LGBT Youth and Their Sense of Safety

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

We know that safety and school climate is becoming an important measure of school quality. We also know that physical and emotional safety are critical features of quality youth programs. In fact, safety is the number one standard of California's Quality Standards for Expanded Learning Programs.

But, physical and emotional safety is not enjoyed by many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) youth. According to Evie Blad, an Education Week staff writer, "Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students are the targets of bullying, harassment, and disproportionately high discipline rates at school, research suggests. But without consistently collected, reliable, large-scale sources of data, it's difficult to track the extent of those problems or the effectiveness of proposed solutions." 

But we think we have sufficient data to begin this conversation. In 2013, the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) conducted a school climate study. This study examined the bias within schools towards LGBT youth. While afterschool programs are not responsible for the actions and policies of schools, the findings of this report shed light on what LGBT youth experience in their schools before coming to afterschool programs. Below are a few of the findings from this report.

School Safety

• 37.8% of LGBT youth felt unsafe at school because of their gender expression.

• Over a third avoided gender-segregated spaces in school because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable (bathrooms: 35.4%, locker rooms: 35.3%). 

Anti-LGBT Remarks at School

• 56.4% heard negative remarks about gender expression (not acting “masculine enough” or “feminine enough”) frequently or often.

• A third (33.1%) heard negative remarks specifically about transgender people, like “tranny” or “he/ she,” frequently or often.

• 55.5% of youth reported hearing negative remarks about gender expression from teachers or other school staff.

Photo Credit:
https://queeryouthmentalhealth.wordpress.com/

Harassment and Assault at School

• Compared to other LGBT youth, transgender, genderqueer, and other non-cisgender youth faced the most hostile school climates.

• 55.2% of LGBT youth were verbally harassed (e.g., called names or threatened) in the past year because of their gender expression.

• 11.4% were physically assaulted (e.g., punched, kicked, injured with a weapon) in the past year because of their gender expression.

• 22.7% were physically harassed (e.g., pushed or shoved) in the past year because of their gender expression. 

School Performance

• LGBT youth were more than three times as likely to have missed school in the past month than those who experienced lower levels (58.6% vs. 18.2%);

• LGBT youth were twice as likely to report that they did not plan to pursue any post-secondary education (e.g., college or trade school; 8.2% vs. 4.2%); and

• LGBT youth had higher levels of depression and lower levels of self-esteem.

A Separate Report on Antibullying Policies Found That:

• Of the 70.5% of U.S. school districts with antibullying policies, a minority

  

  Photo Credit:
  http://www.bullying.co.uk/

  (14.1%) enumerated protections for youth based upon their gender identity and/or gender expression.

• When accounting for all U.S. school districts, i.e., those with and without antibullying policies: Three in ten school districts enumerated sexual orientation, and not gender identity/expression.

• In states with antibullying laws, 60.3% of districts were not providing protections to youth based on gender identity/expression in their anti-bullying policies.

• Nearly six in ten (58.4%) LGBT youth were not receiving explicit protections from bullying and harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity/expression in their school districts (i.e., their districts did not have LGB or LGBT-inclusive policies).

What can we do to promote a greater sense of safety in our afterschool programs? There are many great resources, both written and in video format. Below are some resources to assist us in this work:

• Understanding Gender Identity in Young People: A Briefing Paper for Afterschool Programs

• Youth Development Guide: Engaging Young People in After-School Programming

• LGBT Youth and Antibullying Videos

• Bullying Prevention in Out-of-School and Afterschool Settings 

• Bullying of LGBT Youth and Those Perceived to Have Different Sexual Orientations

• Teaching Tolerance

• Mental Health America: Bullying and LGBT Youth

Announcing the How Kids Learn Foundation and Wallace Foundation Survey

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

Over the last five years, we have sponsored an annual How Kids Learn conference. This year, we are sponsoring a number of How Kids Learn Speaker’s Forums.

Temescal Associates/LIAS is proud to announce that we have created a new non-profit entitled, the How Kids Learn Foundation. This was done to expand our reach and the effectiveness of our educational efforts. This will also allow us to diversify our funders. 


The HKL Foundation is dedicated to improving the effectiveness of settings that support the education and healthy development of youth. This includes schools and out-of-school time programs. 

The Foundation will provide educational activities such as Speaker's Forums, trainings, and conferences for organizations that promote the healthy development of youth.

We have assembled a prestigious board to help guide our activities and will provide an update as we go forward. 


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The Wallace Foundation has been a longtime supporter of the afterschool movement. The Foundation is currently conducting market research to better understand Policymaker, K-12 Public School Leader and Afterschool Leader opinions about trends relating to desired outcomes of K-12 education and afterschool programs. They are especially interested in the importance of social emotional learning.


We urge you to take the time to complete this survey. It is important that those

who understand the work of afterschool and summer programs provide their unique perspectives on this work. This survey will take about 15 minutes to complete. Your responses will be strictly confidential and not be attributed to you or your organization. To begin the survey, please click here.


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You can read other blogs by the LIAS project by going to: 

• Expanded Learning 360°/365 Project website
• LIAS Blog Written for the California Afterschool Network

Spreading the Youth Development Gospel

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

Temescal Associates and the LIAS Project are committed to promoting youth development and supporting and influencing the field of afterschool and summer programs. This comes in the form of webinars, authoring written pieces, trainings, and the hosting of Speaker's Forums and conferences.

Many of our efforts are done in collaboration with other thinkers and organizations. Below are some of the fruits of our labor. 

Stacey Daraio,
Co-Director
Temescal Associates

Webinar – Creating the conditions for social and emotional learning

This webinar offers a great discussion on best practices for encouraging social and emotional development in afterschool and summer learning programs. Speakers include Deb Moroney and Jaime Singer from American Institutes for Research (AIR), Stacey Daraio from Temescal Associates, and Aleah Rosario from California School-Age Consortium (CalSAC). 



Publication – AfterSchool Today: Supportive Afterschool Learning Environments

This Winter 2016 edition from the National AfterSchool Association (NAA) contains a number of articles on social emotional learning and practices that promote it. 

It contains an article authored by Ruth Obel-Jorgensen (CalSAC) and Sam Piha (Temescal Associates). The article is focused on Expanded Learning 360°/365: Skills for Success in School, Work, and Life and our paper, Student Success Comes Full Circle: Leveraging Expanded Learning Opportunities. 


Publication - Digital Badges in Education: Trends, Issues, and Cases

"In recent years, digital badging systems have become a credible means through which learners can establish portfolios and articulate knowledge and skills for both academic and professional settings. Digital Badges in Education provides the first comprehensive overview of this emerging tool." - Routledge.com

Temescal Associates and the Center for Digital Badges authored a chapter for this book entitled Afterschool and Digital Badges: Recognizing Learning Where It Happens. This book will be released in April 2016. 

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You can read other blogs by the LIAS project by going to: 

• Expanded Learning 360°/365 Project website
• LIAS Blog Written for the California Afterschool Network

Understanding Gender Identity in Young People

Sam Piha

By Sam Piha

There is a growing awareness in our society that gender is more than the sex that is assigned at birth. In the popular media, we have been introduced to Caitlin Jenner and followed the challenges as portrayed in the Netflix TV series, Transparent. 

The issues of gender identity and children have been well chronicled on the Public Broadcasting NewsHour and its cousin, Frontline. These can be accessed by clicking on the images below.

Increasingly, schools are struggling in the courts to fully address the rights of transgender youth: how to address the needs to access restrooms and locker rooms that are based on gender and engage in activities in alignment with a youth’s affirmed gender. 

As gender identity is now being better understood, leaders of youth program leaders are urged to make themselves aware of this new knowledge. This new knowledge is especially important to ensure that youth program leaders provide a safe place for all youth. It is important to note that many of the solutions involve efforts to reduce gender bias and stereotyping – something that is good for all youth and their program leaders. 

Photo credit:
http://www.tolerance.org/gender-spectrum

As explained by Gender Spectrum, gender is not a binary concept with two rigidly fixed options. Instead, gender is a “multidimensional array of possibilities” comprised of one’s biology, gender expression, and gender identity. Then again, this concept is not new. Documented by countless historians and anthropologists, non- binary gender diversity exists all over the world.

However, society often views gender as binary. Our understanding of gender is influenced by upbringing, culture, peers, schools, community, media and religion and starts the minute we are born. Even toys, colors, and clothes are assigned a gender. As stated by Gender Spectrum, “through a combination of social conditioning and personal preference, by age three most children prefer activities and exhibit behaviors typically associated with their sex.”
We will expand on gender identity with several posts. We will begin with some important terminology. 

Gender Spectrum offers the following terminology:

• Biological/Anatomical Sex: The physical structure of one’s reproductive organs that is used to assign sex at birth. Given the potential variation in all of these, biological sex must be seen as a spectrum or range of possibilities rather than a binary set of two options.
• Gender Identity: One’s innermost concept of self as male or female, both, neither, or any and all—how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. Individuals are conscious of this between the ages 18 months and 3 years. For some, their gender identity is different from their biological or assigned sex. Some of these individuals choose to socially, hormonally and/or surgically change their sex to more fully match their gender identity.
• Gender Expression: Refers to the ways in which people externally communicate their gender identity to others through behavior, clothing, haircut, voice, and other forms of presentation. Gender expression also works the other way as people assign gender to others based on their appearance, mannerisms, and other gendered characteristics. Sometimes, transgender people seek to match their physical expression with their gender identity, rather than their birth-assigned sex. Gender expression should not be viewed as an indication of sexual orientation.
• Gender Role: This is the set of roles, activities, expectations and behaviors assigned to females and males by society. Our culture recognizes two basic gender roles: Masculine (having the qualities attributed to males) and feminine (having the qualities attributed to females). People who step out of their socially assigned gender roles are sometimes referred to as transgender. Other cultures have three or more gender roles.

Photo Credit: http://www.theguardian.com/

• Transgender: It refers to an individual whose gender identity does not match their assigned birth gender. Being transgender does not imply any specific sexual orientation (attraction to people of a specific gender.) Therefore, transgender people may additionally identify with a variety of other sexual identities as well.
• Gender Fluidity: Gender fluidity conveys a wider, more flexible range of gender expression, with interests and behaviors that may even change from day to day. Gender fluid children do not feel confined by restrictive boundaries of stereotypical expectations of girls or boys. In other words, a child may feel they are a girl some days and a boy on others, or possibly feel that neither term describes them accurately.

Tolerance.org, expands gender terminology to include: 

• Genderqueer: A broad descriptor many people use to indicate a person that does not identify as either male or female.
• Preferred Personal Pronouns: In addition to the traditional pronouns (he/him, she/her, they), some people prefer to use gender-neutral pronouns, such as ne, ve, ze/zie and xe. If you don’t know a youth’s preferred personal pronoun, it’s always best to ask. [Increasingly, youth are requesting that “they” be used as their personal, singular gender-neutral pronoun.]

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You can read other blogs by the LIAS project by going to: 

• Expanded Learning 360°/365 Project website
• LIAS Blog Written for the California Afterschool Network

Mindfulness in Afterschool

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

There is a growing trend in research and practice that shows that mindfulness is a very useful tool in school-based settings but few have translated this into afterschool programs. Temescal Associates has developed a 16-week mindfulness curriculum for afterschool workers and a two-day training – one day for the use of mindfulness techniques for the self-care of adult staff, and one day for staff who will lead young people in mindfulness activities.

We wanted to understand more about the use of mindfulness techniques in the afterschool setting. We posed a number of questions to leaders who are putting this to use on the ground: an afterschool leader for the Riverside County Office of Education (Allison Haynes) and a middle school teacher and former Director of Afterschool Programs for Delano Union School District (Ken Dyar). Below are some of their responses. 


Q: WHY DO YOU THINK THAT MINDFULNESS IS A GOOD TOOL FOR THE YOUTH AFTERSCHOOL PARTICIPANTS?

Allison Haynes, RCOE

Allison: I think that youth study their adult staff in after school programs. Their staff are their role models. A mindful staff models for youth how to self-regulate emotions. And let’s face it, emotions that are born out of a full day of school where anything can happen; a tired body from physically navigating said school day; and the sheer delight brought on by overstimulation due to fantastic enrichment opportunities can lead to negative outcomes. Students need a way to manage themselves. Mindfulness is an acceptable solution.

Ken: I read about "fighting the bear" with at-risk youth. This condition describes many of Delano's kids. When children are fighting the bear, new learning cannot take place. Recent brain research by authors such as John Medina (Brain Rules) and John Ratey (SPARK: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain) back this up. The brain is built to handle stress in short bursts; perhaps no longer than 20 to 30 seconds at a time. 

Ken Dyar,
Delano Union School District

Children living in poverty or in unhealthy environments are under constant, unending stress. Is it any wonder that they struggle to self-regulate, or attend to a school lesson? In an after school program, we are extending their learning day until 6 pm, five days a week. We needed a way to help our children be in the moment, release their stress, feel safe, and stop fighting the bear. Mindfulness is the perfect way to do this, in my opinion. Additionally, it is a practice that the kids can extend to their lives outside of school. It is a life skill.

Q: WHAT BENEFITS DO YOU BELIEVE MINDFULNESS BRINGS TO YOUNG PEOPLE?

Allison: I am sure that the research lays out many benefits. Through the lens of Allison, I say the best benefit is that students become more aware of self. I believe self-awareness builds confidence. Confident youth are likely to reach their potential. I need all youth to reach their potential.

Ken: Stress management, regulating behavior, lowering blood pressure, increasing positiveness, increasing hopefulness, empowering youth to feel that they are in control of themselves. It develops a growth mindset in kids. "I am not stuck forever in my current situation. I can control my thoughts, attitudes, and reactions to the events I encounter." It gives them a tool to move them forward emotionally and therefore academically.

Q: WHAT BENEFITS DO YOU BELIEVE MINDFULNESS BRINGS TO ADULT

STAFF? 

Allison: Mindfulness provides immediate feedback to adult staff. Taking a breath while letting the thought pass is indeed helpful when your inner voice is shouting doom and gloom. Interrupting the critical voices in one’s head allows a pathway for creative thinking (which is always necessary for afterschool programs adult staff). But engaging in a practice before arriving to engage youth is most valuable because it is during that time that intentions can be set, loving kindness administered, and a stronger connection to compassion forged. Mindfulness is a good way to start any day.

Ken: Teaching in an after school setting is very stressful. These are 3.75 hour positions with relatively low pay and no medical benefits. For most of my staff, this was the first "real" job they held. And what do we ask them to do? Be alone with 20 students from 2:15 until 6 pm. Five days a week. The staff had to learn curriculum, class management, instructional strategies, and grant compliance in a very short period of time.  

However, we also knew that staff could not bring that emotional baggage in front of the kids. So how do we help them be in the moment, manage their stress, and improve their overall outlook professionally? I thought mindfulness was the answer. I still think it is a game changer in after school programs.

Q: DO YOU BELIEVE THAT MINDFULNESS IS APPROPRIATE FOR INTRODUCING TO ALL AGE YOUTH? IF SO, WHY? 

Allison: YES. Why not? Why would we arbitrarily choose a number and determine that until one reaches that age they are restricted from engaging in a practice that includes benefits such as relaxation, self-regulation of emotions, self-awareness, and compassion for others? If we taught mindfulness to youth of all ages…what a wonderful world it would be.

Ken: I do believe that mindfulness is appropriate. I have introduced it to my eighth graders this year. The adolescent brain goes through huge changes. It begins to prune back connections that are no longer used or needed, and it grows new connections as it matures and learns new things.  

This is a huge leap forward toward adulthood. Students in middle school are truly "stuck in the middle." Anyone who has worked with middle school students will tell you that these kids are both babies and adults. They will chase and scream and giggle like little kids. Meanwhile, they push adults away, while at the same time longing for meaningful relationships and guidance with those same adults. They need a tool like mindfulness to manage the swings in mood and emotion. They need a way to manage the stress that comes from fighting the bear. I believe that educators who use mindfulness with their students will enhance the relationships they have with their kids. Sharing mindfulness with my students has certainly proven to them how much I care about them.

Q: WOULD YOU RECOMMEND MINDFULNESS TO OTHER AFTERSCHOOL LEADERS? IF SO, WHY? 

Allison: YES. I’d recommend mindfulness to other afterschool leaders because a practice is good self-care. Additionally, I know afterschool leaders are role models who can’t give what they don’t have. I say, give them what they need and watch it spread.

Ken: When I share mindfulness with my kids, one comment I always hear at the beginning is that it is "weird." It's weird because no other teacher they've had has ever shared this with them. Taking a moment to do a body scan, be grateful, be in the moment, etc., is completely foreign to them.  

It is my wish that mindfulness become such a regular part of education that it is never considered "weird" anymore. I wish every teacher on my site spent time using mindfulness with their students. I would certainly recommend the practice to any leaders involved in educating our youth.

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Allison Haynes is the Administrator of Pupil and Administrative Services at the Riverside County Office of Education. She has worked in the field of Education for 25 years with the last five focused on Expanded Learning Programs.  Her experience ranges from working with elementary, middle school, and high school students as a school counselor and/or a site administrator. Her background as a social worker formed her personal calling as protector of the wee ones and her commitment and love for children, youth, and young adults. Allison remains steadfast in removing barriers to learning via social emotional support; youth advocacy; and social equity. In recent years Allison has turned her actions toward influencing those working directly with youth. Her easy manner and coaching style is well received in expanded learning settings. She is a sought after mentor leading the charge into uncharted waters to enact the next great idea for building leadership capacity that produces quality programming. 


Ken Dyar was named a California Teacher of the Year in 2006.  He is currently a Physical Educator at the Delano Union School District. Prior to this assignment, he was Director of Physical Education and After School Programs, including DUESD's after school program - POWER. Ken has taught for over 18 years, teaching 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades (13 of those years as a physical educator and department chair at Cecil Avenue Middle School in Delano). Ken has led more than 200 PE workshops throughout California, and has done presentations for delegations across the western United States and in Boston and Washington DC.

Mindfulness in Afterschool is a training and curriculum offered by Temescal Associates. For more information, write to spiha@temescalassociates.com. 

Looking Back: Some of Our Favorite Interviews

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

The Learning in Afterschool & Summer project posted our first blog post on October 6, 2010. Since then, we had attracted 142,000 views. The purpose of the blog is to interview thought leaders in the field of afterschool and summer, alert readers to important developments, and provide commentary and an exchange between readers. 

Some of our colleagues have expressed a concern that because so many afterschool workers are young, underpaid, and have a short tenure, they “can’t handle” so much information. We are mindful of this concern, but are convinced that many of the youth worker professionals have made this work a vocation and deserve to have access to leading thinkers and researchers. 

Below (in no particular order) are some of our favorite interviews that we have published on our blog. We urge readers to click on these to go back and view these interviews. (There are many other great blog posts that are not included in this list.)

• Youth Voice: A Perspective on Hiring Young People in Afterschool Programs (Youth Leaders)

• Growth Mindsets: An Interview with Mindset Works CEO, Eduardo Briceño
• What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation and Mastery - Part 1 (Kathleen Cushman)
• The Importance of Social-Emotional Learning (Joseph Durlak)
• Employability Skills Framework (Laura Rasmussen Foster)
• Mindfulness in Afterschool Programs, Part 1 (Laurie Grossman)
• All Things Girls and STEM, Part 1 (Linda Kekelis)
• All About Character (Tom Little)
• Expanding Horizons and Global Learning (Alexis Menten)
• Opportunities, Not Achievement: An Interview With Richard Milner

• Affordable Housing Communities: The Third Place for Afterschool (Susan Neufeld)
• Checking in with Dr. Pedro Noguera
• Expanded Learning Requires Expanded Thinking: An Interview with Karen Pittman, Part 1
• Afterschool Programs Matter for Rural Youth (Logan Robertson)
• How LIAS Can Strengthen the STEM Movement (Carol Tang)
• Paul Tough, How Children Succeed and Non-cognitive Skills
• Afterschool Program Participation and the Achievement Gap (Deborah Vandell)
• Ask Dr Judy: The Essential Neuroscience of Learning (Judy Willis)

What Does ESSA Mean For Expanded Learning?

By Guest Blogger, Jennifer Peck, Executive Director at the Partnership for Children and Youth

Jennifer Peck

We at the Partnership for Children & Youth are very pleased that Congress and the President reached agreement to move past the era of No Child Left Behind, and approve the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) last month. We are particularly pleased that the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program has remained a focused funding stream for expanded learning programs, and has received a small funding increase. This program certainly needs to grow to meet the enormous demand, and this is an important step in the right direction.

In addition to the funding news, there are several policy changes to the 21st CCLC program that California will have to implement in Federal Fiscal Year 2017, one of the most significant being new flexibility for 21st CCLC funds to be used to support longer school days. Under this new provision, the law makes clear that the funds cannot supplant regular school day activities, that students receive at least 300 hours of additional program hours beyond the regular school day, and that the additional time be carried out with one or more partner entities.  

We are still analyzing all the changes to 21st CCLC, including some adjustments to how grants are prioritized, which students should be prioritized for enrollment, and potential resources available for technical assistance. We will post more updates as we gather information and clarify the new law’s intent for the various changes. We will also be closely communicating with the California Department of Education as we digest these changes and work collaboratively with our partners and the state to implement new provisions of the law so that we maintain our strong focus on community partnerships and program quality.  

Please see our recent ESSA Huffington Post blog co-authored with Every Hour Counts, which represents expanded learning intermediaries around the country, and stay tuned for more information in the coming months.

Thank you to all of you who took the time in recent months to communicate with Congress about the importance of maintaining the 21st CCLC program, which is a critical resource for children and families across the state of California.

What Is the Connection Between Social and Emotional Learning and Employability?

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

Recently, the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) developed an employability skills framework and created a website to assist educators and youth workers with tools to promote these skills in their settings.

Laura Rasmussen Foster (RTI International), a leader in developing this framework, shared it with participants at the recent How Kids Learn V conference in Berkeley. Below is a 15-minute video of her presentation.

Beyond the Bell at AIR published a paper discussing how the skills cited in the Employability Skills Framework relate to social emotional learning. They gave us permission to cite a portion of this paper. See below. 

"Although some researchers argue that schools are not doing enough to support the development of the necessary skills for workforce readiness, evidence suggests that we already know a lot about how to develop some of the employability skills outlined in the OCTAE framework—we may just be calling them something else. School-day and afterschool programs across the country have been implementing what are called social and emotional learning (SEL) programs for years. These programs support the development of social and emotional competencies such as problem solving, critical thinking, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, and social awareness through both explicit SEL instruction (this is more common in school-day settings) and broader SEL strategies and practices (this is more common in afterschool settings). Although not termed as such, the social and emotional skills that these programs target are also key employability skills. In fact, the framework developed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) bears a strong resemblance to OCTAE’s Employability Skills Framework.

As these two frameworks illustrate, there is a great deal of connection between social and emotional competencies and employability skills. Although not identical, when you dig deeper into the two frameworks, the alignment is clear. For example:

• Interpersonal skills (OCTAE) and social awareness (CASEL) both require the ability to understand social norms and work with others from diverse backgrounds. 
• Personal qualities (OCTAE) and self-awareness (CASEL) both require the ability to recognize one’s emotions and have a sense of confidence. 
• Communication skills (OCTAE) and relationship skills (CASEL) both require the ability to communicate clearly, listen well, and resolve conflicts. 

Given these similarities, it makes sense that SEL programs that explicitly target the development of social and emotional competencies could also be considered workforce readiness programs or programs targeting the development of employability skills." 

You will note that these employability skills and SEL skills (above) are well aligned to the California Quality Standards for Expanded Learning Programs. You can review Beyond the Bell's entire paper by clicking here. 

Dr. Pedro Noguera: PBS News Hour and HKL V in Los Angeles

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

Pedro Noguera is a Distinguished Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences at UCLA. Dr. Noguera has been a long time supporter of the LIAS project and the How Kids Learn conferences. He will also be a featured speaker at our upcoming How Kids Learn V conference in Los Angeles on January 21, 2016. 

Dr. Noguera was recently interviewed by PBS correspondent, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, on the PBS News Hour. The interview was part of their ongoing series entitled “Race Matters”. Dr. Noguera addressed the question, “How do we solve stubborn segregation in schools?” Click below to view the interview (8 minutes). 

Dr. Pedro Noguera

You can view an interview that we did with Dr. Noguera on the LIAS learning principles by clicking here. You can also view his last presentation at the How Kids Learn II conference by clicking here. To register for the HKL V conference in Los Angeles, click here. 

Looking Ahead to 2016: An Interview with Jennifer Peck, ED of the Partnership for Children and Youth

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

The Partnership for Children and Youth (PCY) has provided important leadership in California and across the country to support the growth of the expanded learning movement. 

As we begin the new year, we asked Jennifer Peck, Executive Director of PCY, to help us look ahead. 

Jennifer Pec

Q: In looking ahead to 2016, what do you see as the important emerging trends in expanded learning programs?

A: 2016 is going to be a year of even greater opportunity for the expanded learning field in California, given continuing implementation of education, finance, and accountability reform, and the great strides the expanded learning field has made in two critical and related areas:  Prioritizing the importance of program quality; and demonstrating to our K-12 partners the real value of our programs in educating young people for successful futures.  

We have new Quality Standards in California which everyone will play a role in implementing from the state to the site level.  We are also implementing a new law which places much greater focus on quality improvement, and there are systems of support all around the state that are responding to the need for training and support for programs in the interest of meeting the Quality Standards.  These are critical steps because we know quality matters to student outcomes, and these tools and policy advances support the work of practitioners in this field who are deeply committed to improving the lives of young people.  

The focus on quality also helps us demonstrate to our school day partners in the K-12 world that expanded learning programs are a necessary and critical component to the task of providing equitable and effective educational opportunities to all young people.  With our ability to demonstrate quality and impact, we are better able to firmly assert that without high quality expanded learning opportunities, the education system will never meet its goals of all students achieving success in school, higher education, and career.  

In 2016, we will capitalize on the great strides we have made in building relationships with our partners in the K-12 world such as school administrators, school board members, teachers and other leaders at the state and local levels by demonstrating how our programs keep students engaged, support Common Core skills, support Social and Emotional Learning skills, and much more.


Q: Looking ahead to 2016, what do you see as the most significant challenge facing the field of expanded learning?  

A: Our biggest challenge by far is grappling with the financing crisis our state funded programs are facing.  The state set a daily per child, per day rate of $7.50 back in 2006, and despite enormous cost of living increases and more recent increases in the state minimum wage, that daily rate remains stagnant and programs are suffering.  While program providers do everything they can to stay afloat and maintain services for students, they can only stretch so far.  
In 2015, many programs reported the need to eliminate some professional development, eliminate some enrichment services, and eliminate full time site coordinators.  In 2016, we may begin to see some programs have to shut their doors.   

In response, last winter our advocacy community came together and rapidly put together a bill and a budget request for our state legislature which was very successful – the legislature recommended a $25 million increase to ASES. However, the Governor was not convinced this was a priority and did not include this in his final budget.  

We are now gearing up for an even bigger effort in 2016 to secure additional resources for ASES so our programs can survive and thrive into the future. This Campaign to preserve California’s investment and leadership in expanded learning needs to be a priority for everyone who cares about this work – see the Campaign’s brand new website to learn how to get involved at www.saveafterschool.com. 
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Jennifer Peck was a founding staff member of the Partnership in 2001 and became its Executive Director in 2003.  Through her leadership, the Partnership has developed and implemented initiatives to finance and build after-school and summer-learning programs, and increase access to school meals and nutrition education programs in the Bay Area’s lowest-income communities. Jennifer leads a coalition of California organizations advocating for new federal policies to improve the effectiveness of after-school and summer-learning programs. To learn more about the Partnership and sign up for their e-newsletter, visit their website.

The LIAS Principles Impact Both Students and Staff Alike

By Guest Blogger, Frank Escobar

Frank Escobar,
Manager of After School Programs
Visalia USD

Running after school programs is no easy task.  Ask anyone in the field and they’ll show you there battle wounds. However, insert 11-14 year olds and the difficult meter goes through the roof.  Sometimes its just better to not know what you don’t know. Perhaps that’s why I’m still here.  Leaning a bit but still standing.  

In the early years it was the kids, the parents, the politics. I was new to the field and trying to identify the secret sauce for recruiting and retaining enough students to keep the grant. At the same time, keeping the ratio low enough to prevent our college-age staff from getting completely run over by the middle school mack truck. Not sure we ever completely figured it out but we’ve certainly made improvements.  

Great advice from experienced veterans, thoughtful tools from the field, some amazing trainings from some amazing trainers and even a few out-of-town tours.  And as we got better on attendance we began to focus on impact.  One of the tools that helped us in that area was, at the time, the newly released Learning in After School and Summer Principles.  

The principles gave us tangible targets to shoot towards. They were clear, relatable, and reasonably identifiable in everyday program. As we improved in our understanding of these principles, we naturally improved in the facilitating of these principles.  We saw active learning in our programs, increased student collaboration, learning that was thoughtful and meaningful, mastery-building and horizons being expanded. It was enlightening, exciting and honestly, still is.  

As we became better versed in offering these types of experiences and outcomes in our program, I began to notice something interesting.  I noticed that not only were our students benefitting from the affect of these important principles but so were our college-age workers. You see, unintentionally, while we were building the capacities of our staff members to implement the principles in their programming with students, we were also implementing them with our staff. 

Our training and professional development was becoming more active, our instruction (and play) in the training room more meaningful. Our learning environments were becoming more collaborative and our training focuses narrowed in on building mastery skill-sets, particularly around behavior management (if you know what I mean). And at the end of the day, we began to see our staff expanding their own horizons. They were learning about things they never had interest in. Seeing things they never bothered looking for. Doing things they never believed important. The LIAS Principles were becoming an integral part of our program cultural for both students and staff. 

PULSE Staff Holiday Dinner

Today, with the significant workforce challenges we face in after school and expanded learning, we attempt to do our best in sustaining the best and brightest. Unfortunately, that’s rarely possible. The best and brightest normally move on (and up) and take their talents to better paying playgrounds. However, it is in most cases that what contributed to their best and bright was what they learned and practiced right here in the expanded learning field. With so many tangible, transferrable skill-sets acquired in this work many of our best and brightest are shining even brighter right now in their warm and cozy classrooms. Particularly those who were fortunate enough to work in programs that asked them to integrate those 5 LIAS Principles. It’s called the bi-product affect. A secondary or incidental result, often unforeseen or unintended.  

Although, I find it pretty hard to believe that the engineer behind these principles would do anything unintended. All to say, I sincerely believe that the introduction, acceptance, and application of the LIAS Principles have meant more to our field than what might have been expected. These principles, while aimed at our young ones, have also impacted our other young ones teaching our young ones. That they say, is a double-whammy. Or, maybe in this case, a double-Sammy!

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Frank is currently the Manager of After School Programs at Visalia Unified School District in Visalia, CA as well as speaker, trainer and consultant for the after school and youth development fields. A popular speaker and trainer at school assemblies, youth and after school conferences, Frank has spoken to thousands of middle and high school youth and trained hundreds of educators and youth program workers across the country.  

A former collegiate and professional football player, Frank realized his passion for working with youth during his high school years mentoring younger athletes. Knowing one day he'd be hanging up his football cleats for a more practical profession, Frank obtained his degree in education from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN.