Free Screening of Brooklyn Castle in Oakland for Afterschool Educators

By Sam Piha

There will be a free screening of Brooklyn Castle for afterschool and educational workers on November 13, 2012 from 7pm-9pm at Park Day School, Oakland. This feature film documentary is the remarkable and improbable true story of an afterschool program at I.S. 318 in Brooklyn; defying stereotypes, it has the highest ranked junior high chess team in the nation. This film will open in Bay Area theaters on November 16. 

Please forward on this invitation to others in your network. Seating is limited and people can register here.

To see a preview of this film, click here.
For a review of the film in the New York Times, click here. 
For our recent blog post of an interview with the filmmaker, click here. 

This special screening is sponsored by the Learning in Afterschool & Summer project, Temescal Associates, Partnership for Children and Youth, OUSD’s The Family, Schools, and Community Partnerships Department, Public Profit, and Park Day School. 

For our friends across the Bay, a San Francisco screening on November 8, 2012, sponsored by DCYF, the Learning in Afterschool & Summer project, and Temescal Associates, can get more information and RSVP by clicking here.

Brooklyn Castle: Coming to a Theater Near You and Interview with the Filmmaker

Katie Dellamaggiore

By Sam Piha

Brooklyn Castle is a documentary about Intermediate School 318 – a Title I school where more than 65 percent of students are living below the federal poverty level, that happens to have the best junior high chess team, bar none, in the country. This documentary will be shown in the Bay Area beginning November 16, 2012 at the Opera Plaza Cinema in San Francisco and the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley. 

There will be a free sneak preview of Brooklyn Castle in San Francisco on November 8, 2012 for educators and afterschool leaders at Landmark's Embarcadero Center Cinema - One Embarcadero Center. You can RSVP by clicking here and view the trailer by clicking here. (We are currently trying to arrange a free screening in the East Bay and will keep you informed.)  

The team wins almost every tournament they compete in, and regularly defeats schools with resources I.S. 318 can only dream about. Chess is the cornerstone of I.S. 318’s vibrant roster of afterschool programs, and it has transformed the school from one cited in 2003 as a “school in need of improvement” to one of New York City’s most highly regarded. Assistant Principal John Galvin credits chess and the school’s more than 40 other afterschool classes -- as well as its tireless, dedicated staff -- with achieving this sea change, and creating a “culture of success” within I.S. 318. That success is now seriously threatened by a series of recession-driven budget cuts. 

Below is an interview with Katie Dellamaggiore, Director and Producer of Brooklyn Castle. 

Q: What drew you to the chess program at I.S. 318?

A: I was intrigued by the idea that the story defied expectations. People don’t expect a Title I school (a school with more than 60% of students from low-income households) in Brooklyn to have the number one chess team in the nation. I certainly didn’t, and I’m from Brooklyn! I was really proud to find out that we had this little gem of a school right here in our backyard, and I thought it was a really inspiring story that others would want to know about, too. 

Q: Based on what you saw there, how do you explain their success?

A: When I first got to the school, I didn’t know what to expect. The thing that surprised me most was how compelling it was to watch Elizabeth (Vicary) Spiegel teach the kids chess. Although I’m not a chess player, I was completely enthralled with watching her teach, even though I couldn’t figure out what she was talking about. I thought, "You must be a pretty darn good teacher," because even without following her, the level of enthusiasm that she had and the connection she was making with the kids was palpable. You could see it in her face and in the kids’ faces. There was just a great energy in the room and I think Elizabeth's passion and energy for teaching chess is just such a huge part of why the team is so successful.

Q: For the kids who participate in the chess program, how do you think this will affect them in the near and distant future? What did they learn that you believe will help them in their later life?

A: From the time I spent observing the chess team I definitely saw that learning chess, and becoming good at chess, nurtures the kind of critical thinking skills and self-reflection that kids need to face all kinds of challenges in life. But I think the real specific benefits of participating in the chess program differ from kid to kid. In the movie, each of the five kids we follow have very unique goals they are reaching for -- from overcoming ADHD, to gaining more confidence, to learning leadership skills -- and the lessons they learn on the chessboard definitely translate into the real life lessons they use to achieve their individual goals. One of the mantras of the I.S. 318 chess team is that if you work really hard and apply yourself, you can be successful. And the impact of that lesson, especially for kids that are already dealing with the hardships of poverty, can't be underestimated. 

Q: What do you believe are the lessons about learning that other schools and afterschool programs can take from this documentary?

A: I think this emphasis on afterschool and enrichment activities during the school day and after the school day at I.S. 318 is an excellent example for other schools to follow. Under the leadership of the late I.S. 318 principal Fred Rubino afterschool programs at I.S. 318 are not seen as "extras" but as a critical to educating the whole child. Mr. Rubino would hire teachers that also had a special talent they could channel into an afterschool program, like music, art, guitar or dance. And many of the forty plus afterschool programs that are offered at 318 are also offered as electives that kids can choose to take during the school day as a graded class. So there's this kind of this seamlessness to the school day, where a student can take a chess class during the day and then they can also be part of the chess team after school. Their afterschool chess instructor is also their chess teacher during the day, so there's also a real positive mentoring relationship being formed between teacher and student. And the kids are happy to be at school and to stay at school past 3 p.m. because they know they are going to get to participate in the activity that they've chosen, and that they're starting to build a passion for. 

Q: There is a good deal of attention being paid to the development of character and non-cognitive skills (like grit, persistence) because research is suggesting that these are more important to success than academic skills. Did you get any sense of this in your work at I.S. 318?

A: Well, I don't know if I can say that one is more important than the other, but I absolutely think that you can't expect kids to be successful by only teaching them traditional academics without also offering them the kind of non-cognitive development skills they need to become happy, successful, self-reliant, curious adults. The I.S. 318 chess program is featured prominently in Paul Tough's new book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character exactly because Ms. Vicary's style of teaching chess encourages the development of these non-cognitive skills and I think that's made evident in the stories we captured in Brooklyn Castle.

Q: The Learning in Afterschool & Summer project is promoting 5 principles of learning that we believe all programs should embody: Learning should be active, collaborative, meaningful, supports mastery, and expand the horizons of participants. Did you see any of these principles demonstrated in the chess program that you document? Which do you think were most important?

A: Yes, all of these principles are demonstrated in the chess program. I guess the most important one I witnessed was that learning should expand the horizons of participants. In the film there's this quote from Diego Rasskin Gutman that states there are more possible chess games than there are atoms in the universe. And just being able to impart this idea of limitless possibility on a young mind is such a great gift to give a kid, whether they are contemplating all of the strategic and creative moves they can make on the chessboard or all of the strategic and creative moves they can make in life.

_____________________________
Katie Dellamaggiore is a documentary producer and director whose work has appeared on MTV, A&E, HBO/Cinemax and VH1. Over the course of her career, she has held various production and outreach roles on award-winning documentaries including 39 Pounds of Love, To Die in Jerusalem, 51 Birch Street and American Teen. Katie co-produced After the Storm, a nonprofit theater and film project that used art to revitalize the lives of young people in post-Katrina New Orleans, and directed, produced and shot UR Life Online for A&E Classroom, which explored sexual solicitation and cyber bullying and received an Emmy nomination for Single Camera Editing. Brooklyn Castle, Katie’s feature directorial debut, has received support from IFP Independent Film Week 2010, Chicken & Egg Films and the Fledgling Fund.

Mindfulness in Afterschool Programs, Part 2

By Sam Piha

Laurie Grossman

Laurie Grossman of Mindful Impact has been bringing mindfulness training to young people in low income classrooms for many years. She has recently partnered with Temescal Associates and Aspiranet to pilot mindfulness training in Oakland Unified School District afterschool programs. Her full bio is below our interview with Ms. Grossman.

Q: What have we learned from the assessment of mindfulness training for young people? 

A: One of the interesting aspects of assessing mindfulness programs for elementary school students is that surveys basically provided the same results over and over again at different schools. In general, the program’s effectiveness was more dramatic at underserved schools compared with affluent schools, however, all students were greatly impacted. 

Surveys demonstrated that more than 90% of teachers said they had benefitted personally and would continue using mindfulness in their classes. Teachers said 80% their students benefitted from mindfulness. Over 90% of students said that mindfulness has helped them in their life in some way and 85% said they would use mindfulness in the future. 60% said mindfulness helps them calm down and helps them focus better in the classroom. Over 50% said it helps them make better decisions and the same percentage teach mindfulness to someone outside of school. 

Gina Biegel, a mindfulness researcher and founder of Stressed Teens conducted a study in Oakland with 80 students. According to a computerized attention task given before and after a four hour mindfulness program delivered over five weeks, students’ attention improved.  

Q: Are there long term impacts of mindfulness training for children?

A: Mindfulness training for children is a relatively new field and long-term studies have not yet been conducted. That said, there is much anecdotal evidence that many students who learn mindfulness continue to use it after lessons are concluded. Over fifty percent of students who received a 15 lesson  3 and ¾ hour program over five or eight weeks teach someone outside of school how to practice mindfulness. Recently a parent told me that her young teen practiced mindfulness with her younger siblings to calm them down and put them to bed. The mom asked where she had learned mindfulness and she said “in-school.” The young teen learned mindfulness in her elementary school three years ago. When a large funder was coming to review our program, we surveyed schools where we had conducted the program years before. A few new teachers had mentioned observing their students practicing mindfulness without really understanding what it was about. Mindfulness is like riding a bike, once you know how to do it, you will always know how to do it; remembering to do it is what is important. Undoubtedly, mindfulness would be more effective for children if teachers continued the program once outside consultants left. Some do and some do not. This is an important aspect of teaching mindfulness that must be addressed.

Q: Do you think mindfulness training would be effective in afterschool programs?

A: Doing homework, engaging in physical activities, art and music, and 

special projects all require focus. Providing mindfulness training in after-school programs could help children concentrate on the activities at hand. Because mindfulness enhances impulse control, students are more able to collaborate with others and pause if something doesn’t go exactly the way they want it to. Because after-school is not as structured as the classroom, students have more opportunities to make decisions and mindfulness helps students make better decisions. Mindfulness helps build community and could enhance relationships in after-school programs. Once students learn the basic practices of mindfulness, they can lead sessions helping to maintain mindfulness throughout the year. 

Q: How does mindfulness align with the LIAS learning principles?

A: The LIAS principles are vital for learning and mindfulness supports each of them. Mindfulness is awareness. When one is active, one must be aware of how one moves, engages with others and conducts oneself. Mindfulness encourages moment to moment awareness and engagement regardless of the activity. Collaboration requires that one is aware of oneself but also of others; we have been told that mindfulness has reduced conflict on the yard and in classrooms. When one practices mindfulness one is engaged and often sees things anew, so students may find special meaning in activities by paying attention to how they are doing what they are doing. This attention and focus enables students to become more capable and masterful and open to new experiences, expanding their horizons.  

Q: Do you see training mindfulness in afterschool programs as a way to bring mindfulness into the school day?

A: If after-school staff are trained in mindfulness and then trained to teach it, they could eventually be mindfulness teachers for the classrooms. This could take a few years but would serve a variety of purposes. First of all, it would help link after-school and the day program, and provide more clout to the after-school staff. Secondly, funding could be sought to pay after-school teachers to teach mindfulness in classrooms during the day. Since after-school providers are often paid meager wages, this might be a way to improve their pay and keep them from leaving, reducing turnover of staff.  

______________________

Laurie Grossman has spent her career seeking social justice and educational equity for low-income children and communities. At Park Day School in Oakland, California, she created a Community Outreach Program to develop public/private partnerships for 19 years, Mindful Schools being the most recent. With a group of committed colleagues, Grossman and team brought mindfulness programs to 11,000 children in 42 schools (71% of them low-income students) and training to 1,500 educators before separating from Park Day School to become an independent non-profit organization.  Grossman has recently founded a new organization, Mindful Impact, to continue her commitment to bringing mindfulness to low-income communities. She is currently working with Temescal Associates to take mindfulness programs into afterschool settings.

Mindfulness in Afterschool Programs, Part 1

By Sam Piha

Laurie Grossman

Laurie Grossman of Mindful Impact has been bringing mindfulness training to young people in low income classrooms for many years. She has recently partnered with Temescal Associates and Aspiranet to pilot mindfulness training in Oakland Unified School District afterschool programs. Her full bio is below our interview with Ms. Grossman. 

Q: Can you briefly explain what mindfulness is?

A: Mindfulness is awareness of the present moment without judgment. 

Many of us miss a lot of our lives because we live in the past or the future; we spend most of the time in our heads reliving what has already happened or worrying about what is going to happen. By practicing mindfulness, one learns to live more often in the present moment; benefitting from what is actually occurring right now. One of the most common ways to practice mindfulness is to focus on the breath as an anchor to the present.  

Q: In what sectors is mindfulness being used?

A: Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn founded Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in 1979 at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. The program, used in hundreds of hospitals and clinics throughout the world, has grown rapidly because of the benefits received by those who take MBSR classes. Those benefits as described by the MBSR website include: 

• Lasting decreases in physical and psychological symptoms
• An increased ability to relax
• Reductions in pain levels and an enhanced ability to cope with pain that may not go away
• Greater energy and enthusiasm for life
• Improved self-esteem
• An ability to cope more effectively with both short and long-term stressful situations.

In addition to the physical and mental health communities, mindfulness is being used in corporate settings such as Google, Facebook, EBay, Genentech, and General Mills, just to name a few. The National Institute of Health just awarded the US military $900,000 to research the use of mindfulness with the army. 

There are 40 research papers published monthly on mindfulness utilized in a variety of sectors. The website which features these papers is www.mindfulexperience.org

Q: Why is mindfulness effective with young people? And why are they easily engaged?

A: Mindfulness lessons are interactive, short and impactful. When teaching mindfulness we are teaching children about themselves; the curriculum is relevant to them and therefore engaging. Students tell us they can concentrate more easily on their schoolwork, they can calm themselves down, and they feel less stress.  The benefits of mindfulness occur rather quickly, students feel better as a result and they like to practice. 

The very first mindfulness lesson we offered in an Oakland public school resulted in this comment from a third grader, “I think if we do this every day we won’t fight anymore.” I was stunned because the school was one where violence in the community was common. How could 15 minutes of listening to sound result in an eight year old saying he wouldn’t fight anymore? The answer lies in neuroscience. Mindfulness helps create new neural pathways in our brains. Being in the present moment, that is being aware of your breath and knowing that you are aware of it stimulates a variety of positive hormones and stimulates the rest and digest side of the nervous system. In other words, most students like to engage in mindfulness because it feels good to do so. 

Most of us spend a large percentage of our lives in our heads, instead of in the present moment. When a student arrives in the classroom, he or she may not be ready to learn; perhaps the student is preoccupied with other things - an argument in the home, walking by a drug dealer on the way to school or a disagreement with a friend on the playground. Without using mindfulness, that experience might be what preoccupies him or her during the English or math lesson. Mindfulness brings students into the present moment – paying attention becomes easier to do. 

Students find that they have more control over their emotions when they use mindfulness because awareness enables them to respond to a stimulus rather than reacting to it. Instead of lashing out at someone and getting in trouble for it, they are able to use their words or ask for help. Making better decisions and responding instead of reacting feels good and students engage with mindfulness because the benefits become apparent rather quickly. 

Q: Why do you think mindfulness is an important school-based tool? 

A: The benefits for children in school are multiple. Mindfulness teaches children to pay attention, it enhances their impulse control, reduces stress for student and teacher and helps to build community.

________________________________

Laurie Grossman has spent her career seeking social justice and educational equity for low-income children and communities. At Park Day School in Oakland, California, she created a Community Outreach Program to develop public/private partnerships for 19 years, Mindful Schools being the most recent. With a group of committed colleagues, Grossman and team brought mindfulness programs to 11,000 children in 42 schools (71% of them low-income students) and training to 1,500 educators before separating from Park Day School to become an independent non-profit organization.  Grossman has recently founded a new organization, Mindful Impact, to continue her commitment to bringing mindfulness to low-income communities. She is currently working with Temescal Associates to take mindfulness programs into afterschool settings.

How LIAS Can Strengthen the STEM Movement

By Sam Piha

Carol Tang

The LIAS project is focused on bringing a definition of engaged learning and quality OST programming resources. In this interview with Carol Tang, Director of the Coalition for Science After School, we discuss how LIAS might serve the STEM movement. Dr. Tang was a speaker at our first How Kids Learn conference 2012. 

Q: Can you explain the new emphasis on and popularity of the introduction of STEM activities in and outside of the classroom? 

A: There is a growing uneasiness that while much of our economic future is dependent upon scientific and technological innovation, we are not seeing the numbers of young people pursuing these fields of study. It's been reported that even while unemployment rates are high, there are thousands of jobs unfilled because of the lack of applicants with the requisite technical and math skills. But I think there is also an urgency that is not related to economics alone: I would argue that many of our global challenges need scientific solutions and young people need to have the tools to think critically about these challenges and the solutions.

Q: Some say that out-of-school time programs are uniquely positioned to offer engaging STEM activities. Do you believe this to be the case? And if so, why?

A: First, I think we have to be honest and admit that students in school are not receiving much science instruction anymore given other priorities. But I believe that the answer goes much deeper than that. I truly believe that afterschool and summer programs are already aligned toward fostering student interests, providing hands-on experiences and are more tolerant of noisy and messy activities! As a paleontolgist and former geology professor, I know that the best science activities are ones which are open-ended, inspire more questions than answers, and encourage young people to work together. This should sound familiar to afterschool programs!

Q: Given how rapidly STEM activities have been introduced, what have you seen about the quality of these activities? 

A: The good news is that many afterschool and summer programs really have embraced STEM and have not hesitated in trying things out. But as you suggest, sometimes the result is that the programming and educational materials selected are not matched well with the program's mission, strengths, staff skills or audience. Because many afterschool practitioners haven't had a chance to experience the best kind of STEM engagement themselves, they may not know what to look for when selecting activities or how best to implement them. The good news is that I've seen cases where afterschool staff who have participated in some training, are part of a learning community and who care about their performance can and do deliver high-quality activities right away. I also know that there are good science activities which were designed with a co-learning model in mind; in other words, they work well when the adult is discovering scientific principles along with the children through hands-on activities. 

Q: Can you briefly speak to the value of LIAS learning principles to the STEM movement?

  

A: By coupling STEM with LIAS principles, we elevate the discussion about science afterschool--rather than debate which topics to cover, we can instead focus on the characteristics evident in high quality science programming. If youth workers embrace LIAS, they will understand the fundamental elements which will make STEM successful in their programs. In this way, we not only increase the quality of afterschool science but we can also foster an environment where science activities are sustainable in the long-term.

  

Q: Can you speak a bit more about the need you have experienced for training on learning principles to guide the development of quality STEM activities? 

  

A: There is a misconception that STEM is about imparting a set of facts or concepts. Thus, training staff on effective learning principles in general is a way to guide the selection, development, and implementation of high quality STEM activities. If youth workers can recognize the factors which promote active engagement and learning, then they can select science activities which engage youth and foster scientific skills--such as asking good questions, sharing ideas and testing hypotheses.

Q: The LIAS principles stress the importance of learning activities that are active and hands-on, collaborative in nature, meaningful to the participants, support a growing mastery, and expand young people's horizons. Do you think that any particular principles are important to STEM or are they all fully relevant to implementing STEM activities? 

A: I think all of the LIAS principles are relevant to STEM and reflect the reality of the practice of science. Instead of the stereotypical "mad scientist" working alone to destroy the world, real scientists often work in teams to conduct hands-on experiments which have relevance to the world around us. And we know that we cannot inspire the next generation of scientists without giving them skills and helping them see that they can succeed as scientists. So all are relevant and taken holistically, I think it breaks the stereotype that science learning only comes from a textbook and an exam. One would hope that someday these principles could be used for guiding classroom science education as well.

But, at the same time, I don't believe that every afterschool program needs to emphasize all five principles equally in order to be successful with STEM. The key is to identify which elements you can successfully implement given the unique factors in your own program. For example, a high-quality STEM program could just consist of bringing in a role model to help expand youth's career perspectives--it fits the LIAS principles and it's a key component for encouraging young people to pursue science. The key is to be intentional about implementation, be true to your organization's mission and strengths, and do what's best for the young people you serve.

_________________________

Carol Tang is currently the Director of the Coalition for Science After School, hosted by the Lawrence Hall of Science at U.C. Berkeley. In this position, she facilitates strategic partnerships to increase the quality and quantity of science education in out-of-school time learning environments. Before entering the informal science education field, she was a paleontology professor at Arizona State University. Carol spent the last ten years at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. 

Lessons Learned: A New Study on California's Proposition 49

By Guest Blogger, Nikki Yamashiro (Ms. Yamashiro first reviewed this paper in the Afterschool Snack blog, sponsored by the Afterschool Alliance)

An insightful study on Proposition 49—California’s landmark piece of legislation that helped to bring school-based afterschool programs to more than 400,000 children across the state—was released at the end of last month. 

“Examining California’s Afterschool Movement Post Proposition 49,” a new research paper by Temescal Associates, discusses the implementation challenges and successes of Proposition 49, reviews the current afterschool landscape in California and offers recommendations to afterschool stakeholders as they move forward in an increasingly challenging economic environment. 

In addition to the valuable background on Proposition 49, I found that the study was able to capture the importance of research and evaluation in promoting afterschool.  As a self-proclaimed data junkie, I appreciate the call for more research to better understand the role afterschool programs play in enriching the lives of children and helping working families; balanced with the recognition that to make this possible, clear and apt evaluative criterion must be established and it is essential that appropriate measurement tools and resources are available.

Key takeaways from the report include:

• The ability to maintain adequate funding is of significant concern among afterschool programs that are currently facing a state budget deficit, increased competition for state funds and reduced funding from foundations and philanthropic organizations.

• A number of evaluations have found that participation in afterschool programs have a positive impact on academic outcomes for students—such as improving student attendance, graduation rates and test scores—as well as positively influencing student behaviors—such as children in afterschool programs developed important life skills and social skills and were less likely to be suspended than youth who didn’t participate in programs.

• More resources need to be dedicated to research in the afterschool field and additional conversations need to take place to develop clear and sound criteria by which to measure the effectiveness of afterschool programs.   

• A few recommendations from afterschool stakeholders to meet the challenges facing the afterschool field include: 
• Enhancing advocacy around afterschool to draw attention to funding cuts afterschool programs are facing;
• Growing research efforts to develop a more robust base of knowledge on what works in afterschool;
• A stronger focus on integrating STEM activities, summer learning opportunities, 21^st century learning skills and academic enrichment into afterschool programs; and
• Dedicating additional resources to provide assistance with program capacity building, program quality assessment tools and program improvement processes.

____________

Nikki joined the Afterschool Alliance in June 2012, where she works with the Vice President of Policy and Research to coordinate and implement annual research activities, design surveys on pressing issues in the afterschool field and analyze research findings, communicating the need for and great successes of afterschool programs to policy makers, afterschool providers and advocates, and the public. Prior to joining the Afterschool Alliance, Nikki served in a variety of research capacities, including as Policy Advisor at Third Way, where she handled a wide range of domestic policy issues such as juvenile justice, and as legislative assistant to former Rep. Hilda L. Solis, where she handled education and youth issues. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology from the University of California, San Diego, and a Masters in Public Policy from University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy.  

Expanded Learning Requires Expanded Thinking: An Interview with Karen Pittman, Part 2

By Sam Piha 

We have been following the national discussion of "expanded learning". We believe that expanded learning opportunities should be developed by both educators and out-of-school time leaders. Further, we believe that any discussion of expanded learning time has to include clear learning principles that explain how children best learn so we can shape these experiences accordingly. The Learning in Afterschool & Summer project is focused on defining these learning principles.

Karen Pittman

Below is an interview on this topic with Karen Pittman, President and CEO of the Forum for Youth Investment. This interview with the FrameWorks Institute is an excerpt of one that the Forum posted on their website, which can be found here in its entirety. We offer this interview in 2 parts. 

Q: What does a classroom that promotes intrinsic motivation look like? 

A: In an engaging classroom you will see desks pushed together, more team time, students working on group projects where the project on one table may be completely different from the project on the next table. Essentially, this is about effective project-based learning. Young people need opportunities to make meaningful decisions about topics they want to learn about, and then [they need] the supports to do something with that topic.  

Once you show students that they can really learn whatever they want to learn and they experience that sense of mastery, they will learn because they enjoy feeling that sense of mastery. In that kind of environment, young people will trust an adult who says, “You need to learn this because …”  

Q: There seems to be a notion in the education system that fairness is about having clearly defined standards and everyone learning the same thing. Do you see that as a problem?  

A: Standards are good. We use standards in our work for all kinds of things. There is value, however, in broadening what gets included in standards, and providing genuine opportunities for students to get there through different paths. So we need youth to have basic reading and math skills, but we also need them to develop teamwork, communication and problem-solving skills, financial literacy, a solid work ethic. These are competencies that have multiple uses once you develop them and that employers say their incoming workforce often lacks.  

There are examples of schools paying close attention to both content and competence. In the New Tech Network’s high schools, half of a student’s course grade is based on mastery of the content, and the other half is for improvement in different skills like teamwork, communication and initiative. Teachers’ lesson plans address both content and the development of those core competencies.   

Q: What do you think about the separation between the learning that goes on inside vs. outside of school?  

A: When kids are in preschool, we stay true to an expanded definition of learning. Learning in the early years includes all of those things that allow kids to be curious and navigate their environment, and teachers and parents are considered equal partners in learning. When kids become school-aged, the definition gets restrictive. The word “learning” gets captured by school – and then suddenly everything else isn’t thought of as learning. 

When an uncle teaches his nephew how to tune an engine, does that get counted as learning? Maybe. Does it get the same respect as the learning that occurs when a teacher teaches you how to do long division? No. And yet when we do a simple exercise and ask people to reflect on the most powerful learning experiences they had as a young person, their answers are rarely about something they learned in school.  

Q: What kinds of changes do you think need to happen in order to improve the quality of our education system?   

A: Public education is absolutely critical to the American ideal, but there is room for reinvention. Look at other large public systems, like public health. The CDC [Centers for Disease Control] has reinvented itself many times, both in terms of how public health is defined and how the system is designed to address it. We haven’t done the same level of redefinition and reinvention in public education. The system is defined more by buildings and schedules than by student learning needs and desires. 

I would want to step back and think about what really works for kids and families. Research on everything from how kids learn to adolescent sleep patterns demonstrates that the system as currently conceived isn’t working for many kids. But we have difficulty getting outside of the box. I’d like to get to a public education system that has standards, expectations and resources, but a little more flexibility in terms of how and where learning happens. We have the expertise and the technology to make public education a very different system while keeping its core intact.  

___________________________________

Karen Pittman is a co-founder, President and CEO of the Forum for Youth Investment. She started her career at the Urban Institute, conducting numerous studies on social services for children and families. Karen later moved to the Children’s Defense Fund, launching its adolescent pregnancy prevention initiatives and helping to create its adolescent policy agenda. In 1990 she became a vice president at the Academy for Educational Development, where she founded and directed the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research and its spin-off, the National Training Institute for Community Youth Work.

In 1995 Karen joined the Clinton administration as director of the President's Crime Prevention Council, where she worked with 13 cabinet secretaries to create a coordinated prevention agenda. From there she moved to the executive team of the International Youth Foundation (IYF), charged with helping the organization strengthen its program content and develop an evaluation strategy. In 1998 she and Rick Little, head of the foundation, took a leave of absence to work with ret. Gen. Colin Powell to create America’s Promise. Upon her return, she and Irby launched the Forum, which later became an entity separate from IYF.

Expanded Learning Requires Expanded Thinking: An Interview with Karen Pittman, Part 1

By Sam Piha 

We have been following the national discussion of "expanded learning". We believe that expanded learning opportunities should be developed by both educators and out-of-school time leaders. Further, we believe that any discussion of expanded learning time has to include clear learning principles that explain how children best learn so we can shape these experiences accordingly. The Learning in Afterschool & Summer project is focused on defining these learning principles.

Karen Pittman

Below is an interview on this topic with Karen Pittman, President and CEO of the Forum for Youth Investment.  This interview with the FrameWorks Institute is an excerpt of one that the Forum posted on their website, which can be found here in its entirety. We offer this interview in 2 parts. 

Q: In education circles there is a lot of talk about what kids learn and how learning happens. Is the expanded learning agenda getting the where and when questions on the table?  

A: We haven’t asked the how and why questions about learning enough. So the when and where questions either don’t come up or they don’t stick. The conversation about extended learning is still very school-centric and bound within a fairly restrictive definition of how learning happens and why.  

Learning is an intrinsic thing that humans do. If kids are awake – whether they are two or 12 – they’re learning and developing. Learning is intrinsically satisfying. But that can get lost when it is defined only in terms of academic content. When learning becomes too defined by content, the conversation about expanding when and where kids learn becomes a conversation about where to stick the content, and the intrinsic side can get lost.  

School only fills a small piece of that developmental space, but we spend very little time trying to understand, assess, improve and coordinate the learning that’s going on in the rest of that space. As long as our definition of learning is driven by formal education and things like the common core and standardized tests, we’re unlikely to capitalize on the opportunity presented by the rest of that time and space.  

  

Q: What are the first steps to de-compartmentalizing learning?  

A: One way is to put the learning that happens through high-quality programs and opportunities outside of school on par with K-12 learning. Another way is to bring [into schools] more of what these other practitioners have figured out about effective learning opportunities.  

Reed Larson’s research on intrinsic motivation is relevant here. In one study, middle school kids were given beepers so the research team could track what they were doing and how they were feeling. Each time he [Larson] beeped them, they responded to a couple of quick questions about what they were doing and their levels of concentration and motivation. When kids were in class, they weren’t motivated and they weren’t concentrating. When they were with friends, they were motivated but not concentrating. When they were playing sports, they reported relatively high levels of both motivation and concentration. The highest levels of concentration and motivation were reported when youth were in structured informal learning environments where they had made choices about what they were doing and how to do it.  

This doesn’t mean we shut down schools and send everyone to youth programs, but it should make us think about how to bring higher levels of intrinsic motivation and engagement into schools. Schools are not monolithic. Some students certainly experience more engaging, motivating experiences than others. If you beeped kids who were in a magnet science program, they would probably be engaged. They would likely be in a different type of learning environment than kids in, say, a remedial English course. The most gifted and talented kids get more opportunities for this kind of engagement. Far too many others experience the other end of the spectrum.  

I would flip the conversation about learning. The underlying assumption is that the stuff we want kids to learn is like medicine. If left to their own devices, they wouldn’t learn it.  We need to spend more time understanding how we can support intrinsic motivation.   

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Karen Pittman is a co-founder, President and CEO of the Forum for Youth Investment. She started her career at the Urban Institute, conducting numerous studies on social services for children and families. Karen later moved to the Children’s Defense Fund, launching its adolescent pregnancy prevention initiatives and helping to create its adolescent policy agenda. In 1990 she became a vice president at the Academy for Educational Development, where she founded and directed the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research and its spin-off, the National Training Institute for Community Youth Work.

In 1995 Karen joined the Clinton administration as director of the President's Crime Prevention Council, where she worked with 13 cabinet secretaries to create a coordinated prevention agenda. From there she moved to the executive team of the International Youth Foundation (IYF), charged with helping the organization strengthen its program content and develop an evaluation strategy. In 1998 she and Rick Little, head of the foundation, took a leave of absence to work with ret. Gen. Colin Powell to create America’s Promise. Upon her return, she and Irby launched the Forum, which later became an entity separate from IYF.