This paper examines students' perceptions of how intentionally taught 21st century skills have transformed their lives. Personal development education (PDE) encompasses interpersonal and interaction skills that are required for students to function and succeed in global-oriented 21st century colleges and careers. The Common Core State Standards…

Low-income urban youth of color often face challenges in their transition to early adulthood. High school out-of-school time (OST) programs that promote positive youth development may help youth to better negotiate this period. However, little research exists on the long-term impact of such programs on young adults. The authors conducted a pilot…

The Afterschool Alliance, in partnership with MetLife Foundation, is proud to present the second in their latest series of four issue briefs examining critical issues facing middle school youth and the vital role afterschool programs play in addressing these issues. This series explores afterschool and: the Common Core State Standards, students…

Temporal and spatial configurations that constitute learning and identity work across practices have been little explored in studies of science literacy development. Grounded in multi-sited ethnography, this paper explores diverse girls' engagement with and identity work in science locally, inside a newsletter activity in an afterschool programme…

In response to requests from out-of-school time (OST) providers, the authors have created this practitioner's guidebook for integrating adolescent literacy development initiatives into a wide variety of OST programs. As readers will discover in subsequent chapters, the authors' definition of adolescent literacy development represents a…

Over the next 20 years, experts predict that the number of Latina/o children in the U.S. will double, so that by the year 2025, one in four school children will be Latina/o (White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, 1998). Yet the academic achievement of Latina/os lags far behind that of other ethnic and racial…

This article reports on a public school that is succeeding in encouraging Latino high school students to select Computer Science (CS) as a major. The students attend a charter high school designed to encourage low-income Latino students to attend college and attain proficiency in English, Spanish, and computers. Using data from surveys and by…

Many families in Boston, especially the immigrant ones, are unable to navigate the Boston Public Schools system and offer their children the education they could have. In this article, the author shares how the learning and support she obtained from Citizen Schools has helped her navigate through high school and in life. Citizen Schools is an…

The rapid growth of high school clubs, the important educational functions in which they engage, and the close relationship they bear to the work of the school have given them a place of first importance among the school organizations carrying on extracurricular activities. Such clubs are a means of closing up the educational gap resulting from…

School-family partnerships (SFPs) have been the focus of research, policy, and practice efforts for several years. Increasing the interest in SFPs has been the finding that when schools and families cooperate closely, children benefit. The more supportive links there are between settings, the more potential there is for healthy development. Such…