That led to something else that our study found to be crucial: partnering with community-based organizations.</p><p>
<strong>Bronwyn:</strong> Can you say more about that?</p><p>
<strong>Nancy:</strong> We saw some districts recognize that they didn’t have the expertise on staff to do culturally specific or responsive or advanced programming in a particular area.  But they recognized that there was an organization in the community that did it really well.  So they contracted with those organizations to provide programs. </p><p>
<strong>Bronwyn:</strong> I’m aware of other research that talks about the importance of partnerships with community-based organizations. Did you see the equity concerns of the districts get picked up by the partners?</p><p>
<strong>Valerie:</strong> Typically I think that the partners were aware of district equity efforts. But it really depended on how long the partnership had existed.  </p><p>
<strong>Nancy: </strong>Partnerships bring really important things to the table. But you don't always have that communication between the districts and the partners in terms of what's happening in the school building, what the expectations are out of the school building, or priorities of the district versus the program. So you often have decision-making happening at the district without necessarily the knowledge or input of the partners.</p><p>
<strong>Valerie:</strong> We also saw differences in terms of what was being measured. For example, a school district may have its own metrics for equity, for student achievement, and student mental health while the community partner has different metrics. They didn’t always speak the same language, and they didn’t refer to the same data or data dashboard. We kept thinking wow, this is such an opportunity to really, you know, tighten up equity if they could come together around measurement or indicators.</p><p>
<strong>Nancy:</strong> There was also silo-ing within districts. Even when districts had offices that ran the OST programming, it was usually separate from the office of DEI. So the person in the office of diversity equity, inclusion couldn’t answer questions about OST, and vice versa. There’s a huge opportunity for coherence there.<br></p><p><em>Photos from top to bottom: Valerie Adams-Bass, Bronwyn Bevan, and Nancy Deutsch</em></p> | Bronwyn Bevan | 100 | | 2023-09-12T04:00:00Z | How Equity-Minded School Districts Run Afterschool and Summer Programs | | 9/12/2023 2:14:07 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / How Equity-Minded School Districts Run Afterschool and Summer Programs Providing access and the right experiences are two | 142 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| School/OST Partnerships Help Kids Thrive, Thanks to Pandemic Funding | 15866 | GP0|#b804f37e-c5dd-4433-a644-37b51bb2e211;L0|#0b804f37e-c5dd-4433-a644-37b51bb2e211|Afterschool;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 | <p>Almost every headline about young people today seems to mention the learning loss and mental health challenges created by the pandemic. For good reason. The latest <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/" target="_blank">National Assessment of Educational Progress</a> found that math, reading, civics, and U.S. history scores for students decreased, in some cases with scores lower than all previous assessments dating back to 2005. </p><p>School attendance as well has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, with estimates that the percentage of students who were chronically absent doubled from 8 million pre-pandemic to approximately 16 million in 2022. The prevalence of anxiety and depression among youth is also alarming. The CDC’s most recent <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/YRBS_Data-Summary-Trends_Report2023_508.pdf" target="_blank">Youth Risk Behavior Survey</a> found that more than two in five high schoolers report feeling sad or hopeless, an increase of 50 percent since 2011, and the <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf" target="_blank">U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory</a> raises the alarm about the epidemic of loneliness and isolation in the United States.   </p><p>Decades of research demonstrate that afterschool and summer programs can help stem these losses. Moreover, pandemic relief funding has created a once in a generation chance to expand these opportunities for youth. Recognizing the value of afterschool and summer programs in supporting students’ well-being and academic growth, the federal government has provided upwards of $30 billion in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding to states and localities that can be used to create or expand afterschool and summer learning. </p><h2 class="wf-Element-H2">Programs a “second home” </h2><p>Because they focus on the whole child, afterschool and summer learning programs can offer enriching activities that engage young people in hands-on learning and encourage them to try new things. Staff are trained to help kids talk about their emotions, gain confidence, build healthy relationships, and heal from trauma. Research shows that kids who participate in afterschool develop strong social skills, get excited about learning, attend school more often, improve math and reading performance, and gain workforce skills. </p><p>The data is powerful, but students help us put the benefits in even sharper focus. “My program became a second home for me,” says Madelyn Hinkleman, an afterschool student in South Dakota. “A place where my friends and I felt safe…where we go to discover who we were, take risks, and try new things.” </p><p><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/school-ost-partnerships-help-kids-thrive-thanks-to-pandemic-funding/YouthAmb_QuoteCard_MadelynHinkleman_Quote_home.png" alt="YouthAmb_QuoteCard_MadelynHinkleman_Quote_home.png" style="margin:5px;" /><br><br></p><p>Another student, Nekayla Stokes in Delaware, says she values “working with caring adults who encourage us to listen to each other, respect all voices in a room, and learn about different perspectives.” </p><p><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/school-ost-partnerships-help-kids-thrive-thanks-to-pandemic-funding/YouthAmb_QuoteCard_NekaylaStokes_Quote_caringadults.png" alt="YouthAmb_QuoteCard_NekaylaStokes_Quote_caringadults.png" style="margin:5px;" /><br></p><p>Millions of students like Madelyn and Nekayla are now thriving, thanks to those ARP investments. Some standout programs have included: </p><p></p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Experiential learning camps in Vermont, where youth learned how to use a compass and to identify wild edibles; </div><p></p><p></p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">STEM offerings in Bloomington, Illinois, where the school district teamed up with community partners like the Children's Discovery Museum, Illinois State University for Math and Science, and local Boys & Girls Clubs;</div><p></p><p></p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Seattle’s $1 million investment in youth employment and paid internship opportunities.</div><p></p><h2 class="wf-Element-H2">Tapping (and mapping) federal funds</h2><p>But while strong examples exist, billions of dollars are still on the table. Of the $30 billion or so that can be invested in afterschool and summer, thus far just $6 billion has been tapped. To help spur more partnerships, the U.S. Department of Education created a special initiative, <a href="http://www.engageeverystudent.org/" target="_blank">Engage Every Student</a>, to help school districts, localities, and programs tap pandemic relief funds to support students after school and in the summer. </p><p>The Engage Every Student Initiative partners offer technical assistance to those interested, and the Afterschool Alliance and National League of Cities have developed a <a href="https://engageeverystudent.org/interactive-map/?utm_source=sendinblue&utm_campaign=Updated%20ARP%20Map%20%20ARP%20blogs&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">map</a> featuring more than 300 examples of states, school districts, and local governments that have invested pandemic funds in programming for youth. These examples serve as inspiration and models for other communities, and they help demonstrate to policymakers the effectiveness and sound use of pandemic funds to support students after school and in the summer. As relief funding ends in 2024, showing demonstrated success will be critical to make the case for continued investments at the local, state, and federal level. </p><h2 class="wf-Element-H2">Look for community partners </h2><p>The strongest examples of pandemic investments in afterschool and summer are built around partnerships with existing community providers, build on the evidence base for effective programming, and utilize the principles of expanded learning including both academic and enrichment opportunities that help support the whole child. </p><p>In Idaho, for example, an evaluation of out-of-school time programs made possible by COVID-relief funds found positive academic and social impacts. For example, 87 percent of families say the program helps their child succeed academically. More than nine in ten families say that their child enjoys attending the program and is gaining new experiences in it. In Tulsa, the school district developed a four-week summer program for 10,000 students in K-12 grades that offered a variety of activities including gardening, robotics, field trips, and academic enrichment. Students participating in the summer 2021 program showed gains in grade-level reading and math proficiency, respectively, on Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) assessments.</p><p>If you have tapped into federal pandemic relief funding to expand, enhance, or develop a new afterschool or summer learning program that embodies partnership, whole-child support, and evidence based practices, we encourage you to tell your story and be included on the map. To be featured, share your example using the <a href="https://engageeverystudent.org/join-us/#pledge" target="_blank">Engage Every Student pledge form</a>.<br></p> | Jodi Grant | 88 | | 2023-06-15T04:00:00Z | Your source for research and ideas to expand high quality learning and enrichment opportunities. Supporting: School Leadership, After School, Summer and Extended Learning Time, Arts Education and Building Audiences for the Arts. | | 6/15/2023 2:29:24 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / School/OST Partnerships Help Kids Thrive, Thanks to Pandemic Funding But showing demonstrated success will be critical to | 2144 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| Change Is Inevitable. Are Out-of-School Time Programs Ready for It? | 13068 | GP0|#b804f37e-c5dd-4433-a644-37b51bb2e211;L0|#0b804f37e-c5dd-4433-a644-37b51bb2e211|Afterschool;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 | <p>The out-of-school time (OST) sector provides many opportunities for staff learning and improvement, including webinars, newsletters, and professional conferences. These opportunities also provide time and space for networking, generating new ideas, and potentially using those ideas to change existing operations, practices, and strategies. But sometimes the ideas just don't take hold. Why is that? How could it be that the research- and evidence-based strategies that you just learned about didn’t work for your program?</p><p>This could happen for any number of reasons, including lack of time and resources, staff resistance to new ideas, confusion from youth participants about the change, or misalignment with existing policies and practices. These are just a few examples that add up to a bigger piece of the implementation puzzle: readiness.</p>The concept of “readiness”—or lack thereof—is often the culprit behind challenges in implementation.<div><br></div><div><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcop.21698" target="_blank">Research</a> has described readiness as the product of an organization’s motivation and capacity to implement an innovation. We have spent the last two years building on this foundational work to explore what readiness means for OST programs, by diving deep into the literature and talking to OST practitioners and field leaders.</div><div><br></div><div>One key takeaway from our work: Organizations don’t make change happen, people do. Organizations, and those who lead them, can create processes and practices that support implementation, but ultimately it is the practitioners, participants, and other key stakeholders who are essential to change management. These people are the ones responsible for implementation. In other words, all of these people need to be “ready” before any change can happen.</div><div><br></div><div>We define readiness in OST as the overall willingness and capacity within an organization and its staff that enables change to occur successfully. More specifically for programs, this means:<br><br><ol><li>Having
<strong>strong operations and procedures. </strong>This<strong> </strong>includes building a positive culture and climate, creating processes for collaborative decision-making, ensuring alignment with existing policies and practices, and having the capacity and plans for implementation.<br>
<br> </li><li>Ensuring
<strong>staff well-being</strong>. Programs should help staff develop self-efficacy and a growth mindset, as well as ensure staff feel that they have the necessary knowledge and skills to help facilitate change.<br><br> </li><li>Keeping stakeholders, including young people and their families,
<strong>engaged and informed. </strong>Programs should<strong> </strong>ensure they have input into decisions and an understanding of how these decisions will affect them.
<br>
<br> </li><li>
<strong>Accessing specific resources, materials, and training</strong> that are unique to the specific and intentional change programs are making or new idea they are introducing. </li></ol><p>This last item in the list—gathering knowledge, resources, and materials—is often where organizations start, but it is only
<em>part </em>of being ready. To be truly ready means attending to all four elements of readiness—the specific intentional practices, and the more general practices of operations, staff, and stakeholders. Our research shows that they are all equally important.</p><p>If this feels like a lot to think about, don’t worry! We have learned that readiness is something that can be measured and built over time. We find peace in this idea because it gives us a starting place to engage in readiness thinking when starting something new. We have also used what we’ve learned to create a
<a href="https://www.readytoolkit.org/" target="_blank">free, online toolkit</a> for OST leaders and staff to help support and develop readiness thinking. Users can create a free account, take a readiness assessment, and receive an automated report with readiness scores to gain insight into where they are more and less ready for change. </p><p>The toolkit links to the many other resources and tools already available that may be used to build readiness. It also includes a growing number of
<a href="https://readytoolkit.org/learn-more-about-ost-readiness/" target="_blank">readiness-specific tools</a> for those who are just beginning to think about readiness.</p><p>It is our hope that by introducing the idea of readiness and creating tools and resources to measure and build readiness, programs can more smoothly engage with new ideas and ensure that they are ready to implement them. We encourage you to consider: Are you ready for change?<br></p></div> | Jessy Newman and Arielle Lentz | 133 | | 2023-05-02T04:00:00Z | Two researchers explain readiness, why it matters, and how OST programs can build and measure it | | 5/2/2023 2:17:31 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / Change Is Inevitable Two researchers explain readiness, why it matters, and how OST programs can build and measure it | 1898 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| More Arts = More Benefits for Kids | 13053 | GP0|#d2020f9f-c87c-4828-b93b-572786ae94a8;L0|#0d2020f9f-c87c-4828-b93b-572786ae94a8|Arts Education;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 | <p>A recent <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pam.22449" target="_blank">study</a> brings good news about arts education: it can boost students’ writing skills, build social and emotional skills, and increase school engagement. But the same study warns that arts learning has been deprioritized in K-12 education since the 1980s, as schools have shifted tight budgets to align instruction with standardized testing. Additionally, few studies exist that demonstrate that the arts in schools are a beneficial investment.</p><p>This study is the first large-scale, randomized controlled trial of a city’s collective efforts to restore arts education in schools through community partnerships and investments. It examined the impact of participation in Houston’s Arts Access Initiative, a coalition of more than 50 cultural institutions, philanthropies, and other local organizations dedicated to providing more arts resources to schools that lack them. Brian Kisida, assistant professor in the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, and Daniel Bowen, a professor of educational administration at Texas A&M, worked with the district to follow two groups of schools randomly selected to either participate in the initiative or act as a control group–a total of more than 15,000 children from grades three to eight. </p><p>The arts experiences included theater, dance, music, and visual arts and were provided through teaching-artist residencies, in-school professional artist performances and workshops, field trips, and out-of-school-time art programs. Compared with the control group, the schools with extra arts experiences saw improvements in student behavior and increases in standardized writing achievement scores. The researchers also conducted surveys that showed an increase in students’ compassion for others, higher engagement in school, and stronger college aspirations.</p><p>Kisida and Bowen, who together co-direct the <a href="https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/qJjDCqxDQniyp5KuZ1hmf?domain=artslab.tamu.edu/" target="_blank"><em>Arts, Humanities, and Civic Engagement</em></a><a href="https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/qJjDCqxDQniyp5KuZ1hmf?domain=artslab.tamu.edu/"><em>Lab</em></a> supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, also studied <a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/decade-long-effort-to-expand-arts-education-in-boston-pays-off.aspx?_ga=2.175317028.720931135.1682361553-41959513.1679494370">arts education in Boston</a>. They found similar results, including consistent positive effects on student attendance, and higher parent and student school engagement. </p><p>We caught up with them to talk more about the benefits of arts education for students, important policy considerations for retaining arts education, and more.</p><p><strong>The Wallace Foundation: </strong>Can you talk about the importance of school-community partnerships? How can approaching arts education from a systems perspective help improve access to/remove barriers to arts education? </p><p><strong>Brian Kisida</strong>: To begin with, many under-resourced schools can leverage school-community partnerships to supplement arts education experiences and reverse the declines we’ve seen with access to the arts. But there are larger systemic benefits from these approaches. By making education a community endeavor that brings together educators, artists, nonprofits, philanthropies, and researchers, education becomes a more collaborative experience that strengthens a community’s involvement and commitment to education. </p><p><strong>Dan Bowen</strong>: In Houston, we have seen how these partnerships can promote systemic change in addition to increasing students’ arts learning opportunities. Despite the concern that these partnerships become substitutes for system-wide commitments and resources, we have seen how they can promote and complement these efforts.</p><p><strong>WF: </strong>According to your research, the academic performance of students in math, reading, and science was no different for those who got more art than those who didn’t get access to extra art. Is this a bad thing? Why or why not? </p><p><strong>BK:</strong> Unfortunately, there have been many claims made by arts advocates that increased involvement in the arts can boost test scores in other subjects, but these claims have not been supported by rigorous evidence. In our study, we didn’t expect to find gains in test scores, and we don’t think it’s a bad thing that we didn’t. In fact, arts advocates and education policymakers should consider that finding no effect on test scores is actually a win for the arts. Consider that school administrators often shift resources away from the arts in order to divert more resources to tested subjects, with the belief that doing so would boost test scores. If this were true, we would have expected the schools in our control group to outperform the treatment group on tested outcomes. The fact that there is no difference on test scores, yet the arts are producing meaningful impacts on other measures of behavior and social-emotional development, suggest that schools that cut the arts are missing out on these benefits without experiencing gains in test scores.</p><p><strong>WF: </strong>Why do you think there were positive outcomes on writing test scores but not on math, science, and reading test scores? </p><p><strong>BK</strong>: The arts programs that many of the students were involved in provided many opportunities for students to learn how to express themselves, to present a point of view, and form their own perspectives. Some of the programs even involved writing components that tied to arts experiences. When we disaggregate the writing score gains made by the treatment group into the two components measured by the state’s writing test–multiple choice items on mechanical skills and open-response expository essays–we find significant increases for treatment group students on both sections, but effects are greater in magnitude and significance for the written composition portion of the exam. This aligns with our expectations given the focus of arts programs on students’ self-expression skills.</p><p><strong>WF: </strong>You saw similar positive outcomes with your study in Boston. To what extent do you think these results would replicate in other cities? Do you have advice for other communities that want to mimic the Houston Arts Access Initiative?</p><p><strong>DB:</strong> Finding similar results in Boston was very encouraging and gives us hope that these findings would be similar with other cities. One concern might be that Houston and Boston are large metropolitan areas with abundances of arts resources, and we would not find the same results in smaller or less arts-rich locations. We definitely think it will be important to further investigate the question of how these contexts affect impacts. However, from our experiences, we often find that even smaller, more rural parts of the U.S. tend to have untapped arts resources that are potentially ripe for school partnerships. We find that these partnerships produce meaningful, sustained learning opportunities when schools regularly engage with artists and arts organizations to identify respective needs and resources.   </p><p><strong>WF: </strong>How can this study help school and district leaders make the case for adding more arts experiences for students in schools? How can this study inform public policy decisions?</p><p><strong>BK</strong>: Education policymakers are increasingly interested in providing a well-rounded educational experience that produces benefits beyond test scores. Student attendance, behavior, engagement, and social-emotional development are increasingly viewed as important outcomes, and related research finds that these skills are incredibly important for success later in life. But few interventions have demonstrated the ability to move the needle on these outcomes. The arts seem well-poised to play a critical role in providing the kinds of engaging educational experiences that can move the needle on these outcomes.</p><p><strong>WF: </strong>Why is it so important to study the relationship between arts learning and educational outcomes? What do you hope to find out in future studies?</p><p><strong>DB:</strong> We don’t personally need to be convinced of the intrinsic benefits of the arts. However, policymaking works best when it is guided by evidence, and research on the benefits of arts education has been regrettably limited compared to other education topics. We hope our ongoing and future studies will shed further light on the value of the arts in promoting human development and social and emotional well-being.  <strong></strong></p> | Jenna Doleh | 91 | | 2023-04-25T04:00:00Z | Study of arts education in Houston finds school engagement and student behavior improve–and test scores don’t decline | | 4/25/2023 2:59:03 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / More Arts = More Benefits for Kids Study of arts education in Houston finds school engagement and student behavior | 5595 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| Ensuring Access to Out-of-School-Time Programs and Using Federal Funds to Pay for It | 1412 | GP0|#b804f37e-c5dd-4433-a644-37b51bb2e211;L0|#0b804f37e-c5dd-4433-a644-37b51bb2e211|Afterschool;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61;GP0|#ff9563e3-b973-45a7-8ac3-c9f4122f9a13;L0|#0ff9563e3-b973-45a7-8ac3-c9f4122f9a13|Summer Learning;GP0|#890cbc1f-f78a-45e7-9bf2-a5986c564667;L0|#0890cbc1f-f78a-45e7-9bf2-a5986c564667|Social and Emotional Learning | <p>Ask people about the book they remember most clearly, a movie script they could recite, or the weirdest song they can sing along to, and chances are they’ll name something from their adolescence. The tween and early teen years, for better or worse, can stick with us throughout our lives, determining who we are, where we feel we belong and where we want to be when we grow up.</p><p>How can today’s adults help young people use these crucial years to become healthy, productive, and empathetic adults of tomorrow? One way is to offer meaningful and enriching out-of-school activities that provide safe spaces to experiment with new experiences, new interests, and new ways of relating to the world. </p><p>Unfortunately, many young people lack access to such activities. <a href="http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/AA3PM/">A 2020 survey conducted by the Afterschool Alliance</a> found that there were 24.6 million children in the U.S. who were not enrolled in out-of-school-time programs but would be if such programs were available to them. For every child enrolled in out-of-school programs, according to the same survey, there were three who would attend if they could. </p><p>Access is especially limited for youth from low-income backgrounds, many of whom may most need afterschool support while parents or guardians work multiple jobs to make ends meet. <a href="https://www.childtrends.org/publications/participation-in-out-of-school-time-activities-and-programs">According to a 2014 Child Trends survey</a>, 72.7 percent of households with incomes more than twice the federal poverty level enrolled children in out-of-school activities. For households making less than that, the number fell to just 43.9 percent, a 29-point difference. </p><p><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/ensuring-access-to-out-of-school-time-programs-and-using-federal-funds-to-pay-for-it/Federal-funds-for-OST-ch.jpg" alt="Federal-funds-for-OST-ch.jpg" style="margin:5px;" /><br></p><p>Decades of Wallace experience suggest that a focus on systems—the coordinated efforts of entities such as departments of education, school boards, philanthropies, nonprofit groups, and intermediary organizations—could help change this picture and expand access to quality out-of-school-time programs. Efforts in cities around the country, including <a href="/knowledge-center/Pages/building-an-effective-social-and-emotional-learning-committe-dallas-vol2-pt3.aspx">Dallas</a>, <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/expanding-social-and-emotional-learning-boston-vol2-pt2.aspx">Boston</a> and <a href="/knowledge-center/Pages/learning-to-focus-on-adult-sel-first-tulsa-vol2-pt7.aspx">Tulsa</a>, point to elements of systems that could help more young people access the programs they need, including:</p><p></p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">An entity to coordinate the work of different groups and the resources available to them </div><p></p><p></p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Clear standards of quality</div><p></p><p></p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Data systems that keep track of who has access to out-of-school-time programs, populations that may be excluded from them, the quality of services these programs provide, and opportunities to improve them</div><p></p><p></p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Committed leadership from prominent officials such as mayors and county executives</div><p></p><p>Wallace has <a href="/knowledge-center/after-school/pages/default.aspx">several resources available</a> to help cities develop such systems. Among them are guides to:</p><p></p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Help <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/from-access-to-equity-making-out-of-school-time-spaces-meaningful-for-teens-from-marginalized-communities.aspx">ensure equity</a> in out-of-school-time programs </div><p></p><p></p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Use <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/framework-for-measurement-continuous-improvement-and-equitable-systems.aspx">data to assess their effectiveness</a></div><p></p><p></p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Identify<a href="/knowledge-center/pages/federal-funding-guide-for-summer-and-afterschool.aspx"> federal funding opportunities</a>, made available through the American Rescue Plan of 2021, that could help pay for the development of these systems</div><p></p> | Wallace editorial team | 79 | | 2023-03-21T04:00:00Z | Your source for research and ideas to expand high quality learning and enrichment opportunities. Supporting: School Leadership, After School, Summer and Extended Learning Time, Arts Education and Building Audiences for the Arts. | | 3/21/2023 4:40:28 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / Ensuring Access to Out-of-School-Time Programs and Using Federal Funds to Pay for It Resources to help develop and cover | 2113 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| What Can Young People Teach Us About Out-of-School Time? | 193 | GP0|#b804f37e-c5dd-4433-a644-37b51bb2e211;L0|#0b804f37e-c5dd-4433-a644-37b51bb2e211|Afterschool;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 | <p class="wf-Element-Callout">“It's so important to think about the part that youth can play in shaping what an out-of-school-time or an afterschool program looks like.”<br></p><p><br>That’s what Shelby Drayton had to say about the importance of including young people in out-of-school-time (OST) planning in Episode One of our new podcast series, <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/beyond-the-classroom-podcast.aspx"><em>Beyond the Classroom</em></a>. Drayton is a senior program manager for UP Partnership, a San Antonio-based nonprofit that convenes partners in Bexar County to provide healing, access, and voice to local youth. </p><p>The podcast series explores findings from a <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/youth-perspectives-on-designing-equitable-out-of-school-time-programs.aspx">recent Wallace-commissioned, student-designed study </a>which surfaced young people’s insights into how to improve out-of-school-time programs. Topics discussed range from how to make programs accessible and welcoming to supporting youth workers. Read on to learn more about each of the three episodes and the guests, or start listening <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/beyond-the-classroom-podcast.aspx">here</a>.<br><br></p><p><a href="/knowledge-center/pages/making-out-of-school-time-programs-more-accessible-epidode-1.aspx">Episode 1: Making Out-of-School-Time Programs More Accessible</a><br></p><p>
Student researchers and OST practitioners discuss some of the most common barriers to participation in OST programs and what can be done to address them.</p><p><strong>Guests:</strong><br>
Shelby Drayton, Senior Manager, UP Partnership<br>
Connor Flick, Student, Gatton Academy High School, Kentucky</p><p><strong>Host: </strong><br>
Spandana Pavuluri, Student, duPont Manual High School, Kentucky<br><br></p><p><a href="/knowledge-center/pages/creating-programs-where-everyone-belongs-episode-2.aspx">Episode 2: Creating Programs Where Everyone Belongs</a><br>
Student and adult researchers discuss various strategies for building a sense of belonging and inclusion in OST spaces, beginning with centering the youth voice in the program’s design.</p><p><strong>Guests:</strong><br>
Spandana Pavuluri, Student, duPont Manual High School, Kentucky<br>
Syeda Tabassum, Student, Macaulay Honors College, New York <br>
Daniela DiGiacomo, Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky School of Information Science <br>
Sam Mejias, Associate Professor of Social Justice and Community Engagement, Parsons School of Design - The New School </p><p><strong>Host: </strong><br>
Connor Flick, Student, Gatton Academy High School, Kentucky<br><br></p><p><a href="/knowledge-center/pages/professionalization-and-precarity-of-the-workforce-episode-3.aspx?_ga=2.241407618.1275959992.1678288819-1225651268.1678288819">Episode 3: Professionalization and Precarity of the Workforce</a><br>
Researchers and practitioners discuss strategies for more effectively recruiting and retaining skilled youth workers. </p><p><strong>Guests:<br>
</strong>Bianca Baldridge, Associate Professor of Education, Harvard University <br>
Vanessa Roberts, Executive Director, Project VOYCE <br>
Deepa Vasudevan, Researcher, Human Services: Youth, Family, & Community Development, American Institutes for Research<br>
Sarai Hertz-Velázquez, Student, Wellesley College </p><p><strong>Host: <br>
</strong>Ben Kirshner, Professor and Program Chair of Learning Sciences and Human Development, University of Colorado Boulder</p><p>Listen wherever you get your podcasts.</p> | Andrea Ruggirello | 114 | | 2023-03-14T04:00:00Z | Beyond the Classroom podcast digs into findings from a student-led study on improving out-of-school-time programs | | 3/14/2023 4:00:12 AM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / What Can Young People Teach Us About Out-of-School Time "Beyond the Classroom" podcast digs into findings from a student-led | 1284 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| What Young People Want from Afterschool Programs | 42608 | GP0|#b804f37e-c5dd-4433-a644-37b51bb2e211;L0|#0b804f37e-c5dd-4433-a644-37b51bb2e211|Afterschool;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 |
<p><a href="/knowledge-center/pages/the-value-of-out-of-school-time-programs.aspx?_ga=2.116943174.1727170393.1677083209-1728090683.1676648512">Research has shown</a> that out-of-school-time programs are generally effective at producing the benefits for young people that they set out to provide–whether academic gains, enriching experiences, or homework help. But while there are numerous sources of federal and state funds available for afterschool and summer programs, they have seen consistently low rates of student participation. </p><p>Take, for instance, the federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program, a part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provides over $1 billion in funding annually for afterschool and summer programs for children in grades K through 12. Nearly half of the regular participants in the 21st CCLC programs attend fewer than 30 days a year.</p><p>We know this because of a
<a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/7459d0266b83629b887ac324b4f8307c/1.pdf?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y" target="_blank">recent analysis</a> of the current 21st CCLC policy by Jane Quinn, a venerable figure in the world of out-of-school-time.
<a href="https://www.childrensaidnyc.org/impact/stories/jane-quinn-leader-and-advocate-community-schools" target="_blank">An expert in afterschool and OST, she has more than five decades of experience</a> in the sector, having working as a social and youth worker for organizations including the Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago, Girls Clubs of America, Children’s Aid—and as program director here at Wallace for seven years in the 1990s.</p><p>Quinn is also, at age 78, a newly minted Ph.D. In fact, her findings about the low participation rate in out-of-school-time programs emerged from her dissertation for a doctoral program in urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center. In her thesis, Quinn analyzes the strengths and shortcomings of the current 21st CCLC policy. She argues that the challenge of meager participation can be addressed by “listening to the voices of young people and responding to their desire for engagement and challenge in out-of-school time programs.” We sat down with her to learn more about this and other key findings in the study. Her responses have been edited for length and clarity. </p><p>
<strong>Wallace Foundation: Your study found that nearly half of regular participants in the 21st CCLC programs attend fewer than 30 days a year. Why do you think attendance is so low, and what can be done to improve it?</strong> </p><p>Jane Quinn: According to the U.S. Department of Education’s data–specifically, their Annual Performance Reports on the 21st Century Community Learning Centers–fully 45 percent of students deemed to be “regular participants” in these programs across the country were reported to attend fewer than 30 days a year.  This number is problematic for several reasons, including the fact that we know from
<a href="/knowledge-center/pages/the-value-of-out-of-school-time-programs.aspx?_ga=2.116943174.1727170393.1677083209-1728090683.1676648512">prior research</a> that “dosage makes a difference,” meaning that higher program attendance has been shown to produce better outcomes. </p><p>When we combine this information about low attendance rates with US DOE [Department of Education] data about the content of 21st CCLC programs, we can begin to surmise why these rates might be so low. The Annual Performance Reports show that two of the three most frequently offered programs in 21st Century Community Learning Centers are homework help and tutoring, suggesting that many of the programs have largely become “more school” and are operating in ways that are not consistent with what young people say they want to do during their non-school hours. Homework help is offered five times more frequently than mentoring–something young people
<em>do</em> want–and tutoring is offered four times more frequently than leadership development. </p><p>
<strong>WF: Why is enrichment so important, and why do you think it is so overlooked?</strong></p><p>JQ: In the context of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers policy and program, enrichment should be considered important because it is central to the Congressionally mandated purpose of the program. However, the legislation never defines what is meant by enrichment, which has led to multiple interpretations, many of which seem off base to me. </p><p>In the context of what we know about young people’s development, enrichment is critical because it starts with student interests and focuses on engaging young people in their own learning. Why is it overlooked in many schools and afterschool programs? Because most people don’t understand what the term means, and some have never seen high-quality enrichment in practice. </p><p>Enrichment involves both pedagogy and program content. According to Professor Joseph Renzulli and his University of Connecticut colleagues, enrichment as a pedagogy consists of four elements: it is based on student interest; it uses authentic methodologies, such as project-based learning; it addresses issues that have no existing solution or “right” answer; and it results in culminating activities that allow young people to demonstrate what they have learned. This kind of pedagogy can be applied to a nearly endless array of content. The experts I interviewed had no problem naming the kinds of programming that they viewed as enrichment: book clubs, chess, debate, music, drama, dance, visual arts, robotics, computer programming, community service, sports, mentoring, and leadership development, among others.<br></p><p class="wf-Element-Callout">I believe that kids shouldn't have to be born rich to have access to enrichment. </p><p></p><strong>WF: Can you describe some characteristics of a good enrichment program? </strong> 
<p>
<br>JQ: Joseph Renzulli says that good enrichment programs are characterized by engagement, enjoyment, and enthusiasm. Many years ago, before I became acquainted with his work, I wrote a column for
<em>Youth</em><em>Today</em>, in which I described a similar set of characteristics. Mine were engagement, exposure, and experience. By exposure, I meant that afterschool and youth development programs can introduce young people to new relationships that build their social capital, to new ideas that enlarge their sense of the world around them, and to new opportunities that feed their aspirations. More affluent children and youth tend to have these kinds of experiences built into their academic and at-home environments. I believe that kids shouldn’t have to be born rich to have access to enrichment.  </p><p>
<strong>WF: What are some ways the quality of the programs can be improved, and how should quality be measured?</strong></p><p>JQ:<strong> </strong>When conducting my dissertation research, I was rather astonished to find that the federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers legislation and guidance said almost nothing about program quality, despite the great advancements over the past 25 years in the field’s definition of best practices. The field has produced well-documented guides, rooted in research, about the program factors that are associated with the achievement of positive results.<br><br>In addition, we now have several quality assessment tools that program operators can use to examine and strengthen their own practice. One of the best tools, in my view, is the
<a href="https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/vuFuC4x463i48x3cOFbHx?domain=forumfyi.org/" target="_blank">Youth Program Quality Assessment</a>, supported by the Weikart Center.  When assessing program quality, we want to look at a range of factors, including program content, health and safety, staff qualifications, youth voice and choice, and interpersonal relationships, including peer-to-peer and adult-youth interactions.</p><p>
<strong>WF: </strong><strong>You were involved in the community schools movement from the early days. Can you reflect on where it was back then and how it has evolved?</strong></p><p>JQ:<strong> </strong>Well, I wasn’t there in the<em> really</em> early days—that would have been at the turn of the 20th century when John Dewey, the renowned educational philosopher, wrote a monograph entitled
<em>Schools as Social Centers</em> (1902). He had the right idea then, and his work has influenced several generations of community school leaders. In 1998, John Rogers, a UCLA education professor, wrote a seminal paper on the history of community schooling in America, documenting that the current generation of community schools is the fourth such iteration of the work to foster strong relationships between schools and their local communities. </p><p>My involvement in this current generation of community schooling includes two phases. First was my work as a program director at Wallace in the mid- to late-1990s, which helped to create the
<a href="/knowledge-center/pages/findings-from-the-extended-service-schools-initiative.aspx">Extended-Service Schools</a> Initiative. And second, was my 18-year tenure as director of the National Center for Community Schools, a program of Children’s Aid. </p><p>In my view, all of these early investments contributed substantially to the current community schools movement, which is demonstrating success in informing federal, state, and local education policy and in responding to the documented needs of students and families in what is now being referred to as the post-COVID environment. More than 100 districts nationwide have adopted community schools as a preferred reform strategy, and Congress recently authorized an additional $75 million for the USDOE’s Full-Service Community Schools program, which will provide incentives for additional districts to adopt this strategy. </p><p class="wf-Element-Callout">The first and most important is clarifying what is meant by enrichment </p><p></p><p>
<strong>WF: What do you think policymakers should consider if they were to reimagine the 21st Century Community Learning Centers?</strong></p><p>JQ:<strong> </strong>My research offers 10 lessons for strengthening the 21st CCLC policy and program. The first and most important is clarifying what is meant by enrichment —an element that distinguishes this program from other federal initiatives that focus on remediation and compensatory approaches. </p><p>A related lesson is finding ways to address the participation rate problem. My sense is that, if programs were required and supported to offer genuine enrichment, rather than a steady diet of homework help and tutoring, young people would make it their businessto participate. And, in turn, outcomes would improve because young people would be engaged in activities of their own choosing.  </p><p>Another consideration would be how to encourage the creation of authentic partnerships between schools and such community resources as youth development agencies, arts organizations, and science museums. And, since 21st Century funding is one of the few sources of public support for summer programming, the authors of federal guidance could consider placing more emphasis on encouraging and enabling providers to include summer enrichment in their 21st Century-funded programs. </p><p>Policymakers should seize the opportunity provided by COVID’s disruptions of the educational landscape by re-envisioning the enrichment role of out-of-school-time programs in the lives of America’s children and youth.  <br><br></p> | Jenna Doleh | 91 | | 2023-02-24T05:00:00Z | An expert on out-of-school-time argues for focusing on vital enrichment programs rather than on homework help or tutoring | | 2/23/2023 8:37:56 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / What Young People Want from Afterschool Programs An expert on out-of-school-time argues for focusing on vital enrichment | 1227 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| How Seven Foundations Bolstered Afterschool, Summer Programming as COVID Raged | 42467 | GP0|#ff9563e3-b973-45a7-8ac3-c9f4122f9a13;L0|#0ff9563e3-b973-45a7-8ac3-c9f4122f9a13|Summer Learning;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 |
<p>In the frantic early days of the pandemic, afterschool program providers went into overdrive. While schools shut, many programs stayed open, delivering meals, helping families meet basic needs, moving youth programs online, or launching all-day learning centers for the children of essential workers.<br></p><p>
<img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-seven-foundations-bolstered-afterschool-summer-programming-as-covid-raged/Cover_EmergingVoicesSeries_Brief.png" alt="Cover_EmergingVoicesSeries_Brief.png" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:212px;height:275px;" />For seven philanthropies, the heavy load shouldered by youth programs was a crisis to address. It also presented an opportunity—to heighten awareness among policymakers and others of the importance of the out-of-school-time (OST) sector, which includes afterschool, summer and other beyond-the-school-bell programs. Their response, organized through Grantmakers for Education, was to pool $1.5 million to invest in a range of projects to help national organizations both advocate for OST programs
<em>and</em> provide guidance to their members and affiliates scrambling to meet pandemic-created needs. </p><p>
<img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-seven-foundations-bolstered-afterschool-summer-programming-as-covid-raged/jodi-grant.jpg" alt="jodi-grant.jpg" class="wf-Image-Right" style="margin:5px;width:161px;height:201px;" />It was a move perhaps unprecedented for OST donors. “In 18 years, this is the first time I’ve seen this kind of collaboration with funders,” said Jodi Grant, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance, one of the first four of the eight Afterschool and Summer Recovery and Opportunity Fund grantees in 2020 and 2021.</p><p>Personal stories can be influential with policymakers, Grant noted, and so her group used a portion of its grant to fund its Afterschool Ambassadors and Youth Ambassadors programs, which train providers and young people to speak publicly about their experiences with afterschool programs. Ambassadors are of diverse races and ethnicities and represent all regions of the country and communities in urban, rural, and suburban areas, Grant said. “Getting all those people to be seen and heard is key.”</p><p>She thinks similar communications efforts by a number of grantees helped lay the groundwork for the approval in federal pandemic relief packages of significant funding to bolster out-of-school-time efforts. “To date, we believe about $5 billion in federal COVID dollars have been used to support afterschool and summer learning programs,” she said. “Normally the federal budget is $1.3 billion for afterschool, so we’re talking about more than tripling that.”</p><p>
<img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-seven-foundations-bolstered-afterschool-summer-programming-as-covid-raged/GinaWarner.jpg" alt="GinaWarner.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:125px;height:167px;" />Amid the protests surrounding George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, social justice became a focus for the fund. The National AfterSchool Association, for one, used its grant in part to develop the <a href="https://naaweb.org/all-documents/41-the-ost-leaders-guide-to-equitable-hiring-and-staff-development-practices/file"><em>OST Leader’s Guide to Equitable Hiring and Staff Development</em></a>, a resource to help its 32,000 members establish more equitable workplace practices. While many nonprofits post equity statements and have good intentions, they often lack needed plans of action, such as strategies for attracting a more diverse applicant pool and reducing bias in interviews, according to Gina Warner, the association’s president and CEO. “I don’t think it’s a lack of interest,” she said. “It’s a lack of awareness and understanding, and access to resources for how to do it.” </p><p>In partnership with another grantee—Every Hour Counts, a coalition of organizations that coordinate communitywide out-of-school-time efforts—the group also led “equity strategy sessions” for more than 500 afterschool leaders, including those heading statewide or citywide program networks.</p><h3 class="wf-Element-H3">More Diverse Perspectives Needed</h3><p>The first four grantees, which included the National Summer Learning Association, met through video conferences with the philanthropies to share information from the sector and discuss how funders could most effectively respond, especially in communities of color hardest hit by the pandemic. Yet it was evident that more diverse perspectives were needed, recalled Grant. “We were all very aware that we were four organizations led by white people even though the communities we serve are much more diverse.”</p><p>The second group of grantees—the National Urban League, the National Indian Education Association, UnidosUS, and the Coalition for Community Schools—had deep expertise with K-12 education in communities of color as well as experience supporting OST initiatives.<br></p><p>
<img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-seven-foundations-bolstered-afterschool-summer-programming-as-covid-raged/EmergingVoicesBrief_Graphic3.png" alt="EmergingVoicesBrief_Graphic3.png" style="color:#555555;font-size:14px;margin:5px;" /><br><br></p><p>
<img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-seven-foundations-bolstered-afterschool-summer-programming-as-covid-raged/Claudia-DeMegret.jpg" alt="Claudia-DeMegret.jpg" class="wf-Image-Right" style="margin:5px;width:194px;height:217px;" />“The idea was to diversify and strengthen the national out-of-school-time community,” said Claudia DeMegret, a senior program officer at Wallace, one of the funders. “We laid the groundwork for that to happen.”</p><p>Like the first four grantees, the members of the next cohort were given flexibility to spend their grant dollars on projects they believed would have the most impact.</p><p>The National Urban League wanted to spotlight a problem raised by its local affiliates—the number of young people who pulled back from school during the pandemic. In a powerful series of 13 short films titled <a href="https://nul.org/event/emerging-voices-pandemic-students-speak-out" target="_blank">Emerging Voices from the Pandemic: Students Speak Out</a>, teens interviewed peers about the circumstances that had led to their disengagement and solicited ideas for improving learning and student well-being in schools. The need for more emotional support emerged as a theme.<br></p><p>
<img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-seven-foundations-bolstered-afterschool-summer-programming-as-covid-raged/EmergingVoicesBrief_Graphic4.png" alt="EmergingVoicesBrief_Graphic4.png" style="margin:5px;" />
<br>
<br>
</p><p>
<img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-seven-foundations-bolstered-afterschool-summer-programming-as-covid-raged/Horatio-Blackmanv1-Headshot.png" alt="Horatio-Blackmanv1-Headshot.png" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:200px;height:200px;" />“In our conversations with national policy tables, staffers on the Hill, and local advocates and our affiliates, people have told us that they’ve seen those videos and that they impacted their thinking on how to support youth,” said Horatio Blackman, vice president of education policy, advocacy, and engagement at the National Urban League. “I think it helped push the national conversation on social-emotional learning and whole child support.”</p><p>
<img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-seven-foundations-bolstered-afterschool-summer-programming-as-covid-raged/Diana-Cournoyer.jpg" alt="Diana-Cournoyer.jpg" class="wf-Image-Right" style="margin:5px;width:175px;height:175px;" />The National Indian Education Association used its grant to conduct a study of the characteristics and availability of afterschool programs in Native American communities nationwide. “I wanted to shine a light on these issues that don’t always get talked about in afterschool learning,” said Executive Director Diana Cournoyer.</p><p>Among other findings, nearly 36 percent of native parents surveyed did not enroll their child in an afterschool program because of lack of program availability or accessibility. For many Native American students in rural communities, commuting to and from school can take 90 minutes to four hours a day, Cournoyer explained. Running extra buses for afterschool programs, she said, is an expense rural school districts often can’t afford and grantmakers typically don’t cover.</p><h3 class="wf-Element-H3">A New Direction for Wallace</h3><p>
<img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-seven-foundations-bolstered-afterschool-summer-programming-as-covid-raged/GrantmakingPracticesOSTRecoveryOpportunityFund10-7-22-1.jpg" alt="GrantmakingPracticesOSTRecoveryOpportunityFund10-7-22-1.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:195px;height:252px;" />As a culminating activity, the eight grantees <a href="https://www.edfunders.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/GrantmakingPracticesOSTRecoveryOpportunityFund10-7-22.pdf" target="_blank">wrote a report</a> with recommendations to out-of-school-time funders. Suggestions included allowing nonprofits more flexibility in defining grant outcomes that meet their own priorities, getting community input into foundation initiatives, and putting longer grant cycles into place.</p><p>Gigi Antoni, director of learning and enrichment at Wallace, said that the foundation is using what it learned from the grantees’ feedback and its experience with the pooled fund to rethink its approach to out-of-school-time grant making.</p><p>For example, instead of soliciting grant proposals only from selected national nonprofits, which is typical for a national foundation, she said, Wallace recently put out a broad call for first-round applicants to a forthcoming, one-year venture. The hope is that this will lead to a more diverse applicant pool from which to draw finalists.</p><p>
<img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-seven-foundations-bolstered-afterschool-summer-programming-as-covid-raged/Gigi-Antoni.jpg" alt="Gigi-Antoni.jpg" class="wf-Image-Right" style="margin:5px;width:158px;height:167px;" />“We’ve talked to hundreds of communities in the last couple of months,” Antoni said, “and now have 1,700 applications from rural, suburban, and urban communities in every state in the country.”</p><p>The other contributors to the Afterschool and Summer Recovery and Opportunity Fund were the Bezos Family Foundation, S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, New York Life Foundation, Overdeck Family Foundation, and Susan Crown Exchange.<br><br><br></p> | Elizabeth Duffrin | 97 | | 2023-01-24T05:00:00Z | Novel fund supported pandemic guidance for youth programs and efforts to raise awareness of their importance | | 1/26/2023 5:04:11 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / How Seven Foundations Bolstered Afterschool, Summer Programming as COVID Raged Novel fund supported pandemic guidance for | 841 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| It's Here: Wallace's Top Ten Posts of 2022 | 42593 | GP0|#b68a91d0-1c13-4d82-b12d-2b08588c04d7;L0|#0b68a91d0-1c13-4d82-b12d-2b08588c04d7|News;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 | <p>It has been a busy year here at Wallace. But don’t just take our word for it. Let’s look at a few numbers. Since January 1, 2022, we’ve:</p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet"> Launched a new five-year arts initiative with 18 arts organizations of color </div><p></p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Received  more than 1,700 submissions for a new funding  opportunity focused on adolescents</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Continued working with eight large school districts to explore how to build pipelines that can produce school leaders capable of advancing their own district’s vision of equity</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Published more than 50 reports and articles, including the last of three “knowledge syntheses” examining what recent research says about important topics in school leadership</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Launched two podcast series</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Hosted several webinars and events, some with thousands of attendees</div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Much of this work has been captured by our editorial staff and guest authors on The Wallace Blog, as you'll see in our annual Top Ten Blog Posts. We think the list gives a good sense of the breadth of our work while highlighting common themes, such as how people working in education and the arts are still experiencing effects from the pandemic, and how everyone is craving conversation (online or, thankfully this year, sometimes in person) with experts and their peers along with data and research.<br><br> We hope you enjoy revisiting these stories, and we hope you learn something new!<br><br><strong>10. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/focusing-on-principal-wellness-6-questions-for-school-leaders.aspx">
<strong>Focusing on Principal Wellness: 6 Questions for School Leaders:</strong></a><strong> </strong>Four principals—who, together, have more than 30 years of experience as school leaders—discuss what inspired them to become principals, how they deal with burnout and the impact of the pandemic, among other topics. 
<strong></strong>
<br>
<br>
<strong>9. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/how-can-music-organizations-be-more-inclusive.aspx">
<strong>How Can Music Organizations Be More Inclusive?</strong></a><strong> </strong>In a Chamber Music America podcast episode, Slover Linett researcher Melody Buyukozer Dawkins highlights several insights from a recent study exploring 50 Black Americans’ perception of the arts. She also gives a few key takeaways for ensemble music professionals to use in their own work.<strong></strong><br><br><strong>8. </strong>
<a href="/news-and-media/blog/pages/three-districts-one-principal-pipeline.aspx">
<strong>Three Districts, One Principal Pipeline:</strong></a><strong> </strong>In this deep-dive into a sparsely populated section of rural Nebraska, we see how three small districts pooled their talent and resources to implement systemic improvements to the preparation, hiring, support and management of principals.<br><br><strong>7. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/how-can-arts-and-culture-organizations-be-more-welcoming.aspx">
<strong>How Can Arts and Culture Organizations Be More Welcoming?</strong></a><strong> </strong>Slover Linett researchers hit our Top 10 list twice this year, this time in a conversation upon the release of their report exploring Black Americans’ perspectives on arts and culture. The report also delves into how organizations can better support Black communities and work to earn their trust and make them feel welcome.<strong></strong><br><br><strong>6. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/five-takeaways-for-developing-high-quality-principals.aspx">
<strong>Five Takeaways for Developing High-Quality Principals:</strong></a><strong> </strong>Two reports released in 2022 show how states, districts and universities all have a role to play in improving the quality of principal preparation. Authors from the two research teams presented highlights from their work, along with a panel of experts to help dig into the findings. This blog post recaps five key takeaways from that conversation.
<strong></strong>
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<strong>5. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/why-afterschool-programs-need-social-and-emotional-learning-sel-now.aspx">
<strong>Why Afterschool Programs Need Social and Emotional Learning Now:</strong></a><strong> </strong>Read highlights from a webinar jointly hosted by The Afterschool Alliance, Every Hour Counts and the Forum for Youth Investment, which emphasizes how afterschool programs have used SEL strategies to help children throughout the pandemic.<strong></strong><br><br><strong>4. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/social-and-emotional-learning-in-the-spotlight.aspx">
<strong>Social and Emotional Learning in the Spotlight:</strong></a><strong> </strong>This post breaks down our three-part podcast series,
<em>Let’s Talk Social and Emotional Learning</em>, into short video clips in which Harvard’s Stephanie Jones highlights key topics in
<em>Navigating SEL From the Inside Out</em>.
<br><br><strong>3. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/helping-arts-workers-navigate-pandemic-induced-burnout.aspx">
<strong>Helping Arts Workers Navigate Pandemic-Induced Burnout:</strong></a><strong> </strong>Arts organizations offer up a slew of resources and ideas to support health and wellness for people working in the arts.
<strong></strong>
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<strong>2. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/two-summer-programs-inch-towards-normal-as-covid-subsides.aspx">
<strong>Two Summer Programs Inch Towards Normal as Covid Subsides:</strong></a><strong> </strong>What can summer do to help overcome the havoc Covid-19 has wreaked on young people’s lives? A fair bit, according to the parents, kids and staff we interviewed at two summer programs in New York and New Jersey. In the number two blog post of the year, they talk about their experiences, how the programs had to adapt due to the pandemic and what their plans are for the future. <strong> </strong>
<br>
<br>
<strong>1. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/new-research-points-to-a-looming-principal-shortage.aspx">
<strong>New Research Points to a Looming Principal Shortage:</strong></a><strong> </strong>Teacher burnout and shortages have been hot topics all year in the news. But what about principals? In the most viewed blog post of 2022, school leaders discuss how the principal role is changing, why four in ten principals surveyed said they might soon leave the profession and what to do about it.<br><br></p> | Jenna Doleh | 91 | | 2022-12-13T05:00:00Z | Your favorite reads this year touched on everything from SEL to principals to community arts | | 12/13/2022 3:37:27 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / It's Here: Wallace's Top Ten Posts of 2022 Your favorite reads this year touched on everything from SEL to principals to | 1119 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |