Executive function (EF) describes a complex set of skills, including flexible attention, inhibitory control, and working memory, that coordinate to achieve behavioral regulation. Visuospatial skills (VS) describe the capacity to visually perceive and understand spatial relationships among objects. Emerging research suggests VS skills are…

This paper describes an after-school club aimed to engage elementary students in project-based learning by integrating mathematics and literacy connections within a community-based topic. Building on students' backgrounds and interests, researchers created the Community Super Investigators (CSI) Club as part of an after-school program to explore…

Previously developed K12 Engineering Activity Modules were modified to include a literacy component and facilitated 2 days a week as part of an afterschool Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program. The afterschool program started in October and ended in April, with a winter and aspring break. In this pilot, 2 K12 teachers…

Science learning is most often examined within formal education contexts, even though students spend more of their lives outside of the classroom. Students may interact with scientific phenomena during these out-of-school experiences, providing additional opportunities for learning to take place. Prior studies have found that optional science…

"You Can't Be What You Can't See" presents a rare longitudinal account of the benefits of a high-quality, out-of-school program on the life trajectories of hundreds of poor, African American youth who grew up in Chicago's notorious Cabrini-Green housing project in the 1980s and early '90s. The result of a five-year research project by…

After-school programs offer young people opportunities for self-expression, exploring their talents, and forming relationships with supportive adults. That is, after-school programs promote young people's social and emotional learning (SEL) skills--whether the programs use that term or not. Despite these programs' potential, Noelle Hurd and Nancy…

This article reports from instances of child language brokering among emergent bilingual youths and parents at a New York City after-school community literacy program composed largely of Mexican immigrant families. I argue that youth language brokers negotiated literacies with and for their parents in differing contexts, with different audiences,…

This article [explores] the learning of girls who were in a co-ed after school engineering club related to the project: Designing Vital Engineering and Literacy Practices for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math for Elementary Teachers and Children (DeVELOP STEM ETC). While few girls grow up to become engineers in the US, recently more…

This report is the results of an online survey of likely 2022 voters, conducted August 30-September 12, 2022. The data show that voters and parents alike have a clear vision of their priorities for education and schools, school funding, and parental involvement. [This report was prepared with Lake Research Partners. For "Across the Aisle:…

In this article, we playfully revisit the same data scene, but from three different perspectives. We call these revisits "re-turns" to data. These "re-turns" draw upon moments with young boys playing at a makerspace located in a multiracial, working-class community. This idea of "re-turn" is not simply about…

The University of Pretoria (UP) adopted an anchor institution strategy and designated the Mamelodi Campus as a faculty with a focus on community engagement with the primary goal of broadening educational pathways to post-secondary school attainment. As a conceptual shift from the community engagement literature, the Mamelodi Campus identifies the…

After six months in a COVID-19 world, with the continued uncertainty of when things will return to normal, this brief, "Preparing for Back to School and Navigating Summer in the Time of COVID-19," combines findings from a survey of parents along with the second in a series of surveys of afterschool and summer providers to monitor the…

Outside of school time (OST) programs are playing an increasingly prominent role in the lives of youth, particularly Black children. Because many schools are not meeting the social, cultural, and academic needs of Black students, the ability of OST programs to support students in these areas is essential. Ladson-Billings ("The dreamkeepers:…

Out-of-school programs for students with high abilities are especially relevant when their needs are not covered in formal education. The evaluation of these programs is essential and it can be carried out from different evaluative approaches. The evaluation of the behavior of the people who implement the programs is an important aspect in the…

As society expects children and youth today to explore content-area topics in depth and to develop critical-thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills, out-of-school settings are becoming increasingly important to individual learning. These settings, which include libraries, museums, digital media, and after-school programs, are evolving…