Pennsylvania 21st Century Community Learning Center has announced several approved national trainings. 21st Century grantees are required to send two staff to two approved national training per grant. For a complete list of new approved training for 2009, please click here.
Bedford County 21st Century Community Learning Center Consortium Receives National Coverage
Bedford County 21st CCCLC Consortium was recently profiled in AfterWords, an e-newsletter published by the U.S. Department of Education. The article, featuring comments by 21st CCLC board member Walter Curfman, discusses the best practices that the Bedford County program is implementing. To read this article, click here.
The State Education Data Center (SEDC)
The State Education Data Center (SEDC), SchoolDataDirect.org, is a new online service providing current and historical data as well as the tools needed to inform decisions, drive reform, and conduct quality research on public schools and districts from a single website!
With information for all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, educators, researchers and policymakers can access and download comprehensive data on: Student Performance, District Spending, Revenue and Taxes, College Prep, School Environment and Community Demographics. For more information, click here.
Mott Releases, A New Day for Learning, a Report of the Time, Learning, and Afterschool Task Force
The report is intended as the first step towards catalyzing conversations and initiating the development of actions among key decision makers across the country. On January 17 in Washington, DC, the Task Force will discuss what it takes to implement a new day that maximizes children's learning opportunities.
A New Day for Learning, a report from the Time, Learning, and Afterschool Task Force was funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Task Force members include researchers, foundation leaders, afterschool experts, education leaders, municipal officials, business, and school reform experts. To view a copy of this report, please click here. For additional content, including a cover story from Edutopia Magazine and documentary film segments on afterschool programs, please visit www.edutopia.org.
Sustainability Planning for 21st CCLC
The Center for Schools and Communities (CSC) in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Education sponsored orientation on Sustainability Planning for 21st Century Community Learning Centers Cohort I Grantees. 60 persons from over 24 sites attended one of three orientation sessions held in Erie, Pittsburgh, and Camp Hill between September 7 and September 14, 2006. Lynn Reinhold and Michael Brand from the Center for Schools and Communities presented an orientation that provided a basic introduction of Financial Sustainability Planning using six modules developed by The Finance Project. The orientation provided the participants with information about understanding the value and benefits of sustainability planning.
After thoughtful and careful consideration of the internal management structure, implementation of 21st CCLC, and assessment of overall readiness, Erie School District, Allegheny County Department of Human Services, RSVP in Newport School District and Bethlehem School District are participating in a larger Sustainability Planning process.
Family and Community Development Coordinators are working intensively with these sites through Spring of 2007. Their assistance involves:
- Six to eight facilitated team meetings.
- Eight to ten on-site technical assistance visits with the sustainability planning team and sub-committees.
- Regular consultation via telephone and e-mail.
- Professional development sessions via on-line training.
Participating in this process will help sites to:
- Clarify where they are and develop a focus on where they want to go.
- Demonstrate the value of their work to their community.
- Convince investors to support their work.
Additionally, Bedford and Farrell School Districts are facilitating this process through their own leadership with follow-up and assistance from Michael Brand, CSC Family and Community Development Coordinator.
More information about the Finance Project is available at www.financeproject.org
Summer Learning Programs with an International Focus
The Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University is conducting a survey to find out what summer learning programs are currently doing to help kids and young people learn about international issues and gain a global perspective. They are looking for model summer programs that can help us shape future work in this area. Please take a moment to fill out a very brief survey and share with us a little about your program. We will use survey responses to help us identify potential partners for an upcoming project of the Center for Summer Learning. Take survey!
What Does It Take to Invest in Summer?
Summer represents a time of year when public education resources dramatically decline. Yet we know that summer learning programs are critical in providing youth with safe, nurturing, and engaging environments that accelerate achievement and promote healthy development. Despite the well-documented need for summer programs and significant public and private investment, very little is known about the actual costs of running varying types of programs and the likely benefits of participation. Read More...
More News:
21st Century Community Learning Centers 101:
Live, Online Professional Development Session--Recorded Online Session and Powerpoint Presentation
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS:
Third Annual Eastern Regional Conference on Afterschool
5th Annual Afterschool for All Challenge a Great Success
Extra Learning Opportunities and After-School Programs:
What Does the Research Tell Us?