Education

Education Department Offers Free PD for After-School Field

By Nora Fleming — August 03, 2011 1 min read
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Those who missed last week’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers conference, or are looking for a chance for professional development and networking opportunities with other providers/instructors in the out-of-school-time realm, can access the Department of Education’s new website: You for Youth.

Profiled in a session at last week’s conference, the site offers a number of features for OST professionals. There are multimedia videos on project-based learning, school day alignment, STEM, and partnerships. Several coaching modules offer ideas for program curriculum and step-by-step instructions for implementation.

A searchable state map includes a listing of every state’s programs that receive 21st CCLC funding, and a search-by-topic library lists links and materials on particular subjects related to extended learning and after-school programs. In the future, the site is supposed to include discussion forums to help those who work in the field exchange and collaborate on ideas, in addition to more PD training tools.

Currently, the site says, there are 3,300 active 21st CCLC grants that fund 8,900 centers serving 1.5 million children.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Beyond School blog.