Making the most of time: Strategies for Promoting Expanded Learning For All Students

Making the most of time: Strategies for Promoting Expanded Learning For All Students
Making the most of time: Strategies for Promoting Expanded Learning For All Students

Overview

CHSE Logo[2]The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) is partnering with the Campaign for High School Equity (CHSE) to organize a series of discussion groups focused on key education policy issues of importance to the civil rights community. The Campaign for High School Equity and its members[1] are interested in becoming more deeply involved with various policy issues that affect the education of students of color. This discussion group is one of a series of four being held in 2014 and focuses on Expanded Learning Opportunities. Youth need a range of knowledge, skills, and abilities to graduate high school prepared for the world beyond. Students need an increasingly deep understanding of academic content, but in order to master that content, students must also develop higher order skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and social and emotional skills. Systems-navigation skills to understand the college-going process and potential pathways to graduation and employment are also vital. Students, however, have not always had opportunities to develop these skills in school, as the K-12 system has focused primarily on teaching students academic content, with little attention to many of the additional supports or learning experiences needed to prepare for college and careers. In order to ensure that all students are prepared for life beyond high school, educators should think differently about how we use time, both during and beyond the school day. There are a variety of innovative models that promote student learning by making the most of any available hours in a student’s day. Some communities have built robust networks of afterschool and summer providers that engage students in a variety of learning experiences and are key partners with schools to not only promote student engagement, but also provide students with valuable knowledge and skills. Others have re-envisioned the use of time during the school day and leveraged up to 300 additional hours in the school year to expand opportunities for learning, enrichment, and teacher collaboration. Regardless of the model, communities have come to realize that educators can foster a student-centered learning environment by taking advantage of time beyond the traditional school day to engage youth in a diversity of learning experiences. This discussion group will examine the role that expanded learning, either during an expanded school day or out of school, can play in supporting positive outcomes for students of color and low-income students. It will examine the structures that must be put in place to ensure equitable access to such opportunities. [1] The Campaign for High School Equity members include: Alliance for Excellent Education • League of United Latin American Citizens • Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People • National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund • National Council of La Raza • National Indian Education Association • National Urban League • Southeast Asia Resource Action Center • The Leadership Conference Education Fund

Presenters Included:

Roy Chan, Director, Effective Practices, National Center for Time and Learning Sharon Deich, Vice President, Cross & Joftus Terri Ferinde Dunham, Partner, Collaborative Communications Group Angela Hernandez-Marshall, Team Leader, 21st Century Community Learning Centers Patricia Hurrieta, Director of Teaching and Learning for English Language Development Lori Kaplan, President & CEO, Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) Candy Markman, Director, Mayor’s Afterschool Initiatives, Historic Metro Courthouse Bela Shah Spooner, Program Manager, Afterschool Initiatives, Institute for Youth, Education, and Families, National League of Cities

Presenter Biographies

Roy UCB formattedRoy Chan has been a member of the Knowledge Management team at NCTL since April 2010.  He is responsible for documenting and disseminating promising practices taking place at expanded-learning-time schools across the country. During the past two years, Roy has served as a lead writer for the signature NCTL publication Time Well Spent: Eight Powerful Practices of Successful, Expanded-Time Schools, and as the researcher and author of the case studies that comprise the organization’s series on Transforming Schools through Expanded Learning Time. Roy started his career in education as a Teach for America corps member, teaching seventh and eighth grade math, social studies, and science in Philadelphia. Roy’s work in Philadelphia led him to a non-profit organization, AchieveAbility, planning academic programs for low-income single parent families. He then moved on to serve as a member of the School Opening and Transitions team of then Washington, D.C. School Chancellor Michelle Rhee.  Right before joining NCTL, Roy worked with the Big 8 Texas school districts to document their use of data to measure and drive student achievement. Roy holds a BA in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School. Sharon pic 2 small formattedSharon Deich is vice president of the education policy consulting firm Cross & Joftus, where she focuses on education financing issues and change management.   This work often involves support for financing and/or sustaining a range of services that happen inside and outside of the traditional school day.   At Cross & Joftus, Deich directs a series of projects that include providing technical assistance to nine cities that are working to build Citywide After School Systems; conducting financial analyses for school districts looking to reallocate resources toward priority areas, and assisting districts and non-profits with strategic planning.   Her work builds on two decades of experience in the nonprofit sector that includes research, policy analysis, and technical assistance.  She works with federal agencies, state government leaders, city officials, foundation initiative leaders, and non-profit organizations on issues related to early care, K-12 education, after-school programming, and related education reform efforts. From 1997 to 2007, Deich served as an associate director for The Finance Project, where she authored numerous briefs and reports on the financing of human services programs and provided technical assistance and expert facilitation to organizations looking to scale up and sustain promising initiatives. During this period, she also served on numerous advisory boards, including one for a joint project of the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and the National Conference of State Legislatures to expand extra learning opportunities as a way to improve student success.  Before joining The Finance Project, Deich spent 15 years researching and evaluating programs that support low-income children and families. Her prior experience includes work for the American Institutes for Research and the Urban Institute. Deich earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from The State University of New York at Albany and earned her master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan. terri 2 formattedTerri Ferinde Dunham is working to create a new learning system where schools and communities work together. She works with organizations focused on both in- and out-of-school learning to develop networks, strategize new initiatives and build capacity. Terri was named one of the top 25 most influential people in afterschool in 2014 by the National AfterSchool Association. For more than a decade, Terri has managed the National Network of Statewide Afterschool Networks funded by the C.S. Mott Foundation with 47 statewide networks and partnerships focused on policy and funding for high-quality afterschool programs across the country. Terri is the publisher and author in the groundbreaking compendium, Expanding Minds and Opportunities, Leveraging the Power of Afterschool and Summer Learning Programs for Student Success. She serves as director of the Expanded Learning and Afterschool Project, a 50-state initiative harnessing the power of networks and leaders to help schools and communities leverage the time beyond school to accelerate student achievement by sharing research on high quality expanded learning; identifying and spreading best practices in afterschool and summer learning; and sharing affordable, sustainable and effective expanded learning approaches.

As a partner at Collaborative Communications Group, she has managed, facilitated and supported groups that expand learning opportunities and redefine professional development for clients including the Council of Chief State School Officers, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, the New Day for Learning initiative of the C.S. Mott Foundation and the Alliance for Excellent Education.

Angela Hernandez-Marshall currently works at the U.S. Department of Education as Team Leader for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, where she coordinates monitoring and technical assistance to States and U.S. territories. She transitioned the 21st CCLC program after five years working as the Department’s Team Leader for the Smaller Learning Communities discretionary grant program for secondary schools. Prior to her service at the Department, she worked in non-profit, district-level, and school-level roles across the country, including the Council of Chief State School Officers, La Escuelita afterschool program in Minneapolis, and New York City public schools. She holds a joint MPAff. From the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and a B.A. from Columbia University.

patricia formattedPatricia Hurrieta is the Director of Teaching and Learning for English Language Development for the Adams County School District 14, which serves 8500 students in a diverse school system in Colorado. She holds a BA in Elementary Education and Bilingual, Multicultural Education and an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction. She is currently pursuing an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. She has served as a Principal, Assistant Principal, Instructional Coach, Reading Specialist and Classroom Teacher in highly diverse schools that serve low income and emerging bilingual students in metro Denver. During this time she restructured a school to meet the needs of the students by offering a path to biliteracy and extended learning time providing enrichments that served to close the opportunity gap. She has also mentored and supervised principal interns. Currently, she is overseeing the district’s transition to support emerging bilinguals through native language instruction. Emerging bilinguals and equity are major foci of her work.

terri formattedLori Kaplan has led the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) to its national prominence as an award winning network of youth programs in Washington DC since 1987. Under Lori Kaplan’s direction, LAYC has helped guide thousands of low-income youth to better opportunity, while creating pioneering organizations and schools. Lori’s leadership roles include selection as a board member of Leadership Washington, pioneering the way as a founding board member of The Nonprofit Roundtable, winning the Lewis Hine Award for her work on child labor issues, and steering LAYC to be chosen under her direction by the Annie E. Casey Foundation for its $500,000 Families Count Program honors. Several national organizations regularly seek her advice and invoke the model success of LAYC’s innovative programs, including Georgetown University’s Center on Poverty, The National Youth Employment Coalition, and The National Youth Policy Forum. She is the founding co-chair of the DC Alliance for Youth Advocates, and was on the founding board of Youth Radio and Youth Media International. Several DC Mayors have relied on Lori’s leadership on youth issues, and many DC Council members.

Candy Markman formattedCandy Markman joined Nashville Mayor Karl Dean’s staff, as director for afterschool initiatives, in 2008.  She was charged with launching the Nashville After Zone Alliance, a city-wide afterschool system for Metro Schools’ high-risk middle school students.  During the 2013/14 school year, NAZA’s 32 programs engaged over 1,000 high-need middle school students in four geographically-based “afterzones”. Each program combines academics with high-quality enrichments. This unique private-public partnership has earned substantial support from The Wallace Foundation and is an Every Hour Counts partner. For the decade before she joined the Mayor’s Office, Markman was responsible for the local United Way’s community investments, with particular focus on K-12 programs. As a result, she participates in local and national initiatives to support children and youth. She has chaired the local Workforce Investment Board’s Youth Council and helped found the Nashville Youth Coalition. Markman has degrees from Vanderbilt University and Tennessee State University.  In the 1990’s she was executive director of Dismas Inc., a multi-state network of transitional homes from men and women leaving prison.  She is a past board member of Amnesty International’s U.S. section and Tennesseans Against the Death Penalty. In 1985 she founded Better Decisions, a local agency that supports life skills development in incarcerated women and girls. Better Decisions has served close to 2000 inmates, with the support of over 1,200 volunteers acting as classroom instructors and as mentors. Bela-Shah-Spooner_for-web1 (1)Bela Shah Spooner is a Program Manager for Afterschool Initiatives in the Institute for Youth, Education, and Families at the National League of Cities (NLC). She joined NLC in 2004 to inform municipal officials about the importance of afterschool learning opportunities and work with them to utilize their leadership and bully pulpit to advance a citywide afterschool agenda. She launched NLC’s Afterschool Policy Advisors Network (APAN) in 2005, a national peer-learning network to connect senior municipal leaders who focus on afterschool programs, which grew to include over 400 cities. Bela had provided technical assistance to over 25 cities focusing on building citywide systems of afterschool and serves as a resource to cities that are interested in expanding learning opportunities available to their youth. As part of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation supported Afterschool Technical Assistance Collaborative, she also supports the 42 statewide afterschool networks’ efforts to increase the quality and access to afterschool programs and makes connections to city leaders. She has authored Cities and Statewide Afterschool Networks Partnering to Support Afterschool Programs and NLC’s 2011 report Municipal Leadership Afterschool: Citywide Approaches Spreading across the Country which highlights a growing trend in communities to develop comprehensive, citywide afterschool systems for children and youth and includes profiles of 27 cities that are among the most advanced in their efforts to coordinate afterschool opportunities. Mrs. Spooner has convened three National City Afterschool Summits in 2006, 2008 and 2010 bringing together municipal, school district and business leaders to highlight the role of cities partnering with diverse stakeholders to advance afterschool efforts at the local level. Focusing on the state level, she has helped fourteen statewide afterschool networks host mayoral summits on afterschool in 2010 and 2012, and is working with five more to host additional mayoral summits in 2014. Prior to NLC, Bela worked for the Coalition for Community Schools, a network of more than 150 local, state and national organizations which works to improve education by promoting partnerships between local schools and community-based organizations to provide comprehensive and integrated services within schools. Bela co-wrote the Coalition report, Making the Difference: Research and Practice in Community Schools. Bela holds her master’s degree in sociology and education with a concentration in education policy from Teachers College, Columbia University and her bachelor’s in psychology and spanish from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two sons.

Supplemental Materials/Resources

Institute for Educational Leadership: Community schools and ELO Overview

Institute for Educational Leadership: An ELO typology 

National Center on Time and Learning: Scope and Sequence

AYPF: Learning Around the Clock

The Impact of Enhancing Students’ Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-Analysis of School-Based Universal Interventions, Durlak and Weissberg

Harvard Family Research Project: After School Programs in the 21st Century

Afterschool Alliance: Positive Outcomes and Promising Practices

National Center for Time and Learning: The Case for Expanding Time and Learning

Childtrends: Participation in Out-of-School Time Activities and Programs

Expandedlearning.org: Afterschool Is a Real Solution Linked to Closing the Gap

Video, America’s Promise: Expanding Time, Expanding Opportunities

Click Here to Read the Event Brief

Click Here to View the Event Agenda

AYPF: Research Supporting Expanded Learning

 

Presenter Information:

Roy Chan

Director, Effective Practices

National Center for Time and Learning

24 School Street, 3rd Floor,

Boston, MA 02108

617.378.3900

Sharon Deich

Vice President

Cross & Joftus

8610 Ridge Rd, Bethesda, MD 20817

301.229.3049

Terri Ferinde Dunham

Partner

Collaborative Communications Group

1029 Vermont Ave NW,

Washington, DC 20005

202.271.8651

Angela Hernandez-Marshall

Team Leader

21st Century Community Learning Centers

OESE/ AITQ

US Department of Education

400 Maryland Ave, SW, Rm 3E204

Washington, DC  20202-6200

202.205.1909

Patricia Hurrieta

Director, Teaching and Learning, English Language Development

Adams County School District 

5291 E. 60th Ave.,

Commerce City, CO 80022

720.322.8105

Lori Kaplan

President & CEO

Latin American Youth Center (LAYC)

1419 Columbia Road, NW

Washington, DC 20009

202.319.8642

Candy Markman

Director 

Mayor’s Afterschool Initiatives

Historic Metro Courthouse

1 Public Square #100

Nashville, TN 37201

615.862.4701

Bela Shah Spooner

Program Manager, Afterschool Initiatives

Institute for Youth, Education, and Families

National League of Cities

1301 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, 5th Floor

Washington, DC 20004

202.626.3057

 

____________________________

The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF), a nonprofit, nonpartisan professional development organization based in Washington, DC, provides learning opportunities for policy leaders, practitioners, and researchers working on youth and education issues at the national, state, and local levels. AYPF events and publications are made possible by contributions from philanthropic foundations. For a complete list, click here.