This study examines the relationship between Japanese children's inquiry skills and their participation in various after-school programs. Inquiry skills--encompassing the ability to explore, analyze, and synthesize information--are essential competencies in 21st-century education. However, limited research has explored how different types of…

Young children's exposure to early math concepts is important in their development, in their confidence in math skills, and in their ability to use math later in life. In 2013, the Heising-Simons Foundation embarked on an innovative path to support children's early math development. The Foundation invited several family engagement providers to…

This report highlights the critical role family literacy and learning play in breaking down barriers between different learning contexts and engaging hard-to-reach adults and children in education. This report was developed as part of a family learning project initiated by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) in 2016. Based on the…

This Special Issues Brief from the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability and Reform (CEEDAR Center) and the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL Center) outlines essential features for providing high-quality, structured, and sequenced opportunities to practice within teacher preparation programs. This brief is…

Each week, nearly 11 million children under age 5 are in some type of child care setting for an average of 35 hours. Parents, as consumers of child care, equate a child care license with state approval--a gold seal for those businesses to which a state grants a license. Child Care Aware® of America reviews state licensing policies, which include…

This paper offers a summary of key findings from a telephone survey of 1,204 California parents conducted in September and October 2009 in both English and Spanish. The survey was prefaced by four focus groups: in Oakland, San Jose, Fresno and Los Angeles. The survey highlights several important themes for educators and policymakers, the most…

Improving the quality of out-of-school time activities and creating effective learning environments is of keen interest to practitioners, funders and policymakers. Funded by The William Penn Foundation, "Quality Time After School" identifies characteristics of after-school activities that are linked to youth engagement and learning…

In 2007, the United Animal Nations (UAN) launched the Humane Education Ambassador Readers (HEAR), an innovation that focused on mitigation of animal suffering through education. In the HEAR program, adult volunteers read carefully selected story books to children in grades 3-6 in schools or other educational settings, and hold discussions with the…

This document is a workbook that describes how youth practitioners, Workforce Investment Act (WIA) entities, policymakers, funders, and others can use the Promising and Effective Practices Network (PEPNet) to improve the field of youth employment and youth development. The workbook begins with an introduction to PEPNet, which is a framework for…

An evaluation was conducted of the Atlanta Public Schools Sunclasses program, which was designed to reinforce basic reading and mathematics skills of retained or administratively placed students in grades 1-4, through 10 instructional television programs aired during a 6-week period in the summer of 1984. Supplementary activities implemented to…

This proposal for the creation of a computer-assisted instructional (CAI) laboratory in a middle school in Oklahoma City emphasizes the need for such facilities to provide remedial instruction and improve student motivation as a means of reducing the number of students in the district dropping out of school before graduation. Intended for use by…

The effectiveness and efficiency of Kenyan educational radio programs for teaching English in Standard 6 classes were assessed in a research project which was undertaken as part of a training program jointly organized by the African Curriculum Organization, the Kenya Institute of Education, the University of Nairobi, and the German Agency for…

This publication defines "service learning" as an instructional strategy in which students are involved in experiential education in real-life settings and where they apply academic knowledge and previous experience to meet real community needs. The publication is intended for persons who are interested in enriching learning through…

This report provides a descriptive overview of what students in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) do in their out-of-school time, based on responses to a questionnaire administered to ninth, tenth, and eleventh graders. For the past 3 years, Chapin Hall has collected information from CPS high school students on their after-school and weekend…

This book was designed to help administrators, teachers, staff, parents, governing boards, teacher educators, and students to decide what children need to learn about computers and information handling; how these new objectives fit into the curriculum in mathematics, science, language arts, and social studies; how to use computers in classrooms;…