Two-thirds of teachers polled in a recent survey said they spend at least a month reteaching students old material when they return from summer vacation.

The survey, administered by the National Summer Learning Association, asked 500 teachers how much time they typically spend teaching students skills they should have learned and retained from the previous grade. Nearly a fourth (24 percent) said at least five to six weeks, while two-thirds claimed at least three to four.

As discussed a number of times on this blog, existing research shows summer learning gaps disproportionately affect low-income students. However, research by the Rand Corp., and more recently, the Partnership for Children and Youth, show high-quality summer programs can help.

Check out my story out this week on summer programs, which discusses how some districts are shifting from traditional remediation-style summer school to academically enriching programs. I mention examples in Grand Rapids, Mich.; Sacramento, Calif.; and Duval County, Fla. Some of the newer programs, like that in Duval County, are using summer to meet other school year academic goals—in its case, implementation of the common core.

In other summer news, recent articles seem to suggest there is also a growing interest in providing access to more summer learning resources digitally. In Virginia, the state department of education has launched a website that provides resources and recommendations for parents and community members on how to reduce summer learning loss in core academic subjects like reading and math.

In New York City, the HIVE Network, a collaborative of local organizations that provide students with virtual and other 21st-century learning in out-of-school hours, has added another 15 organizations to its cadre. And libraries in Pittsburgh are now providing students access to a digital summer reading program called Questyinz that guides elementary students through virtual quests.

National Summer Learning Day is June 21.

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Though many STEM opportunities are available in Chicago's out-of-school programs, the city can do a better job of providing equitable access to those opportunities on a citywide basis, says a new report.

The report, released by the Chicago STEM Pathways Cooperative, an alliance of STEM education stakeholders, and Project Exploration, a nonprofit science education organization, is the city's first comprehensive survey analysis of STEM opportunities in out-of-school programs. The findings are based on data and surveys from local organizations and a conference held in December 2012.

According to the findings, despite more than 2,000 STEM opportunities provided in the out-of-school hours by more than 500 organizations in 2011, certain groups, like Latinos, were underserved. While Latinos make up 44 percent of the district student population, for example, they only made up 28 percent of those engaged in the STEM learning offerings, even though the programs offering STEM instruction were said to be available throughout the city.

Also of note, girls were found to be taking the most advantage of the STEM opportunities (56 percent girls to 44 percent boys), though they are historically underrepresented in STEM fields.

To the cooperative and Project Exploration, the findings mean Chicago can do a better job of coordinating efforts between programs and targeting groups of students and their parents to improve the access of them.

To increase and improve STEM offerings for all students, the report recommends that the city and school district:

• Create a portal that connects students (and their parents) to STEM opportunities;


• Reduce barriers like transportation or language that may prevent some groups from gaining access to opportunities;


• Improve relations between various stakeholders (teachers, parents, schools); and,


• Target funding and resources to STEM opportunities for most disadvantaged students.

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The arts—said to be neglected by schools since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 pressured them to focus on literacy and mathematics instruction—may no longer be side-swiped for other disciplines.

Some expanded learning time schools are now using their longer school days not just for additional instruction in math, reading, and the like, but for arts education (dance, drawing, theater, and music), according to a new report released by the Boston-based National Center on Time & Learning.

The report, which received support from the Wallace Foundation, profiles five schools, which serve mostly low-income students, that have prioritized arts education as a key component of their students' education when they redesigned their school day. In addition to added time for the arts, appropriate staffing and resources have been dedicated accordingly, the report says, as the schools see the arts as valuable to improving student engagement in school in addition to achievement in other subjects. (The Wallace Foundation also underwrites coverage of arts education and expanded learning time in Education Week.)

The profiled schools are:
Berkshire Arts & Technology Charter Public School in Adams, Mass.
Clarence Edwards Middle School in Boston
Metropolitan Arts and Technology Charter High School in San Francisco
Cole Arts and Sciences Academy in Denver
Roger Williams Middle School in Providence, R.I.

At the Cole Arts and Sciences Academy, for example, students choose eight-week electives in a variety of arts disciplines that have included computer drawing or photography.

"The two arenas of academics (ELA and math) and the arts are often positioned as competitors in a kind of zero-sum game, rather than as partners in a potential educational synergy that holds both intrinsic and instrumental benefits for students," the report says. "Arts education, when it is approached with the seriousness of purpose exemplified by the schools profiled in this report, can be a powerful medium through which students come to love learning, strive for excellence, and imagine a fulfilling, purposeful life."

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The challenges and potential benefits of using expanded learning time as a strategy for school reform are the focus of the latest issue of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, an independent news publication that advocates for education reform in that city.

While the articles focus on the issues and challenges Philadelphia K-12 schools have faced, they are set within the broader context of recurring themes of ELT implementation efforts nationally.

Many of the struggles the district has faced are tied to finances. In its third year of budget cuts, proposals for upcoming reductions to district programs and services are significant, the Notebook says. Summer programs, for example, have declined and now only serve 2,000 of the district's 137,500 total students now that the federal stimulus funding used to support them ran dry and the district doesn't have the money to fill in the holes. Securing resources to provide high-quality programs remains a struggle at both the district administration level and within the individual community organizations they partner with to provide services.

Still, there are some bright spots, the publication reports. Currently, the Philadelphia district has a three-year project underway (with support of foundation dollars) to improve its coordination of out-of-school offerings by making better use of data on students (attendance, performance), providing more accessible information to parents, and ensuring consistent quality is provided at the "big mash of programs" that currently serve 40,000 K-12 students and their families.

Several other stories in the issue look at how low-income students can garner the greatest benefit from expanded learning time, the rising interest in the community school model, and how principals play a key role in acquiring the partnerships and private dollars typically needed to enhance offerings at schools.

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More than 80 percent of the respondents in a recent survey said more time in school could help improve students' college and career readiness, according to a new report from the National Center on Time & Learning and the Education Commission of the States.

Findings from the survey, which sampled 1,000-plus American adults, are included in the report that examines the current and recent federal, state, and district expanded learning policies and developments. Chicago's shift to longer school days districtwide and federal School Improvement Grants that can be used for expanded learning at the local level are two such examples the report cites to highlight a growing interest in using ELT as a strategy for school reform.

The report also provides an extensive list of pro-ELT state policies that have emerged within the past few years. A number of the legislative actions at the state level have taken place in conjunction with other changes to education policies, such as allowing existing funding streams be used for expanded learning or reining in collective bargaining. Some are tied to policies that encourage overall school redesign, with added time as one feature.

A few state policy highlights:

• Iowa and North Carolina's state commissions that have examined ELT as a state education reform.
• The Time Collaborative, a group of five states that have pledged to support expanded learning efforts in their respective states. (I wrote a story on this in December.)
• New York's recently authorized $20 million competitive-grant program for ELT and school redesign.

There is also a list of policy recommendations for federal, state, and local leaders. These include: focusing on high-poverty students, using expanded learning as part of larger school improvement efforts, exploring cost-effective ways to add time, and using successful strategies from ELT schools on how to restructure the school day.

"[The] growing differential among children in learning outside the current school day and year means that, more than ever, schools operate as the primary institution through which our country can hope to equalize opportunity, and, in turn, expanding and strengthening the education program at high-poverty schools has become a critical lever to achieve such equity," the report says.

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Libraries, museums, and nonprofit organizations interested in promoting hands-on summer learning activities that incorporate technology can now compete for $10,000 grants from the MacArthur Foundation to underwrite their efforts, according to a press release.

The Chicago-based John T. and Catherine D. MacArthur Foundation will provide $150,000 total in awards for the Connect Summer Youth Programming Competition; The Born This Way Foundation will be offering help to grantees to develop activities and projects for the summer.

The goal of the competition is to support single- or multi-day programs that emphasize learning that is engaging, hands on, and has real-world applications that will help reduce learning loss over the summer, in addition to preparing students for the 21st century, the foundation reports.

Since 2004, the MacArthur Foundation has spent more than $100 million on research, projects, and assessments on the impact of digital media use by children and young adults. The summer learning grant project is part of its larger annual Digital Media and Learning Competition that will award $1.2 million this fall.

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Pittsburgh will be home to a summer learning campaign in the coming months as part of a new initiative to "remake summer learning" in the city, according to a press release.

The Days of Summer project is supported by the city's HIVE Learning Network, an organization that advocates new ways to teach and learn, particularly in out-of-school environments. There are HIVE networks in New York and Chicago, all of which receive funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

This summer, the Pittsburgh network, with support of a local nonprofit, the Sprout Fund, will coordinate activities at museums, libraries, camps, and other community institutions for students in the city.

A number of these efforts will incorporate digital tools, like mobile phones, to make the activities more appealing to students and to teach 21st-century skills, says the release.

Pittsburgh is not the only place using community institutions to provide real-world learning experiences.

According to an article in the Minnesota Star Tribune, museums in that state (and elsewhere) are increasingly becoming a resource for schools to enrich and enhance their curriculum, especially given budget reductions.

For example, students at a high school in Albert Lea receive hands-on history lessons at a local historical village, learning such skills as planting corn and churning butter, in addition to developing a history lesson to teach 5th grade classes.

Museums invest more than $2 billion a year for educational programming, the article reports.

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Twenty middle schools in New York will be part of a new expanded learning time pilot next school year that adds hours and intensive reading instruction to the day, according to news released this week from TASC.

The pilot will expand the work of the Middle School Quality Initiative, started in 2011 to improve college and career pathways for disadvantaged middle school students in the city. The new efforts will be supported by $4.65 million in funding from the Robin Hood Foundation (a New York-based foundation focused on combating poverty) and the City Council, in addition to $1.55 million from the New York state education department.

TASC, The After-School Corporation, and Harvard University's education innovation lab will collaborate on how to best use the extra hours in the school schedule and how to structure the reading tutoring. It's estimated that 2,000 students will participate in this component of the program within the next three years.

The 20 schools have yet to be selected but will be chosen from a pool of 40 that will be joining the Middle School Quality Initiative this fall. Among other things, it provides additional funding and professional development for teachers at high-needs schools.

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Cities are playing an increasing role in supporting after-school opportunities for students, even with strained resources, says an opinion piece written by local officials, featured on edweek.org today.

Authors Christopher Coleman (mayor of St. Paul, Minn.), Karl Dean (mayor of Nashville, Tenn.), James Mitchell Jr. (city councilmember in Charlotte, N.C.), Betsy Price (mayor of Fort Worth, Texas), and Ronnie Steine (city councilmember in Nashville), write that city governments and community partners play an essential role in providing safe, enriching environments for students when they aren't in school.

"As mayors and city council members, we have a unique bully pulpit from which to promote the after-school hours as a time of enrichment and learning," they write. "In collaboration with other local partners, we can work collectively to provide all young people in our communities with access to high-quality after-school and expanded learning opportunities."

But after-school programs not only benefit students, they say; the opportunities provided can help in lowering city crime rates and improving career pathways for students, whereby stimulating the local economy.

The piece profiles efforts in their respective cities to promote after-school programs:
- The Nashville, Tenn.: Nashville After-Zone Alliance
- Charlotte, N.C.: city spends $590,000 funding six after-school providers
- St. Paul, Minn.: Sprockets program
- Fort Worth, Texas: city spends $1.4 million annually supporting 94 after-school initiatives for four school districts

The authors also offer recommendations for how cities can strengthen after-school opportunities, namely: improving the data and information for parents and the community about what options are available, combining funding sources and developing creative sources of revenue to support programs, and bolstering the collaboration between city agencies, schools, and community organizations.

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The Seattle district may be implementing a longer school day in the future, adding half an hour to the six-hour school day, according to a recent article.

School administrators are currently planning how added time could best benefit students, but are already concerned that such a plan would run into logistical barriers—namely, funding and teachers' union pushback, according to KPLU.

If time is added, there would likely be some disagreement over what to use it for: more academics or more enrichment time for classes like arts and physical education. That debate has emerged in other districts that have implemented expanded learning models.

"There obviously has to be a commitment that it's sincerely an effort to restore the richness of the school curriculum, and not just double-dipping of the tested subjects," Jonathan Knapp, president of the Seattle Education Association, is quoted as saying in the article.

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