A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

• Design extended learning opportunities that incorporate the needs and resources of local communities. It is increasingly evident to school and non-school educators that it takes the combined resources of schools, families, and communities to prepare children for success in school and productive citizenship. Effective collaboration, whether through formal partnerships or well-developed networks, gives disadvantaged students greater options and may stretch the dollars available for extending learning time. Programs that are designed to respond to a community or population's specific needs may also draw greater support from participants and their families.

• Establish links between the extended time and the regular school program. To ensure that students learn, teachers and directors of extended learning programs must communicate and coordinate with Title I and classroom teachers from the participants' regular school programs. This is important during planning and design phases and on a continuing basis if extended-time programs are to build on what students learn in the regular school program.

• Use extended time effectively. The research on and experiences of extended-time programs call for a variety of effective instructional practices known to enhance student learning. To motivate and excite students, many successful extended learning opportunities do not replicate what is offered by the regular school program but build on and enrich it.

• Support innovative ways to involve parents in extending learning time. Especially in impoverished communities, barriers to parent involvement in education may be compounded when educators try to solicit support for what parents perceive as a non-essential activity or "frill."

• Bolster the extended learning time with a strong professional community. Research supports the need for increased professional development of teachers and other staff working with disadvantaged students, especially when these workers are asked to implement new strategies. Professional development for both paid and volunteer staff solidifies program goals and motivates workers, many of whom have extended their own working hours significantly to help run the program.

• Thoroughly explore funding options, with a focus on continuity. Successful extended-time programs serving disadvantaged students use various public and private funding options. Title I pays all or much of the costs of several programs profiled here; program planners also can use Title I schoolwide project funds to extend learning. And with school systems facing limited budgets, partnerships between schools and agencies or organizations can increase the resources available for extending learning time--and broaden the pool of accountable stakeholders.

  To use Title I funding in other than schoolwide projects, an extended-time program must meet the special educational needs of educationally deprived, Title I-eligible children, and services must focus on these recipients. However, non-Title I children may also participate under a federal regulation that allows for the "incidental inclusion" of other students if excluding them is "impractical" and if their inclusion does not exclude Title I students from the program, increase the program's cost, or decrease the amount, duration, or quality of the service (34 CFR Part 200). In fact, most Title I-funded extended-time programs are offered at public school sites, an arrangement that could make it difficult to exclude non-Title I students who may want to participate. The incidental benefit rule supports some effective instructional practices, such as heterogenous grouping and cooperative learning.

• Build on the experiences of successful extended-time programs and demonstrate flexibility to resolve obstacles. Extended-time programs often encounter logistical problems, even when the programs benefit from resources brought together by partnerships between schools and agencies or organizations. Typical problems include maintaining attendance, providing transportation, and securing staffing. In general, flexibility and creativity are key to overcoming obstacles. For example, one might look to unexpected sources of support for transportation or funding.

• Regularly evaluate the program, using multiple measures of success that reflect the program's goals. Program continuity, funding, and decision making depend on information collected through thoughtful student, program, and parent evaluations. In addition to the abundant student data collected by public schools, program planners should incorporate multiple measures of success, building on a variety of assessment tools that reflect what the extended-time program intends to achieve.

• Encourage parents and their children to reap the benefits of community-based as well as school-based extended learning opportunities

• Facilitate coordination among existing programs

• Raise awareness among parents and community members about the educational and other benefits of community-based programs

[Thoughtful Evaluation Of Program Success]

[Research References]