How Expanded Learning Promotes Equity in College and Career Readiness

1. How Expanded Learning Promotes Equity in College and Career Readiness June 2, 2014 @AYPF_Tweets

2. Expanded Learning (EL) • Afterschool • Summer School • Before School • Weekends • Extended Day • Informal Learning • Online Learning

3. How EL and Afterschool Contribute to College and Career Readiness and Success • Engage youth in meaningful, relevant activities and help them make connections to see where they are headed • Supplement, enhance, and amplify academic knowledge so that the process of moving through K-12 is easier • Allow for social and emotional development – obviously a key issue for all students, but particularly for the turbulent stages of adolescence and early adulthood • Provide opportunities to learn about careers and the college-going process which gives students a chance to think about the future and envision their own future • Give students a chance to make choices and use their voice • Form connections with competent, caring adults to help guide them

4. How EL and Afterschool Support College Going • Enhance, support, and strengthen academic skills • Provide a supportive environment that expects all youth to go to postsecondary education • Expose youth to college by taking them on college visits and tours • Provide summer experiences on college campuses • Help students and families identify prospective postsecondary education opportunities and provide college counseling and advisement • Provide assistance with the college application process, such as writing essays • Help families and youth navigate and understand the student financial aid process • Provide opportunities to meet and work with current college students from similar peer groups who can help youth see themselves as college-goers

5. How EL and Afterschool Support Career Preparation and Awareness • Provide youth opportunities for career exploration by meeting and working with different types of professionals in the community and offering career counseling • Provide service learning opportunities during which youth provide voluntary services to the community, such as helping with food banks, measuring water quality and cleaning up streams, or aiding with child care, and in the process are exposed to various professions and careers • Assist youth in obtaining internships or apprenticeships with public and private employers where they can sometimes earn a stipend • Visit workplaces and offices and learn about the skills desired by employers • Develop mentoring relationships with adults in certain career fields who can provide advice and guidance and encourage further education

6. EL Contributes to Equitable Learning Opportunities • More time for learning, both in- and out-of-school • Access to more caring adults • Exposure to new experiences, ideas • High expectations • Development of a wide range of knowledge, skills, and behaviors (SEL) • Supportive culture focused on youth assets, leadership, voice • Smoother transitions between middle to high school and high school to postsecondary education • Programs located and offered in communities of need • Programs targeted to students who are low income, lower performing, or lacking in other supports

7. Does EL Work? What Does the Research Say? • Ten years + of rigorous research exists that demonstrates that high quality AS and EL improve numerous outcomes for children and youth: • Increased school engagement • Increased school attendance • Increased academic outcomes • Reduced misconduct and negative behaviors • Increased on-time high school graduation • College and career awareness and preparation • Improved social and emotional wellness and self-esteem • Healthier lifestyles, increased exercise • Family closeness

8. Research and Resources • Learning Around the Clock, AYPF, http://www.aypf.org/resources/learning-around-the-clock-benefits-of-expanded-learning-opportunities-for-older-youth-2009/?documenttype=18&search=advanced • The Impact of Enhancing Students’ Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-Analysis of School-Based Universal Interventions, Durlak and Weissberg, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.x/abstract • After School Programs in the 21st Century: Their Potential and What it Takes to Achieve It, Little, Wimer, and Weiss, Harvard Family Research Project, http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our-publications/after-school-programs-in-the-21st-century-their-potential-and-what-it-takes-to-achieve-it • Taking a Deeper Dive into Afterschool: Positive Outcomes and Promising Practices, Afterschool Alliance,http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/documents/Deeper_Dive_into_Afterschool.pdf

9. Research and Resources, cont’d • The Case for Expanding Time and Learning in School, National Center for Time and Learning, http://www.timeandlearning.org/caseformoretime • Dr. Deborah Lowe Vandell, University of California - Irvine http://expandinglearning.org/research/vandell/ • Participation in Out-of-School Time Activities and Programs, Childtrends, http://www.childtrends.org/?publications=participation-in-out-of-school-time-activities-and-programs