A new grant competition will award $150,000 to libraries, museums, and other nonprofits to provide hands-on learning opportunities this summer for youth across the country to help make the online experience more civil, safe and empowering. The Project:Connect Summer Youth Programming Competition is administered by the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC), with support from the MacArthur Foundation through a grant to the University of California, Irvine, and in partnership with the Born This Way Foundation. Grants will support a series of local hands-on events July through September where young people collaborate and compete through activities such as hackathons, maker spaces, digital journalism and communications labs, and mentoring workshops. Programs must be based on the understanding that learning happens anywhere, anytime and should be equitable, social, participatory, and reflect kids’ interests. Applications are due June 10. More information can be found on the Digital Media and Learning Competition website.
Two C.K. McClatchy High School seniors, John Spurlock and Keenan Harris, took first place in the policy debate division at the national Tournament of Champions last month. The win was unexpected because the C.K. McClatchydebate team is an afterschool program and has a significantly smaller budget than the private schools it was competing against. “What we feel is important is hard work and showing teams like us that are without gigantic coaching staffs or huge travel budgets that success is possible,” Harris told the Sacramento Bee.
The D.C. Council unanimously voted this week to increase funding for summer school by $4 million and to continue teaching as many city students as possible over the summer. The council added the extra funds after D.C. public schools said it would scale back summer classes this year. “The council also approved an ‘emergency’ declaration stating that all students who need extra instruction should be able to enroll in summer school,” the Washington Post reports.
Since January, afterschool students at Hoover Elementary in Crawfordsville have been training for a 5k run. The students started running after school through a partnership of Fuel Up to Play 60, Chartwell’s and Prairie Farms, The Paper of Montgomery County reports. Even after the afterschool program ended, the students kept running and training for a 5k race on Saturday. Proceeds from Saturday’s run will help the school buy equipment and fund next year’s afterschool program.
Afterschool students from Hoffman Elementary School were left scrambling when minutes before the Texas Solar Race Car Event at Gustafson Stadium, their entry was accidentally crushed by a fellow competitor. The students, with the help of their coach, stripped the wheels from a decommissioned car, applied superglue liberally, and returned to the track to place first in their heat and advance to the semi-finals. The team’s coach Patrick Ware told the San Antonio Express-News, “The most important thing I think they get out of it is how to work together. Things we have to learn as adults they're learning right there.” The afterschool students dedicated the past two months to their goal of engineering the fastest miniature solar car in the competition.
As you've probably heard by now, we've partnered with the Noyce Foundation to offer the Afterschool STEM Impact Awards. We are inviting applications for two $10,000 awards to recognize afterschool STEM programs that are showing great youth outcomes. We have started to receive applications and I hope that we get a lot more! It's a terrific opportunity to showcase your great program, help us highlight why afterschool must be an integral partner in STEM education, AND win $10,000 for your program.
Eligible programs must have been running for two years and working with students in grades 4 through 8. We invite applications in two categories:
Afterschool programs that are a strong partnership between an afterschool provider and a STEM-rich institution(s), which include science centers or museums, nature centers, universities, government labs, STEM-related businesses, or other similar institutions. Programs may focus on any STEM topic.
Afterschool programs that have a strong computing and/or engineering component.
We recently held a webinar to answer questions and go over the review criteria we will utilize for the STEM Impact Awards. You may also be interested in taking a look at the slides from our prior webinar on “Defining youth outcomes for afterschool STEM programs” available on the same "Archived Webinars" page.
Additional details are available on the award website, along with a link to the online application. Applications are due by May 15, so don’t delay! We encourage all applicants to review the questions and generate their responses prior to beginning the online application. Once you begin filling out the online application, you must finish. Answers cannot be saved or returned to at a later date.
We look forward to receiving your applications and learning more about the terrific programs engaging our young people in innovative STEM learning experiences all across the country.
Earlier this month, Champions® and the National AfterSchool Association released their second annual “Out-of-School Time Survey.” The survey found an overwhelming majority of elementary and middle school superintendents believe in the academic, social and behavioral benefits afterschool programs provide to their students. In addition to viewing afterschool programs as an environment where children can improve their core academic skills—such as reading, math and science—96 percent of superintendents agree that the most important afterschool programs improve study skills and more than 9 in 10 superintendents surveyed agree that the most important afterschool programs increase students’ social interactions and engagement (92 percent). More than 4 in 5 superintendents say that the most important afterschool programs are those that offer activities not present during the traditional school day (82 percent).
A key take away from this survey is that school superintendents understand the true value of afterschool programs and recognize that schools and students benefit from support of afterschool programs. Schools aren’t alone in the charge to ensure that all students receive a quality and well-rounded education. Afterschool programs are able and willing partners to prepare students for success in school, career and life.
Key findings from the “Out-of-School Time Survey” of superintendents include:
97% agree afterschool programs can improve student skills in reading
97% agree afterschool programs can improve student skills in math
95% agree afterschool programs improve academics
95% agree that afterschool programs are to offer a safe place for students
93% agree that afterschool programs can improve student skills in science
92% agree that afterschool programs increase social interactions, fun and/or engagement
82% agree that afterschool programs are to offer activities not present during the school day
These findings show afterschool programs are seen as a critical component to students’ academic achievement, safety and overall well-being. This is very much in line with past surveys we have conducted and past surveys we have included in our fact sheets. For instance, Afterschool Alliance’s 2012 election eve poll found that when presented with information that research shows afterschool programs can lead to increased attendance, improved behavior and grades, 89 percent of voters agree that afterschool programs are important. If you’re interested in additional polling on afterschool, check out our Polling Data page.
1 I wish it were true that superintendents valued afterschool programs. At the Euclid City Schools our Superintendent, Mr. Bell, just let our staff know at the after school program that they laying them all off for next school year. Very sad. -- Mary Brinovec
Mayors and city council members from across the country co-authored a piece on the importance of afterschool programs in Education Week. It said: “For our cities to remain beacons of hope, it is our responsibility as municipal leaders to help young people develop the skills and talents they need to find gainful employment and become successful adults in a knowledge-based economy. City leaders must work together with schools, parents, and others to help young people thrive, with a shared understanding that their success will determine the success of our cities. Maximizing the after-school hours is one important way in which city governments can improve educational outcomes for children and teenagers and reinforce what they learn in the classroom.” The op-ed was signed by Mayors Christopher Coleman (St. Paul, Minn.), Karl Dean (Nashville, Tenn.), and Betsy Price (Fort Worth, Texas) and City Council Members James Mitchell Jr. (Charlotte, N.C.) and Ronnie Steine (Nashville, Tenn.).
Using data from a survey of young people, associate director of the Center for Education Policy Research Angelo Gonzales and his colleagues at the University of New Mexico, “have identified a strong relationship between students who are involved in activities outside of school and those who engage in less risky behaviors,” the Albuquerque Journal reports. “Specifically, students who said they were involved in extracurricular activities reported lower levels of attempts to commit suicide, smoking, binge drinking, drug use and sexual activity…and significantly higher rates of daily physical activity.” The New Mexico-specific data is from the 2011 state Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey of middle and high school students.
Students from the Whitney Community Center afterschool program are walking around the playground with Boise City Council member TJ Thomson as part of a local initiative to encourage physical fitness, the Idaho Statesman reports. Boise Mayor David H. Bieter has pledged to walk 150 miles in honor of the city’s sesquicentennial.
The the Worcester Technical High School Robotics and Automation Technology Team, one of 420 teams from 23 countries, won the 2013 VEX Robotics World Championships trophy over the weekend. Worcester Polytechnic Institute President and CEO Dennis Berkey told the Telegram & Gazette, “Their world championship award reinforces the power of STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] education, specifically as it applies in robotics, and especially the highly effective curriculum and dedication of the faculty and staff at ‘the other’ Worcester Tech.”
The president recently released his budget request for FY2014 and we wrote about the implications for afterschool in a recent blog post. The budget proposes a sweeping (and unprecedented) reorganization of federal STEM education investments—it consolidates or restructures 114 programs out of the existing 226 federal STEM programs. In the budget proposal, 78 programs are terminated and the funds from these programs ($176 million dollars) are redirected to other agencies, 49 programs are consolidated within agencies and 13 new programs have been proposed.
The $176 million from the eliminated programs would be split as follows:
$100.3 million to the Department of Education for K-12 education programs
$51.1 million to the National Science Foundation for undergraduate education and fellowship programs
$25 million to the Smithsonian Institution for a new STEM engagement initiative
There are several places to get the full details of the president’s budget request for STEM education—the White House R&D budget site and the American Institute of Physics FYI analysis are good places to start.
There would be a significant reduction of investment in informal STEM education (ISE) if this budget request were to be approved. Federal science mission agencies—such as NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Defense, and the Environmental Protection Agency—that have invested in ISE and afterschool see a significant reduction if not a complete elimination of their STEM education budgets. Of particular interest to the afterschool community, NASA’s Summer of Innovation program, which has provided funds to summer and afterschool providers, has been zeroed out. The National Science Foundation’s Advancing Informal Science Learning program also sees a $13.6 million cut below its current level of funding.
The Smithsonian is a new and surprising partner in STEM education, and the details of the $25 million request for “STEM engagement” are still being worked out. One of its main roles will likely be to serve as a centralized location for the education resources generated by the various science mission agencies. According to the budget request:
“The STEM initiative will be coordinated by the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access, which will create new online resources and experiences for students that have a measurable impact, align Smithsonian content with learning standards set by the states and create communities of teachers who may use Smithsonian content and tools to customize their own programs.”
At the Department of Education, the only real new opportunity for ISE lies with the “STEM Innovation Networks,” a new program to help school districts build strategic partnerships with institutions of higher education, museums, businesses, government agencies, etc. The three pillars for these networks are supposed to be teacher preparation, teacher professional development and ISE. However, the only required partnership as of right now is between school districts and universities, raising a concern that ISE will (again) not play its rightful role in STEM education reform.
The focus of the other K-12 programs proposed by the department is on teacher recruitment, preparation and professional development—$80 million to prepare 100,000 excellent teachers over the next decade (the "100k in 10" initiative) and $35 million to pilot a new program, the STEM Master Teacher Corps, that would recognize and reward the best and brightest STEM teachers and help them play a leadership role in their schools and communities. The Effective Teaching and Learning Program (formerly the Math and Science Partnerships Program) will receive $150 million; this program has been mostly used to provide professional development to teachers.
There are still many details to be worked out in this large-scale redesign of STEM education. While the proposal is worrisome for those of us who strongly believe that ISE should play an integral role in STEM education reform, it is still just a budget request. The ISE and afterschool community should view it as an opportunity to engage the Administration and Congress in a dialogue about the research base and evidence for building an “ecosystem for learning” that includes afterschool. Let’s rally to make it clear that young people lose when they can’t participate in innovative engaging afterschool STEM learning opportunities.
Today the president released his budget request for the upcoming 2014 fiscal year, which begins this October. With regard to support for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) initiative, the president requested $1.25 billion—reflecting an increase of $100 million from FY2012 levels (pre-sequester levels). As was the case in his budget request last year, the president proposes to radically change 21st CCLC to a competitive grant at the federal level as well as prioritizing 21st CCLC grant funding for new purposes including adding time to the traditional school day or year, and for teacher planning and professional development.
In a challenging budget environment in which many programs face consolidation or elimination, the proposed increase in 21st CCLC in the budget request demonstrates the importance and value of expanded learning opportunities.Unfortunately, in the budget documents and most notably in the budget justification, the president makes the preference for expanded learning time (ELT) clear by indicating that unless ESEA is reauthorized before FY2014 begins, the Administration will request authority to use the $100 million increase forcompetitive grants to support ELT models.
The Afterschool Alliance supports 21st CCLC funds being directed to high-quality afterschool, before-school and summer learning programs that focus on hands-on, engaged learning that complements and enhances but does not replicate the traditional school day. While not mentioned in the president’s budget, the Afterschool Alliance feels strongly that 21st CCLC funding should continue to support the partnerships between schools and community- and faith-based organizations that help children improve academically, socially and behaviorally while parents are at work. For more information on expanded learning, see our expanded learning resource page.
Additional Education Department funding that supports afterschool and summer learning includes $14.5 billion (level with FY2012) for Title I and $300 million for Promise Neighborhoods. The Safe, Successful and Healthy Students program would consolidate safe and drug free schools activities as well as school counseling and the Physical Education Program into one $280 million program. Note that all budget request amounts in the president's 2014 budget do not reflect the sequester and assume Congress will restore the funds cut by the March 1, 2013, deadline. The Department of Education’s budget summary is online.
Other budget news for the afterschool community:
School Safety
The president has proposed a new, comprehensive plan, Now is the Time, to protect schools and communities by reducing gun violence and providing resources to schools. Approximately $112 million in new funds are targeted to help to prepare schools for emergencies, create nurturing school climates and provide intensive supports to students who are exposed to violence. Other activities include collecting data on indicators of school safety and providing guidance on school discipline policies.
High School Redesign
Another new initiative is the $300 million High School Redesign program that that promotes innovative ways to prepare youth to be college and career ready, including, “career-related experiences or competencies, obtained through organized internships and mentorships, structured work-based learning, and other related experiences.”
National Service
The budget requests $1.06 billion for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), roughly even with the Fiscal Year 2012 enacted level. The funding level supports 82,000 AmeriCorps members, includes $49 million for the Social Innovation Fund, and creates the George H.W. Bush Volunteer Generation Fund, a $10 million program focused on improving the capacity of nonprofits to effectively manage and sustain volunteers. The CNCS AmeriCorps and VISTA programs help support afterschool programs.
Child Care Development Fund (CCDF)
The budget provides an additional $200 million in discretionary funds for states to support high-quality child care (including health and safety) in 2014 as well as a $500 million increase in mandatory funding for CCDF. Over the next 10 years, a total of $7 billion is invested to maintain the availability of child care subsidies. The budget invests $1.4 billion in new Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships to support states and communities in expanding the availability of high-quality learning opportunities for our youngest children.
Community Service Block Grant (CSBG)
The budget cuts CSBG by almost half, providing just $350 million for FY2014. The budget proposes to use competition to target the funds to high-performing agencies that are most successful in meeting important community needs.
Juvenile Justice
The budget renews efforts to promote juvenile justice and prevent youth violence. The budget provides $332 million for the Department of Justice's Juvenile Justice programs and includes evidence-based investments to prevent youth violence, including $25 million to fund the Community-Based Violence Prevention Initiative to provide grants to replicate successful community-based interventions to control shootings and other serious gang violence, and $4 million for the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, which provides assistance for selected communities across the nation to develop and implement youth violence strategies. The budget also includes $20 million for the Juvenile Justice Realignment Incentive Grants, which, in tandem with the $30 million reserved for Juvenile Accountability Block Grants, will assist states that are pursuing evidence-based, juvenile justice system alignment to foster better outcomes for young people, less costly use of incarceration and increased public safety. Further, the budget makes available $23 million for research and pilot projects focused on developing appropriate responses to youth exposed to violence.
STEM
The budget proposes a comprehensive reorganization of STEM education programs to increase the impact of federal investments in four areas: K-12 instruction, undergraduate education, graduate fellowships, and education activities that typically take place outside the classroom—all with a focus on increasing participation and opportunities for individuals from groups historically underrepresented in these fields. The reorganization involves a consolidation of nearly 90 programs across 11 different agencies. Nearly $180 million will be redirected from these consolidated programs toward the Department of Education, National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution to implement core initiatives in these four priority areas.
The Department of Education will restructure its own existing efforts to lead an initiative around improving K-12 STEM education. The budget invests $150 million, redirected from within the department and from other agencies, to support STEM Innovation Networks, which would be districts or consortia of districts working in partnership with universities, science agencies, museums, businesses and other educational entities. These public-private partnerships will work to harness local, regional and national resources to dramatically transform teaching and learning by implementing research-based practices, supporting innovation and building capacity at both school and district levels.
Also included in the Department of Education budget is $80 million for STEM Teacher Pathways to offer competitive grants to recruit, train and place talented recent college graduates and mid-career professionals in the STEM fields in high-need schools and $35 million to establish a new STEM Master Teacher Corps. STEM Master Teacher Corps members would make a multi-year commitment to build a community of teaching practice where they live, help students excel in math and science while taking on leadership and mentorship roles in their schools and communities and the broader STEM field, and receive annual stipends on top of their base salaries for their service in the Corps. Recognizing many agencies currently engage in various informal education activities to get the public, students and teachers interested in their missions and research, the budget redirects $25 million from these agencies to the Smithsonian Institution to improve the reach of informal education activities by ensuring that they are aligned with state standards and are relevant to the classroom. Look for follow-up post on the STEM aspects of the budget early next week.
Take Action! The president’s budget is typically released in early February and the late release in mid-April follows the passage of separate FY2014 budget resolutions last month by both the House and the Senate. The budget request now goes to Congress, where budget and appropriations deliberations for FY2014 are underway. House and Senate appropriations committees are holding hearings this week and next week to hear details of the education budget request from Sec. Duncan. Friends of afterschool programs can contact their Members of Congress to express support for 21st CCLC and federal funding for afterschool programs.
This week, 20 youth finalist teams will meet at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, for the Conrad Foundation’s 2013 Innovation Summit. Teams will present their designs of a “global innovation product” developed for the Spirit of Innovation Challenge to a panel of scientists, industry leaders, entrepreneurs and government officials. Challenged to create commercially viable products to address issues of global sustainability, teams applied their STEM knowledge in innovative ways, developing products for one of four categories—Aerospace and Aviation; Cybertechnology and Security; Energy and Environment; and Health and Nutrition. These young entrepreneurs will undergo a tough evaluation on technical content and market viability from an expert panel, and the winning team in each category will receive a $10,000 grant to continue their product development.
I spoke with one of the teams, Chicks in Space, a subset of the Neighborhood After School Science Association (NASSA) from Ava, NY. MaryAnn, Lillith and Adia—ages 17, 14 and 12, respectively—are among the 5 teams competing in the Aerospace and Aviation category. Their product, the Garden of ETON (Extraterrestrial Organic Nutrition), provides a way for astronauts weary of dehydrated foods to enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables. Through a series of experiments on plant growth in microgravity conditions, Chicks in Space developed a hydroponic gardening system that can be used in space! Their original submission video, below, follows the research and development process of the Garden of ETON.
Members of NASSA are enthusiasts of all things space—even the club’s name was created in homage to NASA! Last year, they were able to take a trip to the NASA Glenn Research Center. The club began five years ago when they couldn’t find afterschool programs that addressed the topics they desired or offered programming as often as they wanted. Beginning with a water purification challenge, the club then delved into activities from the Deep Earth Academy, which covers ocean drilling science and from NASA Wavelength, an exhaustive database of peer-reviewed Earth and space science resources. In 2011, the club developed a microgravity experiment for a NASA contest, which earned them the chance to have astronauts perform their winning experiment on the International Space Station (ISS)!
Chicks in Space closely follow the astronauts on the ISS. Don Pettit is the girls’ favorite astronaut to watch, whose video series “Science off the Sphere” can fill many a lunch break. Pettit served as inspiration for the Garden of ETON due to his in-flight experiments growing plants. The humorous Diary of a Space Zucchini chronicles one such microgravity experiment. The team hoped to build on the challenge of successfully growing plants without the earthly gravitational clues and to develop a sustainable fresh food source to be used on the ISS and in other microgravity environments.
Through their participation in science fairs throughout their elementary school years, along with their experiments in their afterschool club, the girls have become experts in the scientific process, demonstrating truly rigorous research and design skills. For help with some of the high-level science content needed to develop and refine the Garden of ETON, the team has Skyped with experts in the U.S. and overseas. They’ve been amazed at the willingness of scientists and other professionals to help out!
Ultimately, the Chicks in Space aim to present their findings to the International Space Station and hope that what they’ve developed can contribute to future NASA missions. The girls find space travel fascinating, believing it will be for the benefit of mankind if we can achieve it on a large scale. These entrepreneurial scientists have a bright future and the Afterschool Alliance wishes MaryAnn, Lillith and Adia the best of luck at the Spirit of Innovation Challenge!
This week, 20 youth finalist teams will meet at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, for the Conrad Foundation’s 2013 Innovation Summit. Teams will present their designs of a “global innovation product” developed for the Spirit of Innovation Challenge to a panel of scientists, industry leaders, entrepreneurs and government officials. Challenged to create commercially viable products to address issues of global sustainability, teams applied their STEM knowledge in innovative ways, developing products for one of four categories—Aerospace and Aviation; Cybertechnology and Security; Energy and Environment; and Health and Nutrition. These young entrepreneurs will undergo a tough evaluation on technical content and market viability from an expert panel, and the winning team in each category will receive a $10,000 grant to continue their product development.
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